Heidi Klum has a closet full of stylish clothes for her public life on TV, red carpets and the party scene. It was more difficult to find things to pull off the "cool mum" look, though, so she decided to start designing them herself.
Klum already dabbled in design with jewellery, jeans and maternity, but, of course, she is best known for modelling and TV's Project Runway. Her New Balance collection, to be sold exclusively on Amazon, is her most complete design project.
"I definitely design with myself in mind," Klum says. "I always have myself in mind with everything that I do. I think it's all organic to me," she says. "I shouldn't have to wrack my brain of what I'm going to do next. It's what I do with all my business — it always comes out of something I love."
And, she says, she loves uncomplicated clothes that make sense and also pull your look together.
Being who she is, with the career she has had, Klum says she cannot ever be "schlumpy", even when she is not on official duty. "I asked myself, ‘How do I start my day?', and then I worked in chronological order. These are the go-to pieces that are stylish and comfortable for running errands... The collection will build out to other things — maybe someday there'll be something for a sexy dinner with your husband."
Wearable pieces
But, as she says, the pieces right now focus on active daywear: loose tunics over seamless leggings, microfibre hoodies over ruched, cropped pants, a boyfriend-sweater dress nipped with a belt at the waist.
On a recent episode of Project Runway, the aspiring designers were asked to create basic, wearable pieces, and Klum says that is when it hit her how hard it is to jazz up a hoodie compared to an evening gown. (She ended up buying some pieces for the New Balance line designed by the winner of that challenge, Andy South.)
"You can't do feathers when you're dropping the kids off at school, but you want to be a cool mum or a cool executive. I'm always looking for things that make you stand out and get compliments."
And, she adds, should you see someone pulling off a great, everyday style, tell her. She does. "It's nice to give compliments, too."
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