VM: The show went so well! I mean, sure, I had seen pictures, but to actually see the pieces and everyone wearing them, they were amazing!
Ginny Hilfiger: Oh, thank you!
VM: How are you able to balance out making the clothes look so comfortable and so beautiful at the same time? What goes into that?
GH: Well, you have to go through several fittings before something is “fit-approved,” and you have to really have a good fit model. I’m lucky, I’ve had two fit models throughout my whole entire Ginny H life, and both of them have been amazing. It’s kind of understanding proportions that are broad, and it’s a little tricky, to be honest with you. I never put anything into production until it fits my model perfectly. That’s the key. And each pattern is an investment because if it fits great, you can have that pattern forever!
VM: Well, you choose designs that are very classy, timeless, and not overly trendy. They just look really sophisticated…
GH: Oh yeah, thank you! I always try to make the designs so that they’re modern and updated, but that they won’t look like old news a couple of years from now. I’m pretty excited about the bank of patterns that I have at this point. The patterns are the fit, so the fits that I have, the silhouettes that I have in my archives, they’re really good ones so that they fit a lot of different body types.
VM: Exaaaactly—they look good on everyone. You definitely have a great eye for that.
GH: Thanks!
VM: So, you left Tommy Hilfiger in ’05. What was the deciding factor in your decision to do your own thing and start a line?
GH: It’s the only thing I know how to do…it’s what I love. I really loved the line that I was working on with Tommy before I left, and I really just wanted to do it more customized.
VM: Right, and I feel like [compared to Tommy Hilfiger’s designs] what you have here is specifically for women. It makes a woman feel confident when she puts on one of your dresses or separates.
GH: It has an old-world European flare, which a lot of people really like. Like old Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn ...
VM: Yeah, and I was looking at the dresses and seeing the girls at the show, and I couldn’t believe how the models were all different shapes, heights, everything, and they all looked just beautiful!
GH: Well, I like my fashion shows to be a variety of people, and I try to make the proportions wearable. You can wear them to the store or to a cocktail party.
VM: What do you think is different about this new Spring/Summer ’09 line than anything you’ve had out previously?
GH: It was more colorful. I’m known for prints, so I would always do prints, but this time I threw in more colors, like turquoise and yellow and orange and red.
VM: Yeah, looking at some of your other lines, I did notice this one seemed to really pop with color, which is nice because it kind of gives you a feel for the season.
GH: Definitely, I try to make it happy!
VM: Okay, so now you have the T-shirt line that you introduced during the show. What inspired you to do this line?
GH: Well, what I wanted to do was give more people pieces that weren’t as expensive but that have those details. You can dress up a pair of slacks with my T-shirts, or you can wear them with skirts or jeans, but they always make you look put-together.
VM: Definitely! Monica Navia came out first with one of your T-shirts on, right?
GH: Yeah, she had the layered sleeve. That’s like a little edgier, a little younger.
VM: That one was one of my favorites. It was a good one to open up the show with! So now let’s talk about Bethenny Frankel from The Real Housewives of New York City. She wears a lot of your designs and has said on her BravoTV.com blog that 75 percent of what she wears is from your lines. What’s the story with you two?
GH: I met Bethenny at a show I had at my brother’s house in East Hampton over the summer back in ’06. And we’ve been friends ever since, and she’s been wonderfully supportive of me. She’s been with me since the beginning. She’s great, and she looks great in everything, too.
VM: Well, her Skinny Girl [http://www.bethenny.com] stuff probably helps, but of course your clothes look good on everyone. That’s your specialty.
GH: Yes, and tonight at my sale, I sold things to women from their early 20s to my mother-in-law, who’s 70-something.
VM: Oh, my mother and I could totally share your clothes. They’re conservative, but a lot of the dresses are also sexy in a classy way.
GH: Exactly, that’s what I try to do. I try to make it ageless and timeless, and then I also try to make it effortless and elegant.
VM: You are very good at what you do!
GH: Thanks!
VM: Well, I’m so glad I finally got a hold of you…
GH: Me, too.
VM: Thanks so much.
GH: Anytime!
For more information about Ginny and her designs, please visit: http://www.ginnyh.com
Originally posted on the VM Blog.
Photography by Audra Carella
Lauren Casamassa’s passion for writing comes from a spirited attitude (as a Queens-breed girl) to tactfully tell it like it is. Just recently, she graduated with a master’s degree in Communications Arts from New York Institute of Technology. Currently interning at PublicAffairs Books, a publishing company in NYC, Lauren hopes to one day be heavily involved in children’s book publishing.