By Kristen Heinzinger

Another Missoni is getting into the fashion game! Teresa Missoni, Angela Missoni’s daughter, partnered with Eloquii for a 24-piece summer capsule for sizes 12+ that launches today. While she’s been creating pieces for herself for years, this is her first official foray into ready-to-wear. With seashell prints, stripes, and fish prints on an array of silk crepe, cotton, and chiffon fabrics, the collection has a strong nautical theme but draws most of its influence from prized items in Teresa’s own wardrobe from her travels around the word. We caught up with the jet-setting beaut—who just welcomed her first baby!—while she was in New York to get the scoop on her first collection.

This is your first official ready-to-wear gig, but how often do you design pieces for yourself?
Almost all of the time! I always change something. Most of the time I design my own dresses for special occasions. There’s a dress I designed for myself with shells that was supposed to be for a carnival party in Venice. I was sick and I couldn’t go, so I wore it to Cannes.

You’ve brought along a few pieces that inspired the collection. What’s the story behind these?
I collected many things from my travels. [There are pieces from] India, things from the ’60s/’70s. I love the idea of nightgowns. There’s a piece from Dries van Noten that I bought in Sardinia, and I always wear it. There’s something from Ibiza by a friend.

How did your family’s aesthetic and legacy inform your own design process?
For this collection, there is nothing typical Missoni. But of course, my family influenced my aesthetic. I grew up in the countryside, near the factory, and as a kid I would go there to play with the textiles. It was a game in the beginning, but then it became a passion. I am very lucky because I got to see the more romantic side of fashion, which we don’t really see all the time. Most of the times you have a design team in a different place from the factory, but we have it in the same place, so I can see the design the next day. It is really important for me to be a part of the process.

What went into designing this collection with Eloquii?
I had a visual education. I have always seen all these beautiful things and I love beautiful things, which can be dangerous [Laughs]. Great quality was very important to me. I always need to touch the textile and it needs to feel pleasant. I tried to translate that in the collection, and I also thought that it was something missing in plus size. I wanted something high-quality, but not at a high price. I wanted to create timeless pieces that could be adaptable to different situations.

How did the partnership come about?
I was looking to do something on my own when Eloquii asked me to do this collaboration. I love what my family has done, but it was important for me to do something with my imagination and try to see what I could do without the patterns that I am used to using—to be free and to design whatever I would like. And I always thought that there was something missing in the plus size market. I wanted to give this community something that they had never had before, that was made just for them. 

It’s inspired largely by your travels. What’s the last trip that you took?
I went to Sardinia, which is very close to Milan by plane. The last trip I have strong memories of is India. I went with my grandma [Rosita Missoni] and two of my closest friends, and we had so much fun. For her, it was like being on a school trip [Laughs]. She was with three young girls, and before leaving, my mom called her and told her, ‘You know mom, you’re not taking the girls—the girls are taking you! So be open!’ [Laughs] She had so much fun. We went by car. We did a trip in Rajakhstan, and we were there for 10 days. Between there and Africa, where I also went with my grandma last year, it’s one of the trips that influenced my vision for the collection.

Where did you travel to in Africa?
I was in Cape Town for Design Indaba festival. My grandma was speaking. They have some of the most interesting people from the design world speaking. I would love to go back every year! While we were there, we managed to go to the Cape of Good Hope to see the penguins. But visually, India is the one that inspired me most for this collection.

So where to next?
Wherever my baby takes me—I’m not making plans yet!