Last weekend I was really into adding a patchwork madras skirt to my wardrobe. To be honest I remain obsessed with the style. This week I also want to procure another Issa dress.
I say another because back in the early 2010s when Issa was hitting a fever pitch much thanks to Princess Kate, I bought a long black wrap dress with the prettiest of cap sleeves. I subsequently wore it to a friend’s wedding; it was the first second wedding I ever attended with my now husband. You can understand that Issa subsequently holds a special place in my heart and wardrobe.
Tragically, Issa has shuttered since then. From what I gather, like many other brands, Issa was on the brink of bankruptcy in the late aughts. An appearance of the eventual Duchess Kate seemed to revive the brand. Demand for the product overwhelmed Issa, it was unable to pay its factory, and the challenge of scaling up actually crippled it. Despite selling a stake to investors, Issa eventually succumbed to closure in the spring of 2017 and consequently ceased operations.
Do you remember when Issa and Banana Republic collaborated? It was the summer of 2013 and Banana Republic was home to a few fantastic collaborations that year. The collaboration was one of the first ones to offer tall sizing in addition to the standard and petite. In an show of discipline, I actually did not purchase anything from the collection, although when I received the mailer, I lost it and even posted a photo of it to my Instagram Facebook and used the following caption and I quote:
Losing my shit. Upper right – Princess Kate’s Issa dress re-imagined by BR.
What an articulate young lady I was.
Rounding up the Issa / Banana Republic collaboration items on the secondary market:
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