Selena Gomez’s New Puma Collection Is Full of Hidden Messages

Selena Gomez’s New Puma Collection Is Full of Hidden Messages

During the beginning of the year, Selena Gomez teased some upcoming projects she was particularly excited about and today she’s revealing one: Her second collection with Puma—and one of her most personal design projects yet.

Gomez’s latest for the athletic brand draws from her own life—her work, her style, and her hometown. Even the color palette she helped refine was inspired by a photo of the sun setting in Grand Prairie, Texas, where she grew up.

“I took a picture of this sunset and I thought it was absolutely breathtaking. I loved the colors and how they all kind of faded together. So I said, ‘How do we make these colors exist in the line?’ Because I just thought they were beautiful. We were able to take fragments of the colors and put that in,” Gomez says. “Where I’m from was so important to me. What I love to do is show that I’m proud that I’m from Grand Prairie, and I’m proud of being a Texas girl.”

Another recurring theme in Gomez’s design: Subtle Easter eggs and hidden messages to her fans. Her first collection with Puma included sports bras with “Strong inside and out” written inside; in her line for Coach, she wrote “Not perfect, Always me” in some of the pieces. “I’ve put everything from some of my tattoos, my birthdate, the coordinates of my hometown—even working with Lupus and having an artist create a box for a shoe that I release where some of the proceeds are able to go to that. I try to find original ways of doing it,” she says. “Every single that I do in my career and my life, I just feel so grateful. So most of the time, I try to put a little piece of me in [it].”

And Gomez knows her fans can’t get enough. “They’re so supportive. I have such a good relationship with my fans at this point. It’s nice.” In this spring 2019 drop, specifically, shoppers will find the names of cities that are important to her (Grand Prairie, Los Angeles, New York, and Herzogenaurach, Germany, where Puma HQ is) and their coordinates; her birth year and that of when Puma was founded; a semicolon (a callback to her tattoos); plus the sunset-inspired color palette.

In terms of her personal style, Gomez says she’s had “a lot of years of transitioning and transforming,” but what she keeps coming back to is a classic, more streamlined look. “I love trying new things, but I generally love pieces that I feel very sophisticated, sexy, and classy in. I personally don’t want anything that’s too distracting,” she says. Her mood will often dictate what she wears. “I like to be chill. I don’t overthink anything. I’ll put things together randomly—put on a sweater, throw on a belt with it, maybe wear a skirt or something. It just depends on where I’m at, mentally. I mean, half of fashion is being confident, I think.”

That could mean an elegant, black V-neck dress by Dior for a red carpet, or it could mean leggings and sneakers to go to a theme park with friends. Gomez doesn’t concern herself with what might be photographed or people might think: “You could see me with ankle weights on, with a big hoodie, eating a turkey leg—which happened to me [last week]—and I just don’t care. When I have to [turn] it on, I can, and I’m grateful I have a great team, but I don’t need to worry about that stuff.”

“I go through periods where I’m absolutely in love with fashion, and then I go through periods where I’m like, ‘I don’t know what to wear, I don’t know what’s cool.’ And I’m going to just do my own thing,” Gomez adds. Right now, she can’t think of one specific source of inspiration that’s inspiring her style, but she does have one trend she can’t get enough of, evidenced by her recent red carpets: “I do know I love barrettes. I’m obsessed.”

Back to the Puma collaboration: The pieces in the spring assortment are aligned with what you’d probably expect to see Gomez wearing—easy, cozy separates that lend themselves to long days and lots of travel, but still grab the eye. “I love baggy things. I love wearing sweats. Sometimes I’ll find cool ways to dress it up: I’ll wear black tights and have yellow socks on with a white shoe, and then I’ll put a sweater on,” she says. “Sometimes I’ll do that, or just wear straight sweats.”

SG x Puma also allows fans to buy into Gomez’s style at a more affordable price point—starting at $12 for socks at capping out at $120 for footwear. (Apparel ranges from $35 to $80.) Don’t be surprised to see Gomez wearing the pieces in the celebrity-signature high/low fashion. She’s a fan of the styling method: “I’ll wear a great leather jacket with something that’s simple. I have very few staples of things from designers I love, a few Louis Vuitton things that I’m obsessed with—I’ll just add that on.”

If you want to start taking guesses as to what products from the line she’ll be spotted wearing first (our money’s on the romper), take a look at every single piece in the SG x Puma spring 2019 collection, ahead.

Published at Wed, 15 May 2019 15:00:00 +0000