For their Fall 2011 Rodarte collection, The Mulleavy sisters were inspired by the “Golden Hour” on the Great Plains when the light glows during the hours after sunrise and before sunset. Beyond the mastery of craftsmanship evident in every design, Rodarte creates an entire world in each collection. For me, the best part of New York Fashion Week is anxiously awaiting photos from the Rodarte show to leak out. I always try to guess (impossible, I know) what wildly obscure reference the sisters will have built their latest mind-blowing collection around.

The Mulleavys are not only artistic prodigies, they are smart women who know what true fashion customers want. Their die-hard customers, like Dr. Lisa Airan, are strong, intelligent women who want to feel immersed in an entire world through an article of clothing. Rehashing 1970s beige – season after season – will no longer be tolerated, as those of us who watch fashion closely have recently seen. Rodarte raises the bar for the entire industry.

Having grown up on the edge of the Ozarks right next to the border of the prairie, this is an area close to my heart. Let me tell you about the personal connection I have to the American plains so you will know why this collection in particular means so much to me. I moved to Northwest Arkansas when I was 9 and grew up around a half hour from the border with Oklahoma so my father could fulfill his lifelong dream of owning a cattle ranch. Following your dreams is an important value in my family, which is why my parents are so supportive of this website (despite their strong ambivalence towards fashion).

My parents are both avid skiers and so we went on skiing trips to Colorado two or three times a year. We always drove through Kansas, the heart of the prairie, to get to the ski resort areas surrounding Frisco, Colorado. I have so many memories of hour upon hour just gazing out at the mirage-like expanse of sunflowers and wheat. The prairie truly is a “golden land,” with very little green. The azure blue sky seems more like a dome there than anywhere else I’ve ever been. It feels like an optical illusion. When the storm clouds roll in, it’s as though a wall of black appears out of nothingness. Just like the “storm dress” in the video above. I cannot tell you how perfectly they nailed the references for the entire collection. And it’s not just the “Wizard of Oz” ruby red slippers reference on Kansas-bred Lindsey Wixson.

I also spent every summer during high school helping my dad cut and bail hay to feed the cattