Color is back! Walking into Partow’s Manhattan studio you were immediately greeted by shots of true blue and borderline-neon California peach on the racks—a welcome breath of fresh air after three collections in an austere, mostly black and white palette. For the last year or so, Nellie Partow has been working on a photographic project—shared on Partow’s social media channels—that highlights some of the incredible women who wear her clothes, including several legendary artists, a chef, an actor, a PR executive, and a museum director. “I feel a lot of personal inspiration from who we dress,” she explained. “I find their lifestyles to be fascinating, I find what they do for a living to be fascinating; and so I always want to also support the true functionalities in their life.”

These working women inspired her to look into the history of workwear, which translated into sturdy—and groovy—wide-leg canvas trousers hand-dyed in the aforementioned shades of true blue and peach, and a zip-up track-inspired jacket in water-repellent canvas with a slightly voluminous shape. In contrast, her suiting this season was soft and collapsed, in a satin-finished silk blend with a slinky feel on the body—communicating power but without restricting.

Rounding out the offering were a series of ultra-soft cashmere t-shirts and sweaters made from her specially developed yarns that don’t pill (really), a couple of her signature easy dresses in tech-y fabrics, and, for her jet-setting women, a pair of bonded cashmere trousers with a drawstring waistband (ok, you could call them sweatpants but that would really be doing them a disservice). “These women work hard, they’re in challenging roles, and I want to support them. I want to make sure they can feel a level of ease and power in what they wear, and most importantly to feel like themselves.”