In what could only be described in fashion terms as a
dream collaboration, or in marketing terms as the ultimate synergy, Los
Angeles-based model and dress designer Christy Dawn Petersen has
collaborated with Angeleno native and hipster singer Z Berg of the band
Phases, on two festival fashion-ready pieces, going on sale Wednesday,
just in time for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival outfit
shopping season. Phases will also be making its Coachella debut on April
15.
Petersen and Berg met when Petersen’s husband, fashion
entrepreneur and Odd Us band frontman Aras Baskauskas, recorded an album
with Berg’s father, record producer Tony Berg. “We became friends and Z
said to me, ‘Hey, you want to make some cool s–t? A dress and maybe a
jumper?’” said Petersen.
A vintage swim coverup of Berg’s was the inspiration for
the cotton baby-doll dress “Z Dress” which comes in five deadstock
fabrics for a total of 50 pieces priced at $191 each. The Z jumper comes
in three fabrics and retails for $197. Both will be sold at Petersen’s
year-old Christy Dawn boutique on up-and-coming Lincoln Boulevard in
Venice Beach, as well as her e-commerce site (Christy Dawn, a Made in
L.A. label that Petersen founded two years ago, also wholesales in Free
People). “Z really likes to wear short sexy dresses onstage and I’m the
opposite, so the pieces reflect both our tastes,” said Petersen.
She’s used to designing with her friends; Christy Dawn has
also produced collabs with with Petersen’s friend and fellow model
Emily Ratajkowski and actress Langley Fox Hemingway. The latter also
appeared in the video for Berg’s single “Cooler,” in which Berg,
Petersen and Hemingway went on a road trip to Big Sur (the campaign
shots shown here were taken on the shoot).
In a perfect end note, Berg will be performing an acoustic
set to celebrate the design project on Wednesday evening at Superba,
the hotspot eatery located down the street from the Christy Dawn store.