It's no secret to those who know me that I am a Target lover. Lover might be an understatement, actually. Fanatic?

Hardly a week goes by when I don't step foot into one of the red-accented stores. As a teenager, I spent many an afternoon browsing the home decor aisles with friends (their design is so spot-on!), dreaming of the day I'd ship off to college or move into my own apartment. Okay, enough of Maxine and Target: A Love Affair.

Target started up its Go International designer collaboration program back in 2006, when I was abroad in England. I was in the midst of some sort of fashionista stage then, stupidly "reading" Vogue and familiarizing myself with the supermodels en vogue at the time (that would've been the "aliens": Gemma Ward, Lily Donaldson, Heather Marks, Jessica Stam, Devon Aoki ... some of whom are still modeling. I have seen 2 of these girls in person on more than 2 occasions, and I have seen one of these girls' brothers on more than one occasion. The world, it is small.) This phase was likely induced by hanging around so many dressed-up British teenagers. In my 150+ student Psychology class, I saw girls saunter into class wearing what must've been last night's makeup and clubbing outfit -- hey ma, no back to my top! Yeah, I saw things I probably would never have seen in an American classroom there.

In any case, I had some Luella Bartley goods shipped to my parents' home. For some reason, I really thought I could start some sort of collection with these Go International goods. I did pretty well, skipping only Tara Jarmon ... until it got out of hand. Any sort of collecting can get expensive, but I was starting to accumulate more dresses and skirts than I could wear. I owned a Proenza Schouler for a few days until I let it go. I wanted a couple of Behnaz Sarafpour pieces, but I didn't quite like any of them enough in person. Even though my track record in collecting a piece from every collection has been far from perfect, I still get more excited than I should when a new designer is announced. Even though my burgeoning fashionista days are over.

Late to the game as ever, I just found out that Missoni is the new designer this fall! And over 400 pieces have been created for Target, including bed sets, children's clothing and plateware. I like that Target's started doing broader collaborations ... Calypso and Liberty of London took a similar route. While I wouldn't usually go out of my way to admire a Missoni design, some of these look pretty fun. These are some of my favorites:

I am potentially feeling the blouse here, and the skirt. And the hat. Not bad for a mish-mosh of crazy prints and patterns, really.



Depending on the material, the robe looks like it has potential. I also like the shorts in the photo on the left.







You can view the entire collection online here.


I've been wanting a bicycle (virtually useless in New York City), but can you imagine me riding through city streets on that thing? I'd be a creamsicle-colored blur!