Candice Huffine in her collaboration with Fortnight. Photo: Lily Cummings for CH x Fortnight
Somewhere, out in the fashion universe, there’s a stylist who accidentally had a hand in sparking supermodel Candice Huffine‘s latest project: a collaboration with Fortnight lingerie. Said stylist put a Fortnight bra on a rack of clothes for a shoot, and that one pull would turn out to be a bit of fashion fate.
“I zeroed in on this and I was like, ‘I will not leave until I find out what this is and how I can have it,'” she says. And have it she did: Huffine has since kept the Fortnight longline bra and high-waisted brief styles — in black, natch — in her modeling kit, landing it in three more fashion editorials, wearing it out to parties and proudly tagging it on Instagram. “I found that if the stylist didn’t have my size or wanted to add a lingerie element, this is something that I felt my best in,” she explains.
One of those Instagrams caught the attention of brand founder Christina Remenyi, who says she already had Huffine on her inspiration board. Remenyi had never done a creative collaboration before, but reached out to the model for a meeting to see if a partnership could work out. It was the fashion version of love at first sight. “I was so blown away by [Candice’s] sense of power and determination to speak to the things [she] speaks to,” Remenyi says. “I remember thinking at the moment, ‘This is going to be bigger’; we were both really connected on the vision and the story, and creating something honest.”
Candice Huffine at the launch of her collaboration with Fortnight. Photo: Courtesy
The vision was a lingerie collection that would make women feel empowered and fill a gap in their wardrobe between their functional lingerie and their sexy lingerie. Both Huffine and Remenyi had a woman in mind during the design process: Someone who is cool, confident and bold. The collaboration took a little longer than expected to fully develop, but only because the pair was so committed to getting everything right, from the messaging down to extending the sizing.
“In a way, I feel like I overcomplicated it, because I wanted it to go beyond just a color palette,” Huffine says. “I wanted it to have a story or a message that women can feel something from, because I feel a certain way when I put on Fortnight lingerie.”Â
“It was great to get Candice’s support,” Remenyi responds. “[She was] calm and centered and assured me that everything is going to get done when it’s going to get done. It was nice to feel like there was no timeline.”
That messaging of women empowering each other carried through every element of the collection. “That opportunity probably isn’t as frequent as it should be or as welcomed as it should be,” Huffine says. “I think women are trained to be pitted against each other or to be in competition with each other.” The results are a collection of beautiful lingerie hand-made by women, for women. The duo tapped photographer Lily Cummings to shoot the lookbook. Even the leopard spots were hand-painted by a female artist; they’re the key point of Huffine and Remenyi’s empowerment message.
“There was one line I kept repeating through the process, which is, ‘A leopard never changes its spots, and a woman should never change who she is, ever,'” Huffine says. “I hope when she puts that on, she feels that.”Â
See the full Candice Huffine x Fortnight collection, which is available to shop now:
Homepage photo: Lily Cummings for CH x Fortnight
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