Prince’s costume designers release new collection inspired by The Kid himself

The memory of the iconic musical genius is being kept alive with a new fashion line created by a Toronro company inspired by his timeless classic album "1999"

The designers behind many of the legendary costumes that made Prince a fashion icon, have kicked off 2020 by releasing a fashion line inspired by His Royal Badness.

According to The New York Post, designers Cathy Robinson and Lori Marcuz, of the Toronto-based company Call & Response, worked with the late rock icon from 2011 until his death in 2016. Now they are paying homage to their longtime muse by releasing a collection inspired by his album “1999.”

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The Prince estate not only has no problem with this launch but has even teamed up with the duo as they launch vests, made-to-order jackets, “hand-dyed tunics” and vests. And the collections availability intentionally coincides with the release of Prince’s Super Deluxe Edition “1999” box set, which came out last year.

But fans may be surprised to learn that Robinson and Marcuz, never met or spoke to the legendary artist, despite years of dressing him.

During a 2018 interview with Vogue, Marcuz shared how Prince’s assistant would routinely call and request clothing, and then have them send a box with the items. Then the designers would watch YouTube videos to get the correct fit for his clothing.

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“We watched a lot of footage,” Marcuz explains. “We listened to the album, again and again, trying to remember what it was like to hear ‘1999’ for the first time back in the day.”

Not surprisingly, this latest collection will include a lot of purple.

“The entire time, [working with Prince], was almost like a blur,” Robinson told Refinery29. “It was so busy and fast. We learned so much working with him because the learning curve was huge.”

“Our time with Prince was a hell of a ride,” Marcuz wrote on Instagram. “We miss him. We miss making clothes for him. So this was, in many ways, lovely to do it again.”

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