Lauren Conrad has always approached LC Lauren Conrad, the collection she launched in 2009 at Kohl’s, with the idea of designing pieces that fill her own personal needs.
“That’s always been the way I’ve worked with my brand,” she said. “I figure that if I have a need, then someone else probably does, too.”
The strategy worked during her recent pregnancy when she was carrying her first child and couldn’t find maternity clothes that she liked. “When I introduced maternity, I felt there was a void in the market,” she said. “Whenever I come across something that’s missing, I try to design it.”
Now that she’s a mother — baby Liam was born six weeks ago — Conrad has clothing for the younger set on her mind.
“I’d like to design children’s or baby clothes,” she said. “That’s something I would be interested in doing in the future.”
Motherhood doesn’t seem to have slowed Conrad down. In an interview, she said she recently finished work on her third limited-edition runway capsule that will bow during New York Fashion Week on Sept. 6. Meanwhile, the core LC Lauren Conrad brand expanded to plus sizes, ranging from 0X to 3X. Prices for the runway capsule range from $12 to $154.
“Plus is a category I wanted to get in to for a really long time,” Conrad said. “As a fun way to launch plus sizes, we partnered with a blogger, Loey Lane, who did a photo shoot for the runway collection to help us get the word out.”
Lane has used her platform to write, “A fat girl’s dress code for the summer as told to you by a very fed-up YouTube star,” which she answered with the plaint, “Can’t I just wear whatever I want? Why wouldn’t anyone just wear what makes them comfortable and happy and not think about how others feel about the garments they’re putting on their own bodies?”
In the LC Lauren Conrad runway campaign, Lane wears a metallic silver cold-shoulder dress as she poses perched on a red velvet sofa, and a dress with a leafy print as she cavorts with two other models.
Conrad, who launched her first runway capsule in September 2015 during fashion week in New York, reprised the line last year with ultra-feminine looks such as white lace jumpers, delicate slipdresses, soft fluid pants and a tiered shift dress.
Conrad said she relishes designing the runway pieces because she gets to use elevated fabrics and embellishments.
“Definitely more of my inspiration for the collection comes through in the runway capsule,” Conrad said. “I get to take more risks. My inspiration this year was designing the collection for a cool girl. I used crushed velvets, metallics and faux fur.”
Conrad homed in on how women dress for each other as opposed to how they dress for men. “It’s really fun,” she said, adding, “I love the dresses we did in this collection. We have a couple great prints, one was inspired by a retro-wallpaper pattern and the other has a celestial vibe with stars and unicorns.” The themes carry through to jewelry and accessories, Conrad said.
Another favorite piece is a navy faux-fur jacket. “I pulled it to wear to celebrate this launch,” Conrad said. “I’ll probably layer it over one of the dresses. I’ll also wear the jacket with leather pants when I go out to a bar.”
The LC Lauren Conrad at Kohl’s includes swimwear, maternity, accessories, shoes, handbags, fashion jewelry, fine jewelry, sunglasses and home.
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