Fashion stylist Harry Lambert and ZARA’s latest second collaboration invites customers to enter its fantasy Big Top.
For this 70-piece offering, Lambert was inspired by the colour palette and design details that define a bazaar. All the items share a sense of joy inspired by the way places like a circus, a seaside coast, or a rollercoaster-packed theme park evoke such a feeling.
Lambert brought his signature, which has long been established as one that calls upon references from the past, into this collection. Without limitation or exclusivity, he has presented a lineup of vintage-inspired pieces accessible and available to all.
His research quickly led him to look through countless photographs and souvenirs, from dress-up masks to circus arenas, to create a collection that imbued the spirit of Cutie Chaos in a whole new staging.
This manifests in polka-dot shirts and tie sets, oversized tartan outerwear and retro zip-through Harrington jackets, along with a concentrated look at the palette and surprising additional details of joy and fun that speak to his community and the elements loved from the first collection.
The spirit of the circus has been woven throughout, especially in silhouette. A cropped ringmaster-like blazer feels as though it’s been rediscovered in a fancy dress box, now worn without the requisite top hat but styled with a ringer tee instead.
Trousers come from the performer’s costume with barrel-leg trousers akin to a clown’s feeling familiar but now come in sweet pastel corduroy and denim fabrication.
Prints and slogans, such as the intarsia harlequin vest, homespun-feel patchwork knits, or tongue-in-cheek mottos, also feel appropriate for a Big Top setting.
At the heart of this collection are T-shirts that Lambert has meticulously created to ensure they are perfected, not just through fit and form, but in the wash that gives them a lived-in, authentic vintage appeal.
These T-shirts, whether in stripes, with slogans, or bright in plain colour pops, bring an easy sense of joy and uplift when worn with each of the other pieces day in and day out.
All good line-ups need its star attraction and Cutie Circus’ tentpole is illustrations created in collaboration with Aysha Nagieva. Lambert has called on the artist to create bespoke prints inspired by his thorough research and her own signature.
“It was such a fun, immediate process where every idea could be developed and expanded upon. It was so fun to show the illustrations and to eventually see where Harry and the ZARA team took them with the clothing,” said Nagieva.
“I worked primarily in watercolours on paper when creating the illustrations, whereas, in my usual practice, I mainly work in oil paint. This was essential to replicate this ‘vintage’ circus feeling yet also to make all the visuals contemporary. It is such a big honour for me to contribute to the collection and for Harry to trust me to execute his brilliant ideas.”
Cutie Circus will be available online and in selected stores worldwide starting the 26th of September.
