Contessa Mills SS27
The Sun
The Friedman Gallery in which Contessa Mills propped her tarot-inspired SS27 presentation is entirely transformed, an immersion steeped in dewy lowlight on a lucent riverbank. Each Mills collection is tarot-inspired, this season inspired by The Sun— a symbol of vitality, celebration, and whimsy. ‘The Sun’, a feature of this season’s CFDA calendar, invites us into the surreal backyard of our younger selves, marveling at tried-on identities, clothed in mother-of-pearl and organza. As the collection was crafted to evoke a tender nostalgia, we are greeted with a Contessa Mills’ branded candy cart at the onset of our experience. Toting every soured and sugared bauble we could scour, we sneak through gauze and are instantly transported— in the words of Wonka— to a world of pure imagination. Fort-like draping refracts the golden glow as a mid-afternoon sky might, crowning foxtails and burnt orange Lillies. Awed patrons are passed berry popsicles that stain one’s lips that delicious shade of cherry that makes being a girl feel a bit more grown-up. Clutching tarot-branded mugs steeping turmeric tea, we weave about the sultry-lit space, centerpieced by Mills pièce de résistance of the season: a live garden, replete with dirt spillages and wandering weeds, populated by a rotating bouquet of models donning Mill’ latest confections, inspired by her Midwestern upbringing. Ivy Wolk and Jemima Kirke are amongst the crowd that sway through the overgrown grass, reliving a childhood rose-colored by youthful recollection. Reserved had the pleasure of sitting down with Mills during NYFW to dig into this deeply personal collection, in which Mills masterfully fuses memory with muse and magic with melancholy.
The collection was inspired by childhood wonder. What excavation process did you go through to source inspiration, both personally and externally?
A lot of the excavation was actually very literal. I went through old family photos and was reminded of how much I loved dressing up as a little girl. I was always in a tutu, wearing some sort of costume to the grocery store, or putting on my dad’s work clothes. A men’s dress shirt became a dress, ties felt dramatically oversized, and familiar pieces took on an entirely different character.
Those photographs became a real design resource for the collection. You can see them translated into oversized shirting, blazers and ties, organza overalls, tutus, and layers of tulle. I also kept coming back to the landscape of my childhood in the Midwest, especially overgrown backyards, tall grasses, and the feeling that an ordinary field could become something enchanted.
From there, I wanted to bring those memories into my life now. I design with myself and the women around me in New York in mind, so the challenge was translating that sense of play into clothing that still feels sophisticated, feminine, a little strange, and exciting to wear as an adult. The collection is nostalgic, but I wanted that nostalgia to feel transformed rather than overly literal.
Describe the collection, if you could, in three words.
Whimsical, feminine, gothic.
How does this collection feel like a departure from previous works, if at all?
I think the biggest departure is that the collection allows itself to be more openly joyful. The Sun is such an optimistic card, so there is a lightness and playfulness that we haven’t explored to this extent before.
We really leaned into the idea of dress-up through the smaller styling pieces: oversized ties, necklaces, leg warmers, hand warmers, and other elements that let you build a character around the clothes. There is also much more color, particularly yellow and green. I wanted to prove to myself that something can be colorful and joyful and still feel gothic. Gothic doesn’t necessarily have to mean black. It can be strange, romantic, dramatic, or even slightly haunted.
At the same time, it still feels recognizably Contessa Mills. There is always some darkness underneath the femininity, even when the starting point is something as bright as The Sun.
Where does your design process start?
Usually with tarot. I have The Book of Tarot by Sahar Huneidi-Palmer on my desk, and before starting a season I’ll go back through it and revisit cards I feel an instinctive pull toward. I don’t necessarily know what the collection will look like yet. I’m more interested in whether a card opens up a world that I want to spend the next several months exploring.
With The Sun, I already knew I was craving something more playful and frivolous. When I returned to its associations with joy, optimism, creativity, and childlike wonder, it felt immediately right. After that, my process is much less prescriptive. I tend to imagine complete outfits in my head and sketch them. Then, as a team, we pull apart what is working and build outward from our favorite ideas. Sometimes an entire look starts with a silhouette, sometimes it starts with a tiny detail, and sometimes we find a fabric that completely changes its direction. I like that the process is a little different every season. The tarot card gives me the guardrails, but within them, I want the designing to feel instinctive.
What’s next for Contessa Mills?
Our next season is The Moon, which I’m especially excited about because The Moon and The Sun feel like counterparts. The Sun is about clarity, joy, and being completely out in the light, while The Moon is more ambiguous, instinctive, dreamlike, and slightly unsettling. I like the idea that someone could eventually look at the two collections together and see them as different sides of the same world. I’m also starting to think about the season after that, and I keep coming back to the Four of Wands and its associations with celebration, ceremony, and marriage. It could be interesting to explore bridal through the Contessa Mills lens without creating a traditional bridal collection.
More broadly, I want to keep expanding the world of Contessa Mills while making our point of view even more recognizable. Tarot gives us an almost endless number of worlds to explore, but the challenge I’m most interested in is making sure that no matter which card we enter, the clothes still feel unmistakably ours.
