Levi's x Karla FW 2020
Following the announcement of its collaborative capsule with New Balance last week, Levi’s has teamed up with another label for Fall/Winter 2020. Designed in partnership with x karla‘s Karla Welch, the denim company’s latest range is an homage to the Founder’s childhood home on the prairies of Alberta, Canada.
“In a way, the collection is an ode to my mother and how I imagine her as a prairie girl in Alberta, Canada. Being outside, being a tomboy,” Karla said in a press release. “The flannels, the cord, the fringe, they all have a ruggedness and a connection to nature. It’s clothes to climb trees in.”
Arriving in hues of dark green, rust, khaki and dark indigo blue, outerwear styles like the jackets, blazer and vest are made of velvety corduroy material. One standout item is the reversible Trucker jacket that boasts a cropped waist and boxy street style fit, along with a sherpa body and corduroy sleeves. Of course, a Levi’s collection would not be complete without denim. Rounding out the line is the High Rise Wide Leg Flare Jean, a new vintage-styled Bootcut Jean, as well as the Flared Wide Leg Overall with an exposed side zipper on the right hip and crossover straps on the back.
Levi’s latest xkarla collection is out just in time for fall. The new collection is inspired by stylist Karla Welch’s mother’s childhood home in rural Alberta, Canada, and is packed with autumnal hues and rustic textures like corduroy, fringe, and, of course, denim.
“In a way, the collection is an ode to my mother and how I imagine her as a prairie girl in Alberta, Canada. Being outside, being a tomboy,” Welch said in a press release. “The flannels, the cord, the fringe, they all have a ruggedness and a connection to nature. It’s clothes to climb trees in.”
The new denim styles include reemerging popular styles like a flared leg and bootcut. The collection introduces a new vintage-styled bootcut, based on a classic men’s Levi’s 517 boot cut jean, in both indigo and washed black.
The new Levi’s xkarla collection is available now on both Levi’s and the xkarla website, with prices starting at $176 for the bootcut jean and topping off at $398 for the Fringe Coccoon Trucker Jacket. In honor of the new collection, Welch has made a donation to the ACLU.
Boot-cut jeans are back, according to Karla Welch, stylist to some of Hollywood’s biggest stars including Tracee Ellis Ross, Sarah Paulson, Olivia Wilde, Elisabeth Moss, and Ruth Negga, who stars in the campaign for her new Levi’s xKarla capsule collection.
“We are definitely ready for the boot cut!” says Welch of the collection’s key style, based on a classic men’s Levi’s 517 boot-cut jean. “And this one is a perfect length—not too long, not too short, just right! Boyfriends will never be over, neither will the skinny! It’s just time to bring a boot into the closet.”
Welch, who is also the founder and creator of the brand xKarla, first collaborated with Levi’s in 2018 on a collection that looked to the future, with the vintage pieces we’ll be wearing on Mars in 200 years. This new range—which in addition to dark indigo denim includes a long-fringe cocoon trucker jacket in khaki cord and a velvety dark green wide wale corduroy blazer-and-trouser set—takes its cues from a bit closer to home.
Adds Welch, “I think I’m missing my parents and longing for some big open spaces. And I’m definitely ready for some cold weather!”
Welch, who was raised in Powell River, British Columbia, grew up wearing overalls, so she created a pair of flared wide-leg overalls in washed black. The rust-colored, hunting-style corduroy puffer vest is based on one that her brother wore as a teen in the ’80s. “Flannel, cords, and denim were really just part of life in Canada,” Welch says.
With the Canadian border still closed to all nonessential travel, when it came to shoot Negga for the Levi’s xKarla look book, Welch and her husband, photographer Matthew Welch, found a grassy stand-in for a prairie near where they live in Topanga, California.
Negga, for one, is sold on the modern pioneer woman lifestyle. “Something that is magical and you knew you’d been looking for it but not quite sure what it was ... until ... oh, flip ... it’s that!!!” is how she describes the xKarla X factor. “And then you want to wear it in the bath. At a store. Zooms. Taking the bins out. Funerals. Hikes. Etc. Like when you were six.”
