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Rachel Zoe Channeled Her Celebrity Girl Gang for Her Newest Collection: How Jessica Alba, Chrissy Teigen and More Inspired the Pieces

Find out how her A-list friends helped her design the collection.

By Seija Rankin Sep 06, 2017 7:29 PMTags
Rachel Zoe PresentationCourtesy Belvedere

Taylor Swift may have staked her claim to squads, but Rachel Zoe has one of the strongest girl gangs in Hollywood. And, we might add, they go back way longer than the 1989 release. Much like that tour, Zoe's crew turns out for each other constantly, whether it's a movie release or a television premiere or, in this case, a fashion presentation. 

Last night the whole squad showed up the Los Angeles' Sunset Tower to see the unveiling of Zoe's Spring/Summer '18 collection. It was the designer's second time ever presenting on her home turf of the west coast, so her fellow Angeleno A-listers turned out in droves—wearing their favorite pieces from the new collection, of course. 

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Jessica Alba's Fashionable Third Pregnancy

Chrissy Teigen was there, donning a sequined palm print mini dress and jumping around from table to table. Jessica Alba was there, looking radiant in all her expectant-mother glow as she sat with Nicole RichieSelma Blair and Molly Sims turned up, even arriving early to mingle at the pre-show cocktail hour, which boasted signature Belvedere cocktails. 

Jennifer Meyer, ex-wife of Tobey Maguire and BFF to practically all of Hollywood, kept the evening going by prancing down the catwalk with her pals post-show. Even Goldie Hawn came by to see the collection, choosing to mingle with daughter Kate Hudson's friends while the actress is off filming her new movie Sister

It is this group of Hollywood's most stylish women that inspired the exact collection they were all at the hotel to see. Rachel herself explained to E! News that many of her designs come out of daily conversations she has with her girlfriends. She copped to being (happily) hit up for fashion advice constantly, whether it's someone wondering if they look too dress for a certain event or pointing out that they'd really love a certain piece.

"I design my pieces with my close girlfriends in mind," said Zoe. "All the time. I listen to them, I hear them, and I think about the conversations we have." 

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Celebrities' Nontraditional Wedding Dresses

Zoe is explaining the concept for her spring/summer '18 line in a brief moment of free time before the presentation began. If you can even call it free time—she's holed up in the Sunset Tower's penthouse, which is serving as the staging area for dozens of models to get hair, makeup and last-minute fittings. The whole space was surprisingly calm, despite the fact that there were a million things going on. Zoe was even doing double duty as mom-and-designer, pausing all work to FaceTime with her two sons before they went to bed. 

It's a balancing act that she described as "extremely hard," explaining that the first week of school kept them from being at the event to watch their mom's big night. 

"They have school tomorrow, so I don't want them to be out until 10 o'clock, you know?" she says wistfully as she settles back into her seat post-nighttime routine. 

But there is business to be done, and this specific presentation is actually twice as important as usual: On top of showing her spring pieces, the stylist-turned-designer is also debuting her very first bridal line. It's a move that she says came out of years of unintentionally designing wedding dresses. Pretty white dresses had long been a staple in her line (she is the boho queen, after all, and flowy white dresses are the hallmark of a boho wardrobe), and after she began to get word that women were donning her frocks at their own nuptials, she figured it was time to make things official. 

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OMG Moments From Fashion Weeks' Past

"I figured I should make real wedding dresses, but I first asked myself how I was going to do it a different way," she said of the over-saturated bridal market. "I decided to do a dress that doesn't take a year to fit, that doesn't cost $25,000 dollars. And just to make it easy. I think I've always been about making special moments of glamour just easier for women." 

Courtesy Belvedere

And, yes, that girl gang had a whole lot to do with it as well. "So many of the women coming tonight have gotten married in my dresses," she says of the A-list crowd. "And they all said I should do bridal. When I designed the pieces I had them in mind, and there are so many brides that inspire me. Everyone from Poppy Delevingne to Giovanna Battaglia, and two of my closest friends; one got married in her backyard in one of my dresses and she looked so beautiful. Another one got married at the beach. Being part of that moment, for me, was so exciting."

And one actress who isn't actually in the squad, yet may be planning a wedding, one of these days, is more than welcome to join the Rachel Zoe bride tribe. We're of course referring to Meghan Markle

"Listen, she's free to wear one of my dresses!" Zoe said of Prince Harry's girlfriend. "Or I'll custom make something for her." 

We hope you're listening, Meghan.