Petra Collins, Addison Rae, and Richard Kern Walk Into a Beach House…
… AND REVEAL THE LATEST COLLECTION FROM COLLINS’S SSENSE EXCLUSIVE BRAND I’M SORRY BY PETRA COLLINS.
By: Dora Boras
Photographed by: Richard Kern
Styled by: Spencer Singer
A saccharine and nefarious dimension of kitsch, horror, and sexuality, I’m Sorry is an extension of the Petraverse, now returning for the first new series of drops in two years. While Collins is widely celebrated for her world-building, I’m Sorry offers a closer look into fetish and fantasy with new collaborators and new folklore.
Tropical souvenirs, novelty cakes, a decadent wedding dress, and cheerleading uniforms capture the love of the ephemeral that’s integral to Collins’s work. One of the central pieces in the drop is a short, pouf-shouldered wedding dress boasting the excesses of the ’80s and Collins’s love of innocence. “I never thought I would get married,” she says. “I really saw it as this incredible novelty item, and I love novelty items. What would the I’m Sorry girl wear as her wedding dress? And that was the seed for this collection basically.”
With imagery shot by longtime collaborator and mentor Richard Kern, the latest installment of I’m Sorry has a new sense of precision thanks to his lens. The campaign, starring budding pop starlet Addison Rae, captures the sexy, mischievous spirit of spring break. “She really is this collection,” Collins says.
Playful and provocative, the scale of Collins’s new work has not sacrificed its fundamental sense of intimacy. While fantastical idealizations of pseudorealities are the hyperbolic grounds in which Collins explores the psyche, her work continues to offer an exploration of vulnerability and sensuality as well.
Dora Boras
Petra Collins
How does making clothing satisfy a creative impulse differently than your other mediums?
I’m someone who’s a champion of working as an artist, and working in different mediums so that you can strengthen the one that you’re most interested in. For me, because I ultimately would say I’m very much a director, clothing has always been so important in my imagery. I see them as a scene from a film—you really need them to tell a story. It’s really fun to actually work with the pieces that are telling that story. So how is it different? It’s very much the same. I approach it the same way I would approach photography. It’s just with a different medium and I get to see a different side of what I work with day to day.
How did you and Mimi Wade meet? Why did you want to collaborate with her?
I’ve been aware of her work forever. I remember when I moved to New York—buying her clothes at Opening Ceremony. She made these really cute novelty shirts with the little lace on the collar. And then [in LA], I was like, why don’t we just hang out because we’ve never hung out and there’s so many similarities [between us]. It made sense for me to bring her on to drop one because she is sort of like an I’m Sorry girl; she has this very complicated life. She has this crazy story with her grandmother. It’s another thing with my work too. Sometimes, I’m obsessed with cuteness and softness, because that’s not what is inside of me or it’s not what I’ve had, and I think she’s very similar to that. When you’re coming from roughness to creating something very cute, you get a really fascinating and fun and wild product.
How does your experience in LA influence the collection?
Another thing about this collection that I think is very clear in it is that Mimi and I both moved to LA at the same time. And we’re both not Americans. And so I think we experience LA in this very specific way. We find it very novel. And I think that’s a big part. I think LA is a pretty big part of the collection. I feel like this summer vacation could even be in Malibu. I think that another big part of the collection is our love for freaky Los Angeles. So there’s a lot of Los Angeles in the collection, I think.
What is it about novelty and souvenirs that resonate with you so much?
I think there’s such a nice innocence about it. Also because I think we see novelty items as really cheap or fast or silly products, but I think there’s a really sweet vulnerability about them because they are what they are. As we’re speaking, I’m looking at my fridge right now and I collect magnets and postcards from each city that I visit, but those are all novelty items; I’m so fond of them. I have this “I love New Mexico” glittery, big magnet that I’m looking at. I have a Roswell alien magnet that was handmade there. And then I have a Cicciolina one from somewhere in Montenegro, actually. It’s all stuff that I think at the end of the day—because it is really silly and maybe cheap—it is a reminder of vacations or travel of the past. It’s something that’s very American to me.
Is there a connection between the way a novelty item captures a moment and the way you as a photographer capture a moment?
Yes, definitely, because the thing about novelty items and the thing about my photos early on was that they try to capture this idyllic moment that doesn’t exist. And that’s what I was very much doing because when I started taking photos, I really wasn’t living the life of a teenager. I came from a very unstable household. I was in an abusive relationship. I was super young, and so what I was shooting was what I really wanted teenage life to be. Obviously there’s darkness in it because I was dark, I was coming from a dark place. But what I was trying to do was create these, like, beautiful images of teenagehood. So I think that’s exactly what a novelty item is.
What did you want to try differently the second time around?
I wanted to work less with leisurewear. This time, we finally got to work with a bunch of different fabrics and do things that are more complicated.
What are the biggest differences between the drops?
The story. There’s going to be a different story each drop and each designer has their own take on I’m Sorry, and take on my work. For July, there are summer weddings. We can kind of get a little bit more raunchy because people come out in the summertime. They want to hook up, it’s very hot.
What are the pieces that you’re the most excited about?
The wedding dress was important to me. The sash dress is my favorite dress, something that I would wear every day. It’s basically like my “shadow banned” dress because that would be my favorite. It’s kind of like an act of rebellion because it says “I’m Sorry,” but it’s fully see-through. We have the leather shorts, bra, and bunny hat. They’re sort of fetishy items that I think are really fun for summer. That’s a really fun fabric. I’m a big leather person. It’s something that I actually wear a lot. I was really happy that we were able to make the tap short that say “help” on the back with a leather bikini and a leather cat hat that is also very Mimi. It also really reminds me of Irma Vep.
What does Richard Kern bring to this collection?
I’ve been a fan of his work forever. He’s a friend of mine. I’ve worked with him so many times, but I think the sexiness and the funness of this can be nicely balanced out by his clinical work. I think that’s where his work excites me, because I think you always need opposites to show what the clothes are like. It’s more fun for me to direct someone, because I’m so inside of it. He has that book, New York Girls. He’s been doing this really great Miami series. We needed the juxtaposition of craziness and sexiness, with how clean and clinical his photos are.
Why Addison Rae?
She really is this collection. She’s silly, fun, and sexy. I feel like people lens her in such a specific way, and it’s nice to see her differently. She’s a little mischievous.
What has something that has been inspiring you or you’ve been most curious about lately?
Matthew Barney—big fan—I just went to a show in Paris. I’m doing a big Matthew Barney tour, because I went to a show in Paris and then he has screenings of the Cremaster in LA. The Cremaster was very inspiring to me, so just being able to see that work in the theater.