Vena Cava: Nineties Nostalgia
Vena Cava's Lisa Mayock and Sophie Buhai
Best friends and designers Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock turned back the clock to high school for their Fall 2011 Vena Cava collection.
For the class of 1999 high school graduates, reminiscing about the styles and sounds of the Nineties felt in-tune and current once again.
“It was fun to revisit all things that influenced us in high school,” Buhai said. “And we feel it’s a period that a lot of people can access.”
Yearbook pictures don’t lie. The clothes, hair and makeup of the Nineties were an echo of the FM dial. Fittingly, a mix tape of favorite bands from back in the day played as the season’s design inspiration, with collection pieced named after musical tastes from No Doubt and Brandy to Sublime and The Spice Girls.
“I was into particularly female musicians like Monica, Destiny’s Child, then Elastica, Fiona Apple and PJ Harvey,” Buhai said.
Like Buhai’s old-school playlist, Mayock’s former fashions were influenced by diverse genres.
“For a while, I thought I was really street and wore Dickies and listened to a lot of hip hop,” Mayock said. “Later in the decade, I was kind of Goth and liked PJ Harvey, Fiona Apple and was deep into Tori Amos. Then it was more rock, Nirvana and Weezer.”
The experimental teens turned designers also took cues from the era’s catwalk.
“It was the high fashion of the time just as much as our own closets,” Mayock said. “We looked at a lot of original tears — old Armani, Donna Karan, even Vera Wang.”
In the fall collection the two reinvent Nineties looks like high-waisted silk pants, off-the-shoulder rayon tops and spaghetti-strap dresses, all appropriately titled after their teenage muses.
Rhythm Dancer Dress
On the Rhythm Dancer Dress…
Sophie: That print came from an old lace textile that we saw that been hand painted. We wanted to make it an abstracted polka dot printed on lace, which has an effect we liked. There are lots of polka dots of all different shapes and sizes in this collection.
Slant 6 Top
On the Slant 6 Top…
Lisa: For the halter, we had an idea of making a great top that could be tucked into high-waisted pants. We have done a similar silhouette and came back to it because it looks good on everyone.
Sophie: There are lots of references to Contempo Casuals and stores we shopped in high school. These two pieces (above) really look a lot like the stuff that we saw in mall stores back then. We’ve taken those simple silhouettes and done them in luxurious fabrics and updated them.
Phair Dress
On the Phair Dress (and Liz Phair)…
Sophie: I listened to a lot of Liz Phair. There were lots of great female singers in the Nineties that made really emotional, raw music. Now female singers are these huge pop singers like Beyonce, which is great. But indie chicks were cool then. Liz Phair was among the best.
Lisa: For the dress, we wanted to do a cut velvet dress. It sorta reminded us of semiformals we went to in high school. This was our nod to that. This design is a print that we did in cut velvet. It’s a simple slip dress.
Lil' Kim Pants
The Lil’ Kim Pants…
Lisa: These are basically palazzo pants: high-waisted and wide. They are just really comfortable, like wearing pajamas.
Sophie: En Vogue wore these kinds of pants with bra tops in one of their videos. I really loved that.
Outkast Dress
The Outkast Dress….
Sophie: We wanted to do one LBD. Nothing is more Nineties than an LBD. This one has fringe detail; it’s a little cabaret dress. A Nineties version of the flapper really.
Pager Dress
On the Pager Dress (and pagers)…
Sophie: My two best friends got me a clear pager for my 14th birthday. It was so cool. My parents were mad because they got stuck paying the bill.
Lisa: I did not have a pager. I grew up in Pasadena. The only people that had pagers there were all in a gang. There was no way that was happening. But I wanted one so badly. It wasn’t cool with my family so it never happened.
The color rust was one of the important colors for Fall. It looks great with bright reds. The fabric on this dress is one of the most comfortable out there. It’s a crazy Japanese micro blend and it’s so easy to wear.
Vena Cava is available in select Neiman Marcus stores.
