A Friday Evening in the Timo Weiland Showroom...Concluded

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I get the feeling that Weiland's most influential muses are his friends, and he seems to design with their sensibilities in mind. When you put a Timo Weiland piece on you are not just getting dressed, you are entering his inner circle.


Part 3 of 3:
The energy in the showroom reflects that of the collection: chic yet fun, progressive yet elegant, thoughtful yet casual. It pushes the envelope without sacrificing wearability. This mix of contradictions is exactly what has made Timo Weiland so successful at a time when the recession has called fashion’s relevance into question. Adding to this is Weiland’s awareness of his customers, a trait that is rare in young designers. He wants his clothes to flatter everyone, and cites the case of a delicate garden coat in a watercolor-like print. The coat, which belongs on the shoulders of a small European principality’s princess, was designed for and named after a close friend. When she first wore the finished masterpiece, the coat’s namesake discovered that her voluptuous figure prohibited her from buttoning the coat. “It hung well on the runway models, but we’ll have to make some adjustments before it goes into commercial production,” he tells me. I get the feeling that his most influential muses are his friends, and he seems to design with their sensibilities in mind. When you put a Timo Weiland piece on you are not just getting dressed, you are entering his inner circle.

Weiland urges my friend and me to try on different pieces so he can assess the fit on two more body types. Easily persuaded, we take turns disappearing inside a large storage closet that has been transformed into a makeshift dressing room with the aid of a full length mirror hung on the inside of the door. Weiland hands us in piece after piece that he “sees” on us, and it’s hard not to feel special. After carefully pulling the samples over my head, I eagerly race out into the showroom seeking his approval. I am transformed. I balance on my tippy toes and throw my hands coolly onto my hips, twisting left and right, to complete the effect. I imagine this is what it is like be like to be famous.

Despite the initial success of their first ready-to-wear collection, Weiland and Eckstein’s work ethic has not softened. “Days were, well, still are, long,” Weiland states matter-of-factly. And as nine pm rolls around Alan pops in to say goodbye, announcing, “I’m going home to do some work. Weiland, I’ll see you early tomorrow morning.” “Yes, early.” Weiland nods in approval, and then turning to me, another garment in his hand ready for me to try on, “We have a really intense fitting tomorrow morning.” The assistants type on beside us and Weiland settles in, cracking open another beer.

A Friday Evening in the Timo Weiland Showroom Continued

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We move with Weiland out of the main showroom and into a smaller office where Jay Z’s “Empire State of Mind” pounds from the desktop speakers of two assistants who continue to type away frenetically, unfazed by our intrusion. Against the wall, a single rolling rack twinkles with soft ivory silks and ruffled emerald chiffons in a color palette inspired by “a decaying English garden.” This is all that remains of the in-demand Spring 2010 collection. The rest is—among other places—out at an editorial shoot for V Magazine, being previewed at Barneys, and on loan to Kate Hudson.

Weiland’s passion is most apparent when he is interacting with the clothes. Starting at the front of the rack, he fingers through the garments, pausing here or there to withdraw a favorite. Caressing the garment, he recalls the story of its development like a mother reminiscing about her grown child. Next, he pulls out a top of sheer black organza and holds it in front of a lamp to better demonstrate how the intricate French seams pop when worn over a light color. The effect is slightly illicit and was inspired by the opaque seems of the vintage paneled undergarments and mannequins from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. “[Weiland and I] collect the mannequins with the paneling down by where the beehive skirts used to be” he tells me. This theme takes a subtly voyeuristic twist in a high neck silk charmeuse top with voluminous sheer organza sleeves. A French seam cord lines the inside of the sleeve and is tacked in three spots, allowing the wearer to play with the sleeves’ proportions while her naked arm remains silhouetted underneath.

