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Material Girl Just 26 years old, Minnesota native Maria Stanley is an emerging fashion talent. |
BY ALYSSA FORD
60 Artful Living
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of strange, novel, even conventionally hideous prints with killer construction. Her cut is highly tailored and playfully sexy — think bustier rompers, peg-leg trousers and peplum skirts. For her interview with Artful Living, Stanley chose a silk high-waisted skinny pant with embroidered flamingos on an electric-blue background. Her fall 2014 collection includes a sharply tailored short dress with black-and-white houndstooth and a flared miniskirt of heavy quilted knit fabric with navy squares and forest-green trim. The look is hot but with an edge — somewhat akin to lusting after Courtney Love or Mick Jagger. Hollywood calls this “sexy-ugly.” Harlyn is not an everywoman label; the designs really only zing when worn by women with pixie-ish bodies, like Stanley herself, which might explain why the line hasn’t really found traction in the Midwest, despite the designer’s connection. (The line’s hashtag is #harlynbabes for a reason.) Stanley’s designs have been favorited by the likes of Beyoncé and Lena Dunham, but exactly zero Minnesota boutiques have picked her up aside from the few items
available at Anthropologie. Stanley for her part still has mad Minnesota pride and returns home relatively often to visit family. Dad Randy is a mover and shaker at Parasole Restaurant Holdings and the mastermind behind Manny’s Steakhouse; Maria visited in June to fete the opening of his new high-end Wayzata bistro, 6Smith. She has a particularly special relationship with her mom, Dee, a fellow artistic spirit who taught her how to sew and encouraged her fanciful fashion dreams. For the spring 2014 collection, Maria included a sly tribute to Mom: a dreamy open-tie rayon trouser ($261) and matching ruffle-trimmed crop top ($187). She took the fabric from a summer dress her mom sewed in high school: orange, red and lemon-yellow poppies on a creamy pale background. “When I showed her the photos, she just cried,” Maria says. “That one’s special for sure.” Look for the Harlyn label at Anthropologie at the Shops at West End, on Grand Avenue, and at 50th & France.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAIMIEE MORSE
I
n high school, Maria Stanley would go to the Big Dollar Store in Forest Lake and buy armloads of clothes — the gaudier, the better: belted dresses from the eighties in block prints, Big & Tall men’s shirts dotted with Hawaiian pineapples, batiked wrap skirts with moons and stars. Then she would rip them up and make new constructions: strappy dresses and camisoles, maxi skirts, and rompers. Today, the 26-year-old does essentially the same thing, but the pay is much better (up from zero). Seven years after graduating from Forest Lake Area High School, the fashion wunderkind is the sole designer for Harlyn, a Los Angeles–based label sold in more than 125 independent boutiques, including shops in Kuwait, Japan and Australia. During its debut season two years ago, the line was picked up by Neiman Marcus. Several of her designs are featured at Anthropologie, where Harlyn is a top seller. For Stanley, the line’s heart and soul has always been the prints. What makes her look stand out is the juxtaposition