Petra Collins’s Latest I’m Sorry Collection Was Made for Runaway Brides

Collins approached the new I’m Sorry collection—which features leather hot shorts, chunky beaded necklaces, and trompe l’oeil minidresses—as the first part of a film trilogy. She didn’t see Wade merely as a designer she was working with, but as a “costume designer” she’d hired. The next two drops will be with other designers, who Collins says will play the same role: “They’re going to design costumes for this ‘film.’ ”

As for the protagonist of the collection’s story, she says, “Maybe this is someone getting married, or maybe she’s already married. She’s either marrying her best friend on summer break and they’re going buck wild—or she had married someone, and she’s escaped and she’s now going on a crazy bender.”

Either way, when she and Wade were crafting the wedding dress, it had to be something the bride could theoretically escape in. “We turned it into basically my ’80s fantasy wedding dress, but also made it sexy and short and almost cheerleader-like, so our character can run away,” Collins says. After that, they began to wonder: “Okay, well, what does she need for the rest of her trip?” Obviously, the answer was a silver leather bikini top and matching hot pants with “HELP” written on the butt in studs.

That kind of humorous cheeky genius is apparently what results when you are inspired by images of Isabelle Adjani in Possession and also Japanese horror cartoons and some creepy dolls. The 1999 film Drop Dead Gorgeous also provided creative fuel. “[Mimi] and I both loved that scene where [Kirsten Dunst] is wearing that little dress with the sash—and our sash says ‘I’m sorry’ in rhinestones, and this fabric is a gorgeous cotton gauze fabric. It actually looks really good wet. We thought, Okay, maybe [our protagonist] is going to a wet T-shirt contest. Everything has a little twist.”

So who, exactly, is Miss I’m Sorry? “It’s me! I’m the person!” Collins says. But, she adds, “I think it’s also someone who really doesn’t take themselves too seriously. That’s something that is also a through line in all of the collections: It’s humor. It’s a shopper with humor. Which is really important, because I love fashion and I love clothing—I think it’s important to take it seriously … but I also think that it’s really important to have humor about it. We’re putting these garments onto our bodies, and it’s just messy and fun. Miss I’m Sorry is a little crazy and a little humorous, loves to shop!”

She is also, apparently, someone like Addison Rae, who stars in the campaign shot by Collins and Richard Kern alongside models Liana and Janice, whom Collins has worked with extensively throughout her career. Rae stood out to Collins for this campaign because of how much star power she possesses—which Collins wasn’t even aware of, until she saw Rae crossing the street one day in Los Angeles. “I immediately was like, ‘Whoa, I didn’t know that’s what this was,’ ” the artist says. But Collins also admits she loves to tap into pop culture. “I like mixing a lot of worlds. And I think [Rae is] so interesting because she obviously started on TikTok at the dawn of it, and what she’s done since is wild. What’s amazing about her is, she’s really humorous. I think she doesn’t take herself too seriously. That’s what an I’m Sorry girl is. Like, it couldn’t be someone that did that same thing and then was serious about it.”

So this girl is, ultimately, the kind who buys a wedding dress—maybe not for a ceremony, but for a wet T-shirt contest. And of course, she can now buy the perfect dress for that occasion on Ssense, straight from the mind of Petra Collins.

The latest I’m Sorry by Petra Collins collection is now available to shop on Ssense.

Tara Gonzalez is the Senior Fashion Editor at Harper’s Bazaar. Previously, she was the style writer at InStyle, founding commerce editor at Glamour, and fashion editor at Coveteur.