To Crop or not to Crop
Summer Sets, Crop Top Mania
I am a person who has never worn a crop top, not an exposed exercise bra, perhaps unenthusiastically a bikini top on vacation and a tiny leotard in my dancer days, but a crop top just was never an item in my closet. So you might be as surprised as I was when last year I developed a crop top and pencil skirt set which became the runaway hit for my store last summer.
I must guiltily admit the first idea for this crop top set came from watching The White Lotus season 2. There was an episode when Daphne steps out in Noto, Sicily in a Prada two piece stripe set, admittedly it was denim and the cut more bra- like with their logo front and center. But something about it stuck in my head, I kept thinking what a chic thing to wear going out shopping on a hot day with a nice sunhat. But then my brain kept changing the neckline and strap, lengthening the crop, tweaking the skirt length, removing the branding of course. I had already been developing a pencil skirt last spring in a knit cotton, it was my first time working with this kind of fabric. So, I set off on developing what I thought would just be a square neck tank top to match the skirt. It much more my style, because as I said crop tops were not for me.
Around this time I had a chat with my friend Julie Suh, a chic crop top aficionado. Just the mention of a crop top made her terribly excited. She proceeded to tell me all the ways one could wear crop tops- with high waisted pants, skirts, shorts. She pledged to purchase any crop tops from Avion that I made and swore to me she would not be alone. So, I mulled this over and decided to proceed making a tank and a crop top and see which one was best.
When the samples were ready I had to do some fittings and decided to show some photos to people on instagram for some input. The tank top did not elicit the same reaction the crop top did, people enthusiastically voted for this version. As I wore it around my studio all day, I started to think to myself - well if the pencil skirt rests high enough, then maybe it will be cute and not too exposed. I am in the camp that thinks no belly buttons should be exposed for crop tops. I tried it on with high waisted pants and felt comfortable. I put the skirt back on and swanned around feeling great, despite all my reservations. I was perplexed. But in this moment, I just had to say to myself okay it’s fine to like it, just try it. It helped having my husband poking his head into my studio admiring and voting for the crop top. I sent off four colors to be made into crop sets.
The first few days in the store the crop tops sat quietly unnoticed, it was already late spring by then with sunny weather. But then one Friday, we put one on a mannequin for the weekend, and I couldn’t believe the immediate response. Ladies would wander by and stop at the window, march in to look at it or try it on, then swiftly walk out with their size tucked in a shopping bag. Other women would walk by with their husband or partner admiring it on their way to lunch and look at it longingly and then a couple days later the gentleman would return to pick it up as a thoughtful gift. It was honestly the first time I had ever made anything that had this kind of immediate response and it bewildered me. Anything that makes a man come back to buy it for his partner on his own time and not for a holiday gift, now that is something! I realized they also liked it perhaps.
I was so glad to be there firsthand to see that it was women of all different sizes and bodies purchasing these sets, and feeling great about themselves in the process. It filled me with happiness each time I met a new lady and saw her feeling so confident walking out of the dressing room. I started to wonder if it was the silhouette or if it was a trend? Perhaps people just love stripes as I do? But what I have come to is that it’s an entire look. It conveys the ease and fun of being on holiday and you can wear it together or separately. It definitely is body conscious but it stretches and you can either wear it together or as separates.
I decided to write about this because it taught me a lot about seeing a design idea through even if I’m not certain about it. I’m sure any designer might agree that you can get very stubborn sometimes with your own ideas, and it holds you back design-wise at times. It also helped me learn to present my designs to customers with a full solution of what to wear not just bits and pieces. I think mostly it showed me that especially coming out of the pandemic, fashion should be fun and make people feel good, it revitalized a lot of my design ideas and approach.
What are you wearing this summer? Any ideas for a must have? I will be heading off for some travel very soon and doing some dispatches from a few European cities. Paid subscribers will get some more in depth travel guide posts, but I will continue with my free posts also each week about design. Thank you all for your feedback and texts and notes I really appreciate it, and hope you will keep reading this summer.
x Katherine
all Avion images by Addie Juell
Follow Avion on Instagram