An Exclusive Peek Inside the Loeffler Randall Design Studio with Teen Vogue Editor Sheena Smith
Ever wonder what goes into making a wildly successful fashion company? One of my favorite parts of being the accessories director at Teen Vogue is that I get to find out—I often visit brands to peek behind the scenes at a designer's process and inspiration for his or her collection.
This month I hit up Loeffler Randall creator Jessie Randall, who started her company for one simple reason: She couldn't find shoes she wanted to wear, so she decided to make them herself! "My husband Brian and I always knew we wanted to start a company together, it was just a question of when," Jessie told me. Loeffler Randall launched in the fall of 2005, and now, almost 10 years later, the brand is at the top of its game.
At Loeffler Randall HQ in New York City, Jessie walked me through her new Spring/Summer 2014 collection, from inspiration board to final product. Click through to join in!
1/17This is where the magic happens.
2/17"When creating a new collection, the first thing I start with is an inspiration board. This season I was very inspired by Capri and anything citrus—citrus colors, prints, you name it. I wanted the overall feel of the collection to be bright, colorful, and optimistic. I find a lot of my inspiration from old magazines, vintage shopping, and interesting textiles."
3/17Your tour guide: Jessie Randall, the brains behind the brand that won a CFDA award for accessories design in 2007.
4/17"In addition to Capri, I was also very into stripes. I love espadrilles and really wanted to make a cool version of an espadrille with a stripe pattern and great texture."
5/17"While I'm pulling together my inspiration, I'm also thinking about raw materials at the same time. When thinking about Capri I thought a lot about fishermen and their nets. I wanted to create and include a lot of texture for spring and these are some swatches and colors that were included in the collection."
6/17"I worked with my friend, who is a beautiful print designer, on this pattern. I came to her with all my citrus inspiration and she designed this print for us."
7/17"These are my sketches of the new constructions for spring. A lot of companies do this digitally but I think it looks so much richer and much more beautiful when the sketches are hand drawn. We'll draw these with markers and do hundreds of sketches!"
8/17"I like to have all my swatches and textiles on one board. It really helps me see how they all come together. From there I can decide which texture and color will go into each shoe."
9/17"The initial designs are really meant to get the correct shape of the shoe. It takes about three weeks to get the first prototype back from the factory. We have three days to make corrections and then it's back to factory. The second round sometimes feels like we're sending off a whole new group of designs! This is really when we finalize the exact designs and construction for each shoe."
10/17"Communicating with our factory is a big part of the design process. We draw the design on these shoe forms (there's a different form for every size) and then send it off to the factory. Once they receive the forms they construct specific patterns for each style of shoe in the collection."
11/17"Then we use a fit model to achieve the perfect fit. Sometimes the straps are too long or maybe the curve isn't quite right. We mark up the problem area of the shoe to help the factory identify the elements that need to be changed."
12/17"We live by this ruler and do everything in millimeters. Here's a selection of trimmings and shoelaces we used for the season."
13/17"I launched handbags into the collection two years ago and they've been a real success! Before I started Loeffler Randall with my husband, I worked as a handbag designer so it was natural to transition into a new category."
14/17"The Rider is our signature bag and the entire handbag collection came out of this design. I was inspired by men's vintage briefcases and I wanted it to be super organized—a place for everything! We call this the Rider bag because it has a little strap that hooks to your bike."
15/17"We shoot the lookbook as soon as we receive our samples. The lookbook is used when we're selling the collection to buyers at boutiques and department stores. Since this visually represents the collection, I work hard with my team to create a unifying theme."
16/17"I see people wearing my accessories all the time and I love it! It's fun to see how they style the shoes or bag in with their look. I'm inspired by the people who buy my products, and I work hard to keep them coming back each season."
17/17"For this season's lookbook I really wanted to focus on the citrus prints, so we had some ready-to-wear pieces custom made from our citrus printed fabric. I work together with a great team of graphic designers and a stylist to create these poses, looks, and the overall concept of the look book."
