Nashville Recap - Pandemic Capsule 2020 x Gabrielle Mooney, Lou Ridley, Clio Cadence

Hey Dolls! 

First off, we wanted to thank everyone for the support we have received this year with the limited edition face mask collection. It was hard taking a detour from clothing design, but it has been so much fun seeing everyone styling their masks. Pandemic but make it fashion. Additionally, we are proud to say that we were able to donate thousands of face masks to emergency services and those in need early on in the pandemic when there was a shortage of masks.

Second, we have some exciting news that we are stoked to share! We are dropping the only collection for 2020, the Pandemic Capsule. We wanted to create a collection as moody as 2020 has been. We used a lot of durable materials including metal, chains, cotton twill, leather, and stones. The collection is composed of 20 handmade items as well as custom hand painted hats and hand painted gloves. All of the pieces were handmade by Madeleine Kalb and Kacee Evans. The collection was conceptualized in June/July and fabrication began August 1st until an hour before the flight to Nashville, where the collection was shot. 

The homebase of the shoot was a lush ranch on the outskirts of Nashville, fit with a horse and donkey to boot... which made for some great photo opportunities. Our princess cottage was splashed with pink. Pink dishes, pink soaps, pink rugs, pink sheets. Everything pink!! We shot our looks at this amazing pink palace as well as the Dive Motel, which was a 70's dream. Groovy tunes, disco balls, and funky patterns were the vibe at the Dive.

Our Nashville team consisted of Madeleine, Kacee, Roxy, and Starr. Madeleine is the head designer here at Dolly's and Kacee is our lovely associate designer. Roxy was the main photographer as well as intermittent super model. Starr is the celebrity makeup artist who also made a few super model cameos on the trip. Our glam squad was not only incredibly talented but also quite a riot to spend a long weekend with.

We decided to go a non-traditional route in shooting this collection, not using models but instead singers to tune in to that more cinematic, soulful and moody experience we were looking for. If the collection was a movie, all of the artists' music could provide a killer soundtrack. 

Gabrielle Mooney, also known as Lyrx, is currently working on releasing her self titled EP. She is a singer songwriter out of Nashville, Tennessee. She is as loud and fun as her country rock music. A whole ton of blonde hair and whole ton of energy for a pint sized woman. Keep track of her throughout the next couple of months to listen to her new music! We shot Gabrielle briefly on the ranch but mainly at the Dive motel. We captured her in a one of a kind custom fit we handmade her, which included chaps with leather and Swarovski crystal detail, a halter top with metal chain detail and a custom cowboy hat which was dripping in Swarovski crystals. There were so many crystals we had to call in reinforcements to complete the work. The chaps were completed before we got on the plane, however the hat was being iced out until the morning of our shoot date.

Lou Ridley is a beautiful and soulful singer songwriter from Los Angeles. We met up with her in Nashville while she was working on an upcoming project. Her personality was reminiscant of a little Dolly, always doing impersonations and having fun. Definitely check out her Spotify, which features her soul-country work, in which all of her songs are written and produced by herself and a friend. She was a dream to shoot at the ranch and we are so excited to see where her work takes her this year.

Clio Cadence is a former Dallas based singer who we have been friends with for years. We like to think of her as our Disney princess because she is so sweet and upbeat all of the time - literally all of the time, she is so genuine. Clio is actively working on new music with her producer and has decided to move to Nashville full time. We shot her on the ranch, with her striking blue hair making the aesthetic next level cool. 

The production of this collection as well as this trip, was a once in a life time experience, as I hope we never experience an entire year of a pandemic again! The collection will launch in two weeks and all of the items will be made to order with a two week fulfillment window. You will receive an email when the collection is live, but in the meantime check out our Free Britney support campaign and face mask collection. Enjoy this code NASHVILLE20 while you wait to preview our one and only clothing release of 2020.

Stay safe y'all!