AWAY ANNOUNCES ANNUAL DESIGNER COLLABORATION SERIES
Away announced on Tuesday an annual designer collaboration series. For the inaugural class, the travel brand partnered with emerging fashion designers Sandy Liang, Tia Adeola, and Ji Won Choi, who have each been tasked with reimagining three of Away’s core silhouettes.
The collaboration with Liang, Adeola, and Choi, launching Thursday, October 14, marks the first cohort of Away’s designer collaboration program, an initiative that will continue as a multi-year series. Each year’s program will bring together compelling groups of artists with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and aesthetics to offer their unique takes on Away’s best-selling travel products.
“Away’s designer collaboration series is an exciting new chapter for our brand which I’m thrilled to introduce to our global community of travelers, as well as to the dedicated fans of Sandy, Tia, and Ji,” said Jen Rubio, co-founder and CEO at Away. “It has been an honor to see how these three astonishingly talented designers infused their personal ethos of style into Away’s streamlined design sensibility. The resulting collections are distinct, vivid, and evocative takes on classic Away products. This is an exciting start to our annual collaboration program and eager to see how future iterations come together!”
For the inaugural collection, the three New York-based designers were asked to outfit Away’s Large Everywhere Bag, Front Pocket Backpack, and Travel Pouch Set with their own take on modern design. The resulting products reflect each designer’s unique point of view; informed by the places, people, and experiences that have shaped their aesthetic identity.
New York City native, Sandy Liang says her collection, which features an energetic and wavy floral pattern, was inspired by “the playful wanderlust people are feeling towards travel right now. I was excited to take some of Away’s products that lend themselves to more regional and domestic travel, and outfit them with a bold print that is colorful and loud, but on the Away products, looks more like a floral camo.”
“I have been a longtime admirer of Away and love the fact that it is a female-founded company. It’s important to me that I partner with like-minded companies, so teaming up with Away was a no-brainer,” said Tia Adeola, Nigerian-born, and London-raised fashion designer. Adeola, whose collection features a custom-developed, multi-colored, tweed accented with a pink ruffle, says her work is largely focused on “restructuring the representation of female bodies in the 21st century, challenging constructs with statement pieces that are meant for the everyday, and rewriting history through fashion.”
Born in Seoul and raised in Oklahoma, Ji Won Choi says her designs are “mainly inspired by travel –different cultures, places, and people– so working with Away was really the perfect partnership for me. I wanted to create something uplifting, bright, and sporty–something that could be spotted from far away and was immediately recognizable and distinguishable.” Choi brought these principles to life, reimagining Away’s silhouettes in three brilliant shades of blue, color-blocked in her signature white piping.
The limited-edition products in Away’s first designer collaboration series range from $55 to $295 and will be available exclusively on awaytravel.com, as well as in Away’s 13 retail locations throughout the U.S., Canada, and UK.