I’m so thrilled to introduce you to our latest featured indie designer here on Design Diary! Caitlin is super talented and absolutely sweet. Her clothing is so classic, incredibly well made and full of beautiful details – I know you will love her and her designs!!
Hi there! I’m so honored to be Megan’s featured designer for October. I’m here to tell you a bit about my designs and my new label, Rank & Title. This year I launched my label and first collection with two dresses: Merit and Forbeau.
When I design clothes for Rank & Title, I make sure they’re pieces that not only would I wear, but are practical for layering, accessorizing and are uniquely timeless. It’s so important that the clothes I design have a little something special. For the spring collection, the Forbeau dress was my favorite, with that scoop back and navy band across the shoulders.
My second collection is for this fall/winter and is about to come out, so I’m giving y’all a sneak peak! The jersey Toujours dress has grosgrain ribbon straps with adjustable D-rings so the look of the hem is up to you. Stripes are such a classic look, I wanted to let them do their business with just a little design interference.
When I design, I tend to think for a long time before ever drawing sketches. Clothing ideas roam around in my head while I go about everyday activities and then something will come together, needing to be put down on paper immediately. The striped Trovare skirt took me a little while to figure out because I wanted a simple design but something fun with those stripes. In case you were wondering, trovare means “to find” in Italian. Fitting, eh?
Sometimes certain designs become little darlings I don’t dare get rid of, for example the neckline and shoulder details in my first collection’s dresses were restyled a teeny bit for the silk shirt in my new collection. I like the idea of reusing styles in different fabrics and tweeking them a bit to create new styles. I’m already planning to bring back the Forbeau dress in a future collection, and why not? I’m making my own designs and putting all that energy into creating something I’m proud of. For me, that’s what design is all about, staying true to what I love and making the rest up as I go.
photos & styling: Julia Platt-Hepworth and Caitlin Clark
hair & makeup: Caitlin Clark
Thanks so much to Caitlin for being Octobers featured indie designer!
Don’t forget to check out her store, Rank & Title, and sign up for her newsletter so you’ll be the first to hear when her fall line comes out!! Caitlin is offering Design Diary readers a 10% discount for the first few weeks after the release of her fall line – just use the code MEGAN10
