All About Building Blocks

by Emily DeLong | 23 May 17

Our newest collection, Building Blocks, launches today. As this collection is a bit different than anything we've done up to this point, I figured I'd spend some time explaining the story behind the collection as well as what it's all about.

First, a bit of backstory: At the end of last year, with two collections under my belt, I did a big business overview, looking at what worked and what didn't work in 2016. I came up with a ton of ideas for how to move Margu forward in 2017, and one of my ideas was for a capsule-like permanent collection of essential dresses. There are a lot of brands out there selling basic, essential dresses, but not very many that are selling the kinds of dresses — tailored, feminine, vintage-inspired — that I personally like to wear.

I named the collection Building Blocks with two meanings in mind: first, in that the garments are meant to be the building blocks of your wardrobe, and second, that we'll slowly add new styles, colors, and fabrics, block by block, over time. I envision the collection growing and evolving with Margu as we grow and evolve as a brand, and my hope is that it fills a true need for our customers looking for sustainable, effortless, classic wardrobe staples.

Building Blocks differs from our seasonal collections in that it is a permanent collection, meaning it won't disappear at the end of the summer like SS17 will. It's also a bit simpler in both style and fabric, and as a result of it being simpler, a bit less expensive, too.

When conceptualizing the collection early this year, I came up with six concepts that capture the essence of Building Blocks:

 

Essential Styles

While I give myself room in each seasonal collection for experimentation, Building Blocks is all about timeless, classic silhouettes that will never go out of style. We'll be adding tops, skirts, and even pants to the collection in the future, but for now, we're starting out with four timeless, classic dresses.

 

Essential Fabrics

Since Building Blocks is a permanent collection, I'm choosing the fabrics we use with even more care than I do for our seasonal collection, balancing quality, sustainability, and affordability as best I can. The idea is to eventually have five or so fabrics in the collection, but for now, we're starting out with an insanely soft and airy organic cotton double gauze.

 

Essential Colors

While I am all about prints, both in my personal wardrobe and with Margu, with Building Blocks you can expect to see only solid colors. We're starting out with a classic black, but don't worry — we'll be branching out into other colors soon.

 

Simple to Wear

My goal with Building Blocks is for every piece to be as unfussy as possible. Every piece in the collection is easy to throw on (or zip up, or button up), and everything is designed to be super comfortable and functional, too. Pockets are a must, fabrics are selected for their comfort and softness, and the lengths of all the dresses are all 35" and greater, so you don't have to sacrifice comfort and utility while looking nice.

 

Simple to Style

With simple silhouettes in a bevy of solid colors, the fact that each Building Blocks garment is easy to style comes pretty naturally. What I love about the pieces in this collection is that you really can make each one your own by accessorizing as much or as little as you'd like. I designed each garment with the idea that each one could be both dressed up and dressed down, expanding its wearability to a host of different settings.

 

Simple to Wash

The tags in all our seasonal collection pieces read "Hand Wash Cold / Line Dry," and while I don't regret that (hand-washing your super-nice clothes, or any clothes, does make them last a lot longer), I wanted the pieces in Building Blocks to be a bit easier to care for. So I made sure when designing and choosing fabric that all the pieces in Building Blocks could be machine washed (with cold/cool water, please!) and machine dried (on low/no heat) with no issue, and that any wrinkle removal or touching up could be done with a warm iron.

 

We'll still be releasing seasonal collections twice a year (I can't wait to show you FW17!), and we have ideas (perhaps too many ideas!) for future additional collections to add to the site as well. At the same time, we'll also continue to add new pieces to Building Blocks as we go, so you can now look forward to new product launches a lot more often than twice a year.

Shop Building Blocks here.