Finding The Soundtrack for a Collection

The process of designing a new collection can be mentally grueling with hours of sketching, spec-ing (the tech term for the specifications, or measurements of a garment), and pain-staking decisions on colors and silhouettes for a collection designed a year in advance. I don't mean to complain -- I love being a designer -- but the process of designing is tough. Thank God for the one thing I need to get it done: music.

With every collection I have designed, there is always a soundtrack in my head as I feverishly sketch my ideas and concepts for the future. The current Spring collection in stores now was designed a year ago with the Coldplay album "Viva la Vida" echoing in the car, on my ipod, and in my design studio. Whenever I hear "42" or "Life in Technicolor", I see my Spring '09 collection in vivid color. And for Fall '09, the soundtrack was The Killers' "Day and Age" album. As I sketched my baja-striped, bohemian winter-beach collection of soybean knits, I was humming happily to "Human" and "Spaceman."

The soundtrack to a collection is a designer's ultimate inspiration that helps bring to life all the ideas in her head, fully conceptualizing an entire collection's mood and atmosphere. And thankfully just in time for Spring 2010, U2's new album "No Line on the Horizon" has come to my rescue. The first time I heard the song "Magnificent," I knew I had my new soundtrack for the next collection. There's nothing like a good ethereal, atmospheric U2 song to get the goosebumps going and the creative juices flowing.



I'm a long-standing, die-hard U2 fan since '82, when I got my first glimpse of their anthemic power in their "New Year's Day" video. I was hooked. Each album of theirs has provided the soundtrack for a chapter of my life - "Sunday Bloody Sunday" got me through a long Summer tour of Europe in '84; "October" echoed in my headphones the Summer of '87 in NYC, when I was modeling for Seventeen Magazine; "All That You Can't Leave Behind" was the soundtrack for my wedding year (that's the year I missed out on 5th row seats to a U2 concert in Madison Square Garden while I was in Hawaii planning my wedding. Simply not fair!)

Other than a few hiccups on their part - the "Rattle and Hum" fiasco and the sellout albums "Pop" and "Zooropa" - they've been true to their roots and have churned out beloved moody anthems to keep us die-hard fans happy. Love the new album pretty much up until the choppy, very un-U2-like "Get on Your Boots" single. Why they used this erratic, boppy song for their single is beyond me, although my husband claims it was a political decision (okay America, you're in a recession, you've got a new President, get on your boots and move on!) But it doesn't represent the true U2 sound, one that is ethereal and echoing Bono's melodic voice and The Edge's classic riffs. "Magnificent" does just that. Listening to it makes me feel magnificent and super-powered to churn out my best designs ever for Spring 2010!