The collection is unpretentiously highbrow, perhaps as a result of his down-to-earth Nebraskan origins and later upbringing in New York. Each carefully crafted piece is comprised of rich, stylized layers that come together to create garments with surprising elegance and ease of wear. For example, after slipping on a cream colored mini dress my friend appears instantly radiant and effortlessly graceful; the result of many details that have been thought out to the last stitch to create an overall look rather than to be seen individually. Weiland highlights the construction of the dress, revealing its veiled complexity: “We put in an accordion pleat down the side to allow for movement and create a lot of drape down the front. An overlay of sheer chiffon falls over the charmeuse. Then we added a sporty racer back and rushing.” Weiland tells me “we want a product that competes with other innovators in the industry,” which requires spot-on patterns and flawless execution. Unsatisfied with a factory that makes one type of garment well and flounders with others, Timo Weiland garments are sourced to specialized factories to ensure the finest craftsmanship on each type of fabrication and shape.

Continue to part 3 of 3 . . .

A Friday Evening in the Timo Weiland Showroom

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Follow Style Unzipped through a special three-part daily series featuring an insider view of rising fashion star TIMO WEILAND

It’s a damp and chilly November night in Manhattan, but inside the Timo Weiland showroom the temperature couldn’t be hotter.

Part 1 of 3:

It’s seven thirty on a damp and chilly Friday night in Manhattan, and our cab has just pulled in front of an unassuming and unmarked SoHo midrise. A quick call confirms that this is the correct building. We relinquish our cab to a group of pedestrians huddled under an umbrella nearby and exit onto the freezing sidewalk. What has brought me out on this miserable night is the opportunity to meet with fashion’s newest wunderkind, Timo Weiland and to ease some cold weather anxiety by previewing his spring collection. Since the recent barrage of press coverage in everything from WWD to Interview to Style.com it would be hard not to know who Weiland is, but just in case, I’ll recap: at just 26 years old Weiland has gone from a desk job at Deutsche Bank Securities to wallet designer to neckwear innovator to full on fashion entrepreneur. The latest role having been realized with an eponymous label founded in 2008 with partner, Alan Eckstein. A mutual friend was invited to stop by the showroom to preorder pieces from the Spring 2010 collection in celebration of her recent birthday. I have managed to score an accompanying role replete with press privileges.

We come into the building’s dark, concrete entryway and climb up to the second floor office. A heavy door swings open into a small foyer revealing a cheerful assistant. We are escorted into the main showroom where Timo awaits, looking the epitome of casual chic in a white tee adorned by an undone bowtie overlay of the same color subtly sewn around the neck—appropriate for a man who made his name with neckwear—and pleated trousers from his men’s collection that deftly balloon at the hip and taper at the ankle. He introduces himself in a soft and slightly raspy voice with a warm, settling quality to it that makes me feel like an old friend. Rolling racks of clothes abound and shoe stacks decorate the landscape like chimneys, as a bouncing soot black Standard Poodle navigates the terrain. The remainder of the room is occupied by a large desk and an open kitchen where someone has been baking. Spread around the kitchen counter are Alan Eckstein and Megan Maguire Steele, the collection’s PR representative. The atmosphere is warm and familial, like grandma’s house only much, much hipper. It is after regular work hours on a Friday night. Cheese and crackers are out. Cans of Pabst Blue Ribbons (a frequent Maguire Steele sponsorship partner) have been poured—I later notice that the dog is wearing a Pabst collar—and a jovial happy hour energy persists despite the fact that everyone is still working hard with no foreseeable exit time.

Late nights are nothing new to Weiland and Eckstein. As their debut runway show at Fashion Week approached this September days were long and sleep was short. Weiland explains, “we did alterations and corrections up to the day of the show, sometimes spending all night altering,” and later confesses to spending four days with their fit model perfecting the tailored curves of the derriere on a pair of cummerbund topped accordion shorts. Making the collection’s success even more impressive is that it marks the brand’s transition from accessories to ready-to-wear; an experience that Weiland sums up simply as “intense”. To keep from being overwhelmed by the pressures and demands that accompany a successful clothing line, he draws from the triage training he received when working as a lifeguard growing up, and prioritizes according to, “what is the most urgent and what will harm other people’s schedules the least.” But with his original venture, Timo Wallets, still going strong and the handmade neckwear that established the brand having grown into an entity all its own, Weiland admits that most days are unavoidably chaotic.

Continue to Part 2 of 3 . . .