Kelsey Randall takes maximalism to Kurt Geiger: 'Nobody is shouting compliments to the quiet luxury girlies'

Brooklyn designer Kelsey Randall has launched her first capsule collection with Kurt Geiger, the London-based footwear and accessories brand, marking the start of an ongoing partnership between the two. The first drop, "Brooklyn Baddie Meets London It-Girl", went live on Wednesday during London Fashion Week, and is available on the Kurt Geiger website and in stores.

Randall has spent the past decade making stage and performance looks for musicians, including Hilary Duff's tour this summer, Taylor Swift and Lizzo. The Kurt Geiger tie-up came about through one of those celebrity pieces. "Rebecca Farrar Hockley (the creative director of Kurt Geiger) saw a photo of Suki Waterhouse wearing one of my pieces and looked me up," Randall told FashionUnited. "Even though we do historically different things (Kurt with the bags and shoes, me primarily with stage looks for pop stars) there is so much overlap in what our brands do aesetically... lots of sparkle and color and a cheeky sense of humor. She asked me if I might be interested in creating a top-to-toe capsule collection for them and the next week I was on a flight out to London armed with a creative deck of hundreds of pages of ideas."

The fit was settled early in the conversation. "When I first met with the Kurt team, they told me their best selling color was Rainbow and that was all I needed to hear," Randall said. "I love color, sparkle, a cheeky sense of humor... all things that define the Kurt Geiger brand."

Patches, prints and pizza rats

The collection takes its cues from the streets around Randall's Bushwick studio, turning everyday urban characters into embellishment. Faux fur, sequins, pizza rats, pigeons, bodega snacks, paint splatters and leopard platforms all feature.

"The jumping off point for our first collection was a leopard print faux fur coat I had made with sequin patches," Randall said. "We felt straight away this was a great statement piece to anchor our first collection! It was so fun to design all the patches that run across the first collection that are a real tribute to both of our cities! We have some New York faves like Pizza Rat and our classic yellow cab mashed up with the Kurt signature rainbow and of course an everything bagel! For London- we had to include a pidgeon, a double decker bus, and a british guard (in red heels)."

Those patches became the mechanism for translating the premise into product. "It really started with the development of our patches- taking all the classic things associated with our cities plus the more insidery bits that are more jokes for the locals," Randall said. "I also wanted to infuse some of that Brooklyn attitude in a humerous way like our ticket to the shit show! And to bring the glamour I directly referenced some of my favorite Kurt Geiger pieces and turned those into patches too!"

For Randall, the collaboration opened up a category her own label has not been able to accommodate. "This collaboration has been such a thrill for me to finally get to show what I can do in terms of print design!" she said. "I love doing custom celebrity work- but given the really tight timelines (we often have mere days to turn a look), custom print developement hasn't been part of my brand even though I am a total freak for prints." She worked with illustrator Mark Rokusek on the prints, and said the partnership also marked her first extended work on bags and shoes.

Asked about the dominance of quiet luxury in recent seasons, Randall was unmoved. "When was maximalism really out though?! Us over the top divas are always going to be here- and I can guarentee nobody is shouting compliments to the 'quiet luxury' girlies like they are when you're walking down the street in one of my looks!"

Kurt Geiger has expanded in the US in recent years, adding retail stores and building a direct-to-consumer business. Future drops in the partnership will each explore a new narrative.