Kaia Gerber could wear the collection she designed with Zara, available on October 4, literally anywhere. Just over 30 pieces that slightly remix the category we know as “wardrobe essentials” (leather trenches, white tanks, slouchy trousers), it looks as at home in New York, Paris, or Copenhagen as in Gerber’s hometown of Los Angeles—temperatures permitting. Then there’s the whole global supermodel thing; surely, Gerber’s monthly schedule is booked and busy with more destinations that the average person visits in a year. But when I ask the 21-year-old model, Celine muse, and social media book club president where she’s most excited to wear her line, she chooses the last place I had in mind: through TSA and into her seat on a flight. Any flight.
“I think just being on a plane in [the collection] is exciting to me, because comfortable and cute plane clothes are hard,” she says.
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When Gerber is in transit, she’s not exactly anonymous—all the more reason to look dressed with a capital D. “The worst part of traveling during fashion week is everyone is on the same flight, and the way that I normally look when I travel is not the way I try to present professionally, but you’re running into people that you work with,” she says. “You’re all tired and kind of in the same boat and like yeah, this is where we’re at. So, it’s quite an intimate experience, running into people when you’re sleeping on a plane.”
With this collection, Gerber has the complete wardrobe to feel and look put-together for those encounters, wherever she’s landing. Of the edit, she explains, “I really wanted to center it around the idea of, if I just packed this, could it last me a month–like fashion month, for example? I just wanted it to be the best of the basics.”
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“The good thing about this collection is I could throw it in a bag and not have to think about it on my trip,” Gerber continues. But this isn’t a line of wrinkle-free pointe pants and basic cardigans. The collection turns packable essentials into something elevated (and in the case of a midi skirt with a hip slit, far sexier). ’90s supermodels, French films, and a dash of Jane Birkin were Gerber’s main references for the Zara team and they distilled them down into the final edit of trousers, jackets, and an Americana denim-on-denim set, all that can be mixed and matched.
“I actually felt bad because [Zara] asked for design inspiration and I sent hundreds [of photos], and they were probably like, why did we ask her?” Gerber laughs. “But they had them all printed out on a table and it was so cool to see a physical manifestation of my brain. And then for it to turn into something that I can wear, and people I know can wear, and people I don’t know can wear? I think that’s very cool.”
Wardrobe basics in neutral tones strike a universal note, but Gerber says this design unlocked a new side of her personal style. “I think I was like a little more….I’ll say adventurous. People are going to look at the clothes and [see] they’re all black and white and gray…” she trails off, “but, I was more open to changing something about a classic than I thought I would be, and that surprised me.” See: the exaggerated baggy suit worn with a silky bra top or the button-down shirt that has a completely open back.
What Gerber ultimately wanted out of her Zara collection is what most women all look for in their travel basics: “I just wanted it to be super wearable. And selfishly, I wanted to make the perfect black trousers and the perfect white T-shirt.” You know, just the sort of pieces you wouldn’t mind being seen in at the Arrivals gate.
Kaia x Zara will be available on zara.com and at select Zara stores on Tuesday, October 4.