The A/W 'Sleepwalking' collection

Kate and Laura Mulleavy, the sibling design duo behind ultra hip New York label Rodarte are almost as famous for their weird ways as they are for their folksy cool collections. Their quirks are becoming legendary: from horror movie binges to inspire their collections, their refusal to wear high heels, to the fact they actually allowed Anna Wintour put them on a diet! Laura recently gave an interview to the Opening Ceremony blog and threw us Rodarte fans some more tantalising scraps. Yay!

She explained that the all white, A/W collection was inspired by ‘sleepwalking’ and ‘being Mexican-American and growing up and having a combination of cultures in your house.' It gets stranger. ‘If you were sleepwalking, you wouldn't really be getting dressed normally--you'd just grab stuff,' Laura explains somewhat cryptically. And, we suppose, if you lived in an American-Mexican household, where the bits and pieces around you are quite interesting, then you’d quite feasibly end up wearing such an outfit.

The Seventies-inspired S/S '11 collection

Also, being fashion designers seems to have greased the wheels for the sisters to become involved in their other great passion – the movie industry. The Mulleavys have created breathtaking costumes for the new Darren Aronofsky movie Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman. ‘It's basically a ballet horror film . . . It's like a whole Swan Lake with a demon and everything, it's really cool. I think when you see it, you're gonna freak out,’ says an excited Laura. And it gets even better. The sisters met their great hero, George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars himself!  ‘Oh yeah. We got to stay at George Lucas' house, so you can imagine! . . . we did a big tour of the archives. They own all the costumes! Every storm trooper--they have it. All there. Not lying. It's incredible. All the Chewbaccas just standing there and the Darth Vaders and R2D2 and the original Yoda. And then we watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, my favourite TV show ever.’

Curiously when the interviewer asked Laura if she ever wears Rodarte pieces herself, the response was, ‘No. Not once. I think that would be very weird. I probably wouldn't wear any of the stuff I make.' Not unless, perhaps, she was sleepwalking, and had left some samples lying around!

- Naomi Attwood