Tova Celine: All About Prints
After nearly a decade-long hiatus, Tova Celine has resurrected her line of printed silk dresses. Celine was known in the late 1980s and 1990s for refashioning traditional prints, for instance, rendering an Indian paisley design in an offbeat electric purple-and-lime color combination.
She shuttered her Tova Celine dress line and her activewear line, BBC Rags, in 2002 to work asdesign director for the launch of Bebe Sport. Celineresurfaced with Butterfly Dropout in 2004, a line of knits treated with burnout, prints and sublimation that is sold at stores such as Fred Segal and Nordstrom.
“We decided that it was time again,” Celine said, and she relaunched Tova Celine dresses for Spring 2008 with the same quirky artisticvintage and traditional folk-print aesthetic as its original run.
Celine is a co-owner of Sublimation Factory/TSF in Los Angeles, which owns and produces Butterfly Dropout. Unlimited access to all the production puzzle pieces in a vertical operation—a print machine, sewers, a sublimation factory, an embroidery facility and a wash house—has allowed Celine to “be more inventive” on Butterfly Dropout’s treatments and Tova Celine’s original prints.
She shows a Tova Celine maxi dress that has each tier of the skirt made from a different fabric print. There is a pair of clouds, a row of peacock feathers and a banner that reads, “Love Is the Answer.”
“I can design a panel, or I can do just one big picture in a dress. And I can build my print to fit in my dress,” Celine said. “This is kind of the ultimate couture approach. You have no limitation, so you can be extravagant.”
Celine’s print inspiration is an eclectic mixture of nature, fine art, folk art and vintage styling. Fan corals and seahorses, art nouveau patterns, and ethnic prints in pumped-up colors adorn her Spring hippie dresses.
Tova Celine is sold in contemporary stores, including Barneys New York, which also bought the line in its first incarnation. Wholesale prices range from $80 to $120.
For more information, call (213) 629-2493. —Rhea Cortado
