Cameron Silver curates a vintage collection for Tommy Hilfiger
A one-off capsule collection of vintage apparel and accessories curated by Decades co-owner Cameron Silver -- with the Tommy Hilfiger aesthetic in mind -- made its debut at the latter’s West Hollywood flagship store Thursday.
Dubbed the Cameron Silver Vintage Capsule Collection for Tommy Hilfiger, it consists of an assortment of vintage dresses, men’s and women’s tops, blazers, bottoms, outerwear, head wear, bow ties and handbags that are mostly in the $200 to $500 range and a few gowns priced in the $1,500 to $2,500 range.
If you think the above sounds like some sort of brain-bending “Collaborations Gone Wild!” fashion-industry in-joke you’re not alone. We had a hard time figuring out what it exactly meant ourselves -- until we had a chance to see it and chat briefly with Silver.
“It’s all based on [the color story of] the current Tommy Holiday collection,” Silver told us during the shopping event/cocktail party (which, in addition to marking the debut of the curation-collaboration, saw 10% of the evening’s sales go to support the arts education organization P.S. Arts.)
“It’s a fusion of my aesthetic -- I like stuff a little glam -- and Tommy’s DNA which is very, very clear. And we had a really nice budget.
“We went on a buying trip to the Manhattan Vintage Fair in New York City and went from booth to booth to booth and just started building this story.”
The result is a small assortment -- just 32 women’s pieces, 27 men’s pieces and a handful of accessories for each -- that reference the brand’s preppy heritage, a signature assortment of reds, whites and blues (with the burgundy hues of Holiday collection along for the ride).
There are pieces from nearly every decade of the 20th century -- including chunky Lucite handbags from the 1950s, beaded necklaces from the ‘60s, and a selection of all-over print trousers from the ‘70s -- but there seemed to be a particularly deep bench of pieces plucked from the ‘80s -- including a blue Versace chain-mail dress (visible to Silver’s immediate left in the above photo) that was the perfect example of what could possibly result from Silver’s curatorial skill cross-pollinated with the Tommy Hilfiger brand DNA.
Some of the other fun pieces that caught our attention were a stack of plaid Pendelton shirts and a plaid blazer with some seriously wide velvet lapels.
While the benefits of this kind of collaborative exercise for a label like Tommy Hilfiger seem obvious to us -- the halo effect of being associated with an authentic, artisanal or niche brand (see last month’s Tommy Hilfiger X George Esquivel capsule collection of brogues and loafers) -- what a guy who runs a vintage re-sale boutique gets out of it is less clear.
So we asked him.
“Between this and the Nine West collaboration last month I’ve learned a lot -- like it’s great to work with major corporations,” he said with a chuckle.
“Actually, I’m working on a Cameron Silver brand -- that’s the big, big next thing. So for me these associations -- things like this and Nine West -- are brand-building for me. There’s a lot going on.”
“Baby Cam-Cam is working with the billionaires now!”
The Cameron Silver Vintage Capsule Collection for Tommy Hilfiger is available exclusively at Tommy Hilfiger, 157 N. Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood.
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