"We've lost the idea that clothing should be a second skin": Camille Charrière's NA-KD collaboration is an homage to her style heroines

When it comes to style and wit, Camille Charrière is a force to be reckoned with. But one weakness has been uncovered: You’ve Got Mail, Nora Ephron’s charming 1998 rom-com. “It’s my ultimate film,” Charrière gushes. “It’s actually one of the reasons my blog used to be called Camille Over The Rainbow. You know, that’s the song that plays at the end of the movie,” she says, referring to the closing scene in which Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks are revealed to each other. “Every summer, I would go on YouTube and just watch that clip just so I could have a little cry.”

But You've Got Mail is not Charrière’s go-to rom-com purely for its charming soundtrack and tear-jerking dialogue – it’s the nostalgia of the wardrobe too. “Meg Ryan is queen of the trench coat, like the scene where she throws it on over her pyjamas,” Charrière says. “Or the little black dresses with opaque tights and brogues, those simple and easy pieces that you look ‘put together’ in throughout the day, and that will keep you warm – because obviously she’s in New York in autumn which is freezing. And Sweden is the same.”

Charrière has Sweden on her mind for a reason: at the time of our conversation, her new design collaboration with Gothenburg-based fashion brand NA-KD is just weeks away from launching. Comprising 27 pieces, the collection spans clothing, accessories and shoes in an autumnal palette of browns and burgundy, with a dose of animal print (“a wardrobe neutral”, according to Charrière) – all of which would feel right at home on Ryan or any of her equally well-dressed ‘90s and ‘00s main character contemporaries, such as Gwyneth Paltrow in Sliding Doors.

But Charrière’s moodboard for the collection wasn’t limited to on-screen leading ladies – her references were drawn from off-screen style moments of the era too. “I started looking at Getty images of how women in the public eye were dressing and I came across these images of Anna Wintour back when she was still wearing jeans,” Charrière recounts. “There was one image in particular of her leaving the ballet in a puffer jacket, and it’s so good, she looks so chic. And Sofia Coppola too, that same energy of women that are smart, busy and going places. They care about how they look but not so much that it becomes contrived,” she goes on. “So this collection with NA-KD is kind of an homage to all of these women that have impacted culture so much and shaped the way we dress now.”

The “simplicity and ease” of minimalist ‘90s style that she references are popular Pinterest fashion fodder right now, but Charrière takes things a step further in unpacking the appeal. “In reality, people don’t realise the reason why it was so impactful is because these women wore their clothes again and again and again,” she says. “That’s what we’ve lost in fashion. We’ve lost the idea that clothing should be a second skin and you turn it into your signature.”

While the bygone mood of the collection transports us to (and relishes) the pre-social media age when, in her words, “women showed up as they were”, Charrière has successfully harnessed her own social channels over the years to champion the virtues of vintage and high quality fashion – something which became particularly palpable to her during Covid. Amid the lockdown, she quickly realised she didn’t miss wearing most of her clothes, while simultaneously falling back in love with fashion as she befriended second-hand vendors around her local Portobello Road in London. “On social media, everything happens so quickly, you don’t have time to appreciate something good because we’ve already moved onto the next idea, the next trend, the next It girl, whatever,” Charrière comments. “During lockdown, I was craving slowness and stability and realness and that’s stayed with me.”

An established writer and tastemaker, Charrière can now firmly add designer to her credentials, after applying her vision and sartorial language directly to the clothes in the NAKD collection. “The exact length of a hemline, the specific shape of a sleeve… these are all the kind of things that matter to us fashion fanatics,” she says.

Alongside the tangible design process, in which Charrière tapped into her affinity for vintage, she also calls out how much she enjoyed the collaboration with the female-only team. “I was going through fertility treatment last year and there was a short period where I was really not myself. You’re injected with so many hormones that you stop trusting yourself, stop thinking like yourself,” she says. “But then I arrived to this room full of women and I was talking about what I wanted and it was a really nice moment for me, because I had been feeling so lost.” The collaboration gave Charrière something to “pour energy and creativity” into, during a time when she was offline. “It was really powerful because I wasn’t posting at the time. Nobody even knew I was in Sweden. And now we’ve come out the other end, I’m just so proud of what we have produced.”

The sentiment is echoed by Nora Rahim Eriksson, head of design at NA-KD. “It’s a dream come true having Camille design for us,” Eriksson says. “She was one of the first to inspire a whole generation of fashion lovers through content online, and her timeless style has kept her at the forefront of fashion ever since. As a brand, we share her forward-thinking approach to fashion, which has made the collaboration and design process feel natural and seamless. We couldn’t be happier to launch this collection of long-lasting, vintage inspired pieces, all rooted in trends that have stood the test of time.”

All 27 pieces of the collection are close to Charrière’s heart, but she does manage to single out a favourite: a faux fur-trimmed puffer jacket directly inspired by the design worn by Wintour to the ballet – the moment documented on her moodboard. “It came out so well, I am really thrilled,” she says. “I haven’t seen something like that anywhere and I’m really excited to wear it. Also in her top picks are the co-ordinating sets, which Charrière describes as “corporate Camille”, for when “you’re going to the office but still want to feel a bit sassy and sleek – like Tom Ford’s Gucci era”. Lastly, the trenchcoat, reminiscent of Ryan’s own in You’ve Got Mail. “The colour, the grey colour – it just suits everyone,” she enthuses.

Now, thanks to the upcoming NA-KD drop, we can all dress like Charrière’s style heroines, but what does it take to actually be deemed one in her eyes? “For me, the people who have the best sense of style are those who stick to what makes them feel like themselves. Rather than being a walking billboard for different trends, I’m interested in people who really get to know themselves. Those who find a signature, find a silhouette, find a uniform and who develop it, go deep into it, and become that. I just think that is just a much, much cooler, much more organic approach to dressing.”

Camille Charrière’s design collaboration with NA-KD launches globally on October 27th at na-kd.com.