Last year, the internet was briefly awash in a trend called “tomato girl summer.” Cosplaying an Italian holiday required an entire outfit filled with cotton poplin, tomato red, gingham and raffia. Chelsea Hansford, creative director and CEO of Simon Miller, followed similar inspiration for her Spring 2024 collection, which she called In the Kitchen. (When asked about the tomato girl trend, Hansford said, “Is that coming? I’ve never heard of that.”) The campaign, starring Angela Lindvall, was deeply narratively driven. “I imagined this Tuscan estate, where she picked her land to cook this extravagant meal,” Hansford said. Even if haunted by the ghosts of past micro-trends, Simon Miller’s ethos still fits perfectly into a carefree Italian summer, from the gingham tunic to the matching trousers to the knitted dress with fringed hem in bright colors and neutral colors.
Hansford works on a ‘see-now-buy-now’ schedule, which makes her acutely aware of the upcoming activities of her hip coastal clients, although this is slightly different from the original brief. “We have a big festival season business, especially here in LA,” she said. “We do a drop exclusively for that.” It’s a wise business move: While the typical Simon Miller customer is an older millennial, the festival season opens the brand up to a younger demographic. Hence the mesh shibori T-shirts that would be more at home at the Coachella fairgrounds than in a Tuscan kitchen.
Simon Miller is at its best when it stays close to its DNA, even if it builds on existing pieces from previous seasons. The cotton poplin shirt dress with the open back panel and tie at the waist added variety to a classic garment, as did the crochet mini dress, which was a clever take on the label’s best-selling Beep Beep dress. Hansford clearly has a very strong sense of brand identity, even if she chooses to deviate from her creative vision to serve it.
