Growing up as the granddaughter of Vivienne Westwood and with the founders of Agent Provocateur, Serena Rees and Joe Corré, as parents, Cora Corré was surrounded by fashion from a young age. “I used to spend a lot of time at the AP offices after school,” she says. “Dropping in and seeing different aspects of the journey.”
When Corré and I speak a year to the day since she began working with the Max Mara Group-owned brand Marella on her first fashion capsule collection, she’s proud of seeing “something from start to finish.” The model and activist, who has continued her grandmother’s environmentalist and socio-political campaigning through the her work at The Vivienne Foundation, oozes sultry, low-key elegance. When she and the Marella team began working on their collaborative process, she was touched by how well they appeared to know her style. “In a way, the collection is about growing up, and really getting to know myself,” she reflects.
Cora Corré x Marella.
Cora Corré x Marella.
Musing on “the colour or lack thereof” in her wardrobe, the transformative power of outerwear silhouettes and her “love of a strong shoulder”, Corré began pulling together references: a “structured but still exposed” archive Mugler look, powerful ’90s Alaïa, a photo of Grace Jones wearing a hoodie and a slouchy leather bomber jacket. She looked to her mum’s old trench coat, bought in NYC from a tiny army store – “It’s my go to when I’m in a flap. I cinch the waist and put a heel on” – and the baggy tees that she stretches over one shoulder when she’s “had a bad day.”
Cora Corré x Marella.
Cora Corré x Marella.
The result is a capsule collection in rich, grown-up shades (“I looked at a of colour samples”), including a chocolate-brown trench coat, a scarlet off-the-shoulder draped party dress, a double layered wool coat in navy, a leather bomber jacket, an ivory suit and a matching corset with georgette ruffles that she’d love to see interpreted by her mother, godmother and best friend. It doesn’t just reflect who Corré is, but reflects the woman she wants to be. “I’m so happy I designed the wool coat in navy and not black!” adds Corré. “The splash of colour with the dress feels like the equivalent of a red lipstick in my wardrobe. It’s my seize-the-day piece.”
Cora Corré x Marella.
Cora Corré x Marella.
“The collection is about my constant go-tos and feeling confident and empowered,” she asserts. They’re just the pieces we want to wear too.