Petra Collins and Mimi Wade’s new collab is a sexy, sun-soaked daydream

Vintage wedding dresses, re-imagined cheerleading outfits and Hawaiian prints galore. After a two-year hiatus, Petra Collins has just relaunched I’m Sorry, her cult capsule collection with SSENSE, and in the nick of time for summer’s late arrival.

This time around, she’s collaborated with cult London-via-LA designer Mimi Wade, who left an indelible mark on mid-2010s fashion with her sexy, hyper-feminine collections. It makes sense for the pair to be good pals, given Petra’s own role in documenting young womanhood through her immediately recognisable art and photography. When matched with Mimi’s sensibility for old Hollywood glamour and ​’90s nostalgia, there’s plenty of material for a playful, referential collection.

On the menu: illustrated baby tees, trompe l’oeil dresses and lots of lace and velvet, all infused with a sweetness that still has bite. It’s a wink-wink type of femininity, knowingly over-the-top and girlish. ​“The trompe l’oeil was inspired by a dress I hand-painted onto leather from my first collection with Fashion East in 2016,” Mimi says. ​“I was inspired by Girl on a Motorcycle with Alain Delon and Marianne Faithfull.” Her boyfriend, artist Jake Freilich, reworked the design with oil and then digitised it to print onto cotton.

Why did now feel like the right time to reboot I’m Sorry? ​“After the last three drops, I was trying to figure out what I wanted from it and how I wanted to reframe it,” Petra says. ​“I think of the brand and the clothes as costume design for people acting in movies I’ve made up in my head, each one with its own genre and world.” Time to get in character.

Hey, Petra and Mimi! What were you guys reading, watching and listening to while coming up with this new I’m Sorry collection?

Petra: I was listening to a lot of summer break playlists, watching vintage wedding footage on YouTube and summer slasher movies, reading Daddy by Emma Cline and Blythe [doll] fashion books. Mimi and I looked at so many different wedding dress styles, while trying to figure out what the perfect summer break outfit would be and what level of unhinged we could take that to.

Mimi: We started with research, then I hand-sketched all of our ideas and shared them with Petra. Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love’s tropical sunset beach wedding was a big reference, as well as Tennessee’s Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer, Spring Breakers and H2O. We thought about Bijou Phillips and Kelli Garner in Bully, vintage ​’70s fabrics I found in Hawaii, ​’60s fairytale illustrations, Kirsten Dunst in Drop Dead Gorgeous, airbrush cake art and a mutual obsession with Blythe dolls. The list goes on!

Can you tell us a bit more about your friendship and why you work so well together?

P: I’ve been a fan of Mimi’s work forever – since the Tumblr days! It’s funny because we never crossed paths back then, but when she moved to LA, we met and have been partners in crime ever since.

M: I’m a big Petra fan! We bonded instantly when I moved to the city four years ago and I’m so grateful that she’s now such a dear friend. I adore working with Petra, there’s so much freedom and we bounce off each other very naturally. It helps when you have a shared aesthetic and draw from a lot of the same places.

Mimi, this capsule feels very much like an extension of your own work. How did you go about pushing that to the next level?

M: Definitely! We updated a lot of styles from my past collections and signatures, including the cheer dresses, the trompe l’oeil dress and the cat hat. It was fun to use my illustrations and collages in the collection, too. I hadn’t drawn anything for ages and was encouraged by Petra, which was a real joy. We also collaborated with Tarina Tarantino on the delicious jewellery, who I’ve worshipped since I was a teenager.

Petra, your work over the years has largely centred around girlhood. The I’m Sorry collections are a great microcosm of that. How do you feel about girlhood in 2024, and how fashion plays into that?

P: I think it’s quite complex now. Because we’ve lost subcultures, it’s definitely more confusing to be a young person; I think a lot of young people struggle with identity because of how fast trends turn around. No one really sits in their ​“genre” or subculture anymore. It changes every day. I think there can be power in that, but it’s definitely confusing. I would hope that in each collection I do for I’m Sorry, there’s a strong enough thread that someone can feel like, ​“Okay, this is me, at least for now.”