T&C Exclusive: Frances Valentine Is Reimagining Slim Aarons’s Iconic Photos in a New Collection

If you’ve ever looked at a Slim Aarons photograph and wistfully thought, “Wow, I wish I could buy those clothes”—well, your time has finally come. In celebration of what would’ve been the legendary photographer’s 110th birthday today, his daughter, Mary, and Frances Valentine co-founder Elyce Arons are announcing a limited-edition capsule collection of designs directly inspired by the outfits displayed in his iconic pictures.

Slim’s sun-soaked photos captured the now-extinct glamour of the mid-20th century that came to define the era. Together Arons and Mary looked through his archive to narrow down the photographs that would be used to inform the collection. They landed on images that showed the photographer’s range: A poolside gathering in Palm Springs (above), on a yacht in Bermuda, and a photo of Slim holding his daughter Mary upside down (below) on the lawn of their home in Bedford, New York.

Slim Aarons//Getty Images

This 1970 photo of a young Mary with her father served as inspiration for the collection.

Officially launching in May 2027—timed for Slim-inspired summer vacations—the limited-edition collection will consist of around 25 pieces, mostly made of cotton. During a joint interview with T&C, Arons said “it’s almost like being able to buy a piece of art in a way and wear it. It exudes a feeling. It’s really colorful and fun, and it’s so reminiscent of those photos. I think so many people would just like to see themselves living that kind of life.

Among the highlights are a white crochet set, a pink floral printed caftan with a matching bucket hat, and a reimagined version of the red-and-white bandana pants Mary wore in the image with her father.

“I loved those pants,” says Mary. “These red bandana pants were a favorite of mine. I’ve joked before to people ‘Oh, I wish I had those pants!’ and now I will.”

Courtesy of Frances Valentine

Sketches of the upcoming collection.

Courtesy of Frances Valentine

“I hope we can do them justice,” adds Arons. “We’re doing a lot of other things in that bandana print, which will be really fun.”

The collection will also include a bag, available in two sizes, inspired by Slim himself—specifically his crossbody camera bag that he carried for years.

“It’s a really beautiful Italian leather,” Arons says. “We were just looking at all of our leather swatches this morning, trying to match them to the perfect color. We’re trying to actually make it in that same patina color, so people can buy it that way.”

Slim Aarons//Getty Images

This 1970 photo of a yacht gathering in Bermuda also inspired the new collection.

Frances Valentine is beloved for its vintage-inspired fashion that takes a page out of the books of style icons, like Mary Tyler Moore, Lucille Ball, and Jackie O., but the pieces have a joyful modernity—a lot of prints, patterns, and color—that make them timeless. All of this meshes nicely with Slim’s lasting appeal and connection with modern audiences, making this collaboration a natural fit.

This ethos might seem familiar: It traces back to Arons’ first joint venture, Kate Spade, which she co-founded with her late best friend, the brand’s eponymous founder, before the two launched Frances Valentine in 2016.

Courtesy of Mary Aarons.

Mary stands next to her father, Slim, in this photo provided by her.

“We often referenced Slim when we were creating things and our marketing pieces at Kate Spade, because it was a huge inspiration,” says Arons, who notes their love of Slim Aarons photographs went back three decades. “I think it continues to be for so many fashion companies today and artists all over the world.”

Mary revealed that her father and Spade were actually supposed to have lunch in 2006, but it never happened. Before the meeting, he went to ShopRite to run an errand and had a stroke in the parking lot, from which he never recovered. He had intended on giving Spade an altered black and white photo of women in bathing suits in beach cabanas with colorful Kate Spade bags he had inserted with the help of a local photo shop.

The photo never got to Spade, but was instead on his daughter’s wall for 20 years. Mary endeavored to get it into the hands of someone in Spade’s orbit. After one failed attempt, one of Mary’s friends told Arons how she had been trying to get in touch for months. Within 20 minutes, Mary received a call and the rest, as they say, is history.

Courtesy of Mary Aarons.

Mary says that her father had a particular eye for fashion and loved clothes: “We had to get approval on everything we wore.”

This collection, when it’s released next May, will be a love letter to Slim’s photos and fashion. “He had an eye for classics and people who wore classics classically,” Mary says. His photos continue to inspire homage from artists like Taylor Swift, who recreated his photo of partially submerged film star Dolores Del Río on one of the covers for her The Life of a Showgirl album.

She continues, “It's just remarkable to me that there [are young people] who know who he is, what his style was, and what his photographs looked like. He's current, yet he'd be 110 years old on October 29th. So he's probably kind of the hippest, most Instagrammable 110-year-old there is.”

Alicia Kort is a freelance writer and editor based in Brooklyn. She's spent the past five years putting a myriad of products to the test to see whether they're worth money or not. From mattresses to coffee makers, she's dragged it all into her small one-bedroom apartment.

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