Storytellers: Daydream Nation

 [all images via Daydream Nation]

As a design blogger, it's only natural that I geek out over fashion every once in a while. What you may not know is that I'm an even bigger nerd when it comes to literature, so a phrase like "Fashion-Storytelling brand" is pretty much bound to send me into a tizzy.

This is the term Daydream Nation uses to describe itself, along with the mantra, "where people see boats in buckets and hear sea waves in radio glitches." Doesn't that alone transport you to the distant shores of some Robert Louis Stevenson novel?

Christina at Daydream Nation was kind enough to send me their AW '10 lookbook, and the styling and photography live up to the brand's poetic self-image.

Inspired by  Italo Calvino’s novel Baron on the Tree, this season is about "adventuring on to the kingdom of trees, a place where exiles of society reside... a nation on the border between nations, where they can roam free, where the wild things are."

It's impossible to ignore the reference to the Spike Jonze film of last year, which seemed to inspire so much furry, animal-eared sentimentalism in the fashion world. But Daydream Nation's interpretation manages to feel new - a bit more subtle and even ladylike, despite an emphasis on chunky knits and tribal embellishments.

 

Though I hadn't heard of Daydream Nation until recently, the brother-sister design team of Jing and Kay Wong debuted their label in 2006, and it is carried in such stores as Bendel's and Anthropologie. Thankfully, I'll have no trouble finding some of their fall pieces, but it looks like I have one more book to add to my reading list.