Arts & Culture Headline Article Style & Fashion

LA’s The Place Chats with Caprice Willard, NBC’s “Fashion Star” Judge and Macy’s Buyer

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[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qxFIXifCbo[/youtube]

LA’s The Place chief Jane Emery interviewed Caprice Willard via Skype at Fashion Star‘s New York studios.


LA’s The Place: Caprice, I wanted to ask you – I’ve really enjoyed you on the show, I think you have a great discretion, and as a judge, what is the most important things that stand out when you are looking for a winning design?

Caprice Willard: Well, I think you kind of said it earlier in how much you said you enjoyed Kara [Laricks]and the fact that you have not seen her looks or her designs before. I was really looking for someone who was going to be fresh and new and can kind of, you know, really crack the code on fashion right now and be something different for the customer. We have so many brands at Macy’s and so many really great designers at Macy’s, but we also like to introduce newness and someone who’s got a totally different design esthetic and Kara absolutely has that and that is what we were looking for and that is why we decided to participate in “Fashion Star”.

LATP: Very exciting… gives me goosebumps!  For years, I mean, sometimes going shopping was a depressing situation, because you’re always looking for that something new. I think this is a new era emerging.

CW: I think Kara is the perfect example of what participating in a show like “Fashion Star” and having a huge retailer like Macy’s do that really shows, you know, how committed we are to find, you know, we both know the customer comes to us; expects for us to educate her on what she should buy and to have hottest newest thing and sometimes that is a look, sometimes that is a, you know, trend and sometimes it is a designer and in this case it is a designer and it is Kara for us right now.

LATP: OK, now Caprice, what are you seeing the designs trending toward this year; what styles do you want to see more of?

CW: I would say that one of the things I am super-excited about right now is really the reemergence of color the top and the bottom. That’s really an exciting new trend for so long we were really into neutrals and neutrals are still important, don’t get me wrong.. you know, black is still the new black. We are always looking for a new black, it’s black still, but color is super-important. Colored bottoms, printed bottoms, textured bottoms. That’s going to be very very important. And then as much as we all like to be casual and kind of comfortable, a little bit more structured jacket is becoming very important and you will see that in the Spring time and that does carry through to Fall. And the feminine blouse like what Kara has in her line, that will continue to be important as we go into the Fall season.

LATP: Well, that makes me very happy to hear because that was my next question: Do you see people starting to dress up more, or staying casual like it’s been for so many years?

CW: Well you know, I think it’s funny because we do always talk about, kinda like, that California casual look, which is always quite frankly going to be part of our dress code in Los Angeles. But a lot of people are really wanting to step it up and figure out a way to still be comfortable but pulled together. I think that Kara’s designs are a perfect example of that. The dress alone is amazingly comfortable to wear, but yet you look so pulled together. So I think we are very committed at Macy’s to finding a way to merge both of those, so people can dress things up, dress them down and feel comfortable throughout the day.

LATP: When can we see these designs in stores?

CW: Actually it is in stores now. So we have it in many stores across the country. I can personally say that we have it in many store in Los Angeles, being a LA girl myself, and we also have it at Macys.com. So you can go to Macys.com/FashionStar, put in your ZIP code and find a store near you.

LATP:  OK everybody, run, don’t walk! Caprice, thank you for entertaining all of us – you do a great job on the show and we can’t wait to see you next season!

CW: Thanks a million!

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