Hudson’s Bay is joining forces with Courtney Quinn of Color Me Courtney, the quirky New York blogger and designer with over 570K followers and a colour obsession, to shake up the brand’s beloved stripes. The new HBC STRIPES + Color Me Courtney collaboration will feature 28 pieces including women’s apparel, outerwear, accessories and coordinating doggie apparel. HOLR chatted with Courtney Quinn about the new collaboration.
How did your journey as a fashion designer begin?
I wouldn’t technically consider myself a designer. I just had this great opportunity to do this and it is such a seamless fit for me. So that’s kind of how this journey began.
I had some experience as a product developer before I was blogging. That was like my full time job. I wouldn’t even go as far to consider myself a designer here. I was leaning on the Hudson’s Bay team — they were so fantastic and really helped me get my own twist on their craft.
What is the benefit of wearing color during winter?
Color definitely makes you stand out. I think everyone wants to go into all black mode. During the winter, everyone puts on their black and we’re all kind of down, especially after the holidays. I think adding a little bit of color into your outfit can brighten the mood and bring everyone’s energy up.
How did you become a colour enthusiast?
I’ve always just been obsessed with it. My mom was an interior designer, so I lived with a lot of color in my home. I think color is really tied to a confidence level. A lot of people think “I don’t want to wear that much because I don’t want to draw attention.” So now I kind of use color to help people grow their confidence and know that they can be seen. They can wear it like a sequenced right T-shirt — They deserve to be seen.
What is your creative process?
It’s fun because I obviously had some of their iconic stripes that we just got to play with. It’s like this great foundation to work from. So we started by looking back at all the amazing collaborations. It was like every company, they really worked on a bunch of different cool collections. Then we kind of went and tried to take it into the future with some of my aesthetic, and kind of fusing some of the heritage with more of the more current.
If someone wants to boost their confidence with their wardrobe, which colour would you first pick and why?
Red. I think red is what people think is the scariest, but you can start with like a red accessory and red works with everything, you can wear all black and just like a red coat or red scarf to give off a vibrant look.
What message are you trying to bring out through your work?
I just like color and it’s really improved my life. I think it makes my life better and more fun. And so I want to bring that vibrancy to everyone’s life. I want everyone to know that they can wear color, and I think everyone’s just happier when we’re wearing these colors. So there’s not a lot of things that I can control or we can control, but I can choose to pick a red fur coat on because it makes me happy. So just trying to take control of the few things that we can actually can and infuse a color in that way.
Your work is not limited to people, and I was happy to see you have a doggie collection. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
I have an adorable French Bulldog, and I really wanted to bring that part of my life into the collection as well. I know a lot of people like if you want to wear all black and you’re afraid to wear color, but you can still add colour to your pup’s outfit! Or you can add it to your home. So that’s kind of why we wanted to include pieces like that.
What are some of your favourite ways to spice up a wardrobe?
I think mixing patterns is really fun — we have some striped pieces that work. Well, we like colors that match perfectly and are from the same color palette. So like mixing things up that way is really fun. I love a monochromatic look. So taking something like the red fur and wearing it with like an all red outfit. I love playing with accessories, especially in the winter.
If you had to choose from this new collection, what would be your top three best picks to give as Christmas Gifts?
I guess it can totally depend on the person. I think probably the throw is fun because of the stripe. Either that one or the dog sweaters would be really great. I think the mittens are really fun and easy. There’s like a fur scarf that has this stripe on it and it’s kind of like overlapped. Usually accessories are kind of an easier gift especially when doing a white elephant or something.
What’s next for Colour Me Courtney?
We”re always doing new and crazy stuff. So one thing that I do is have a “color of the month.” So this month I’m doing an emerald green that kind of ties back to the stripes in the collection. Next month, it’s going to be cherry red, perfect for the holidays. We’re doing a lot of holiday things broken out by color. Then next year we’re kind of taking a different twist on color and tying it more to different confidence themes. So each month you’ll see us focusing on a color, but also focusing on a way to step up your confidence or improve your life.
Follow Courtney on Instagram @colormecourtney.
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