The cold weather brings with it a set of perennial wardrobe essentials—puffy jackets, thermal bottoms, snow boots...and the scarf. But this year it has received a fresh spin, thanks to the work of several artistic labels. From bold designs and prints to thoughtful details, these neck accessories stand to make the chilly season a bit more liberating amid the layers.
Forget Me Not: Although she’s schooled in fine arts,
illustrator Corinne Brun is no fashion world neophyte: Longchamp, Karl Lagerfeld and
Vogue have all commissioned drawings from her. But recently, Brun took the leap into physical production with Forget Me Not, a label she’s now developing part-time. Since launching her first collection last spring, Brun has put her background to stylish use with color-saturated accessories that are as whimsical and surreal as they are elegant. Every season she introduces a new collection of digitally printed silk scarves—manufactured in Como, Italy—informed by motifs that range from
snowy owls to
geometry-meets-gemology.
We Are Owls: Donning a cashmere wrap is a great way to stay warm, yet the posh fabric is rarely considered a symbol of cool. We Are Owls aims to change that with its 100% cashmere collection. The label, launched by cousins
Ling and Emily Cheng, along with their friend Connie Lui, differentiates itself from the standard soft and fuzzy neck warmers with prints that are psychedelic, graphic, and a little bit morbid (think Tim Burton, if he designed accessories). For this fall/winter season, We Are Owls
put its spin on the circus, with one of its scarves featuring skeletal trapeze artists and another displaying a poster for an imaginary show.
Cairo: Its one-of-a-kind painted silk scarves are a strong draw, but the real reason newly launched label Cairo exceeded its
Kickstarter goal is because of what’s hidden from sight: magnetic closures. Textile designer Katie Wright-Buckley and artist Megan Pflug have fashioned a wrap that stays together while also staying flat. The silk-dyed scarves look good either flying solo or piled up (made all the easier by the fact that magnetic attraction keeps them from slipping off). The duo cite menswear tailoring and artists’ studios as their design inspiration, although Cairo’s streaky prints appear more closely tied to museum-caliber modern art than the unrefined space in which they were conceived.
