Lindsay Degen, the Brooklyn-based designer known for her quirky knitwear and conceptual woven art installations, was tapped by Victoria's Secret to create a series of one-of-a-kind pieces for the Pink portion of last night's show.Here's one fashion collaboration we never saw coming. Lindsay Degen, the Brooklyn-based designer known for her quirky knitwear and conceptual woven art installations, was tapped by Victoria's Secret to create a series of one-of-a-kind pieces for the Pink portion of last night's show. The VS team first discovered Degen back in March, during a chance encounter at a knitwear factory in midtown. They were taken with her "crazy" outfit—a loopy yellow onesie and matching oversize sweater—and immediately signed her to work with them on this year's show. "Degen [her namesake line] is always about doing something weird but lighthearted, and I don't feel like I compromised my aesthetic at all," the designer told Style.com. "While it wasn't necessarily an idea I would've come up with myself, I think the Victoria's Secret show represents fashion's ultimate over-the-top and fun side, so I was really proud to be a part of it."

VS provided Degen with a social-media theme and several desired silhouettes as a jumping-off point. From there, she let her imagination run wild. The result? Woolen long johns with smiley-face emoticons, fuzzy-pom-pom thigh-high socks, and miniskirts intarsia-ed with hashtags and phrases like "OMG" or "LOL." "I'm actually really bad at social media, so I have a really positive, fun, cartoony view of what it is, and was able to tap into that." A sheer, tiger-stripe bodysuit, worn by Jessica Hart, was made entirely from knitted fishing line (an original technique developed by Degen). "It was difficult to fit, because we didn't know who the model was going to be—I don't have the opportunity to work with supermodels—and I had to fit it to myself, like I always do," she said of the piece. "Obviously I'm not Jessica Hart-sized, and I worked on tailoring it to her measurements for two days straight before the show. When I finally saw it walking down the runway, I totally lost it and kept yelling 'Work' like a lunatic!"
POST: 2024-11-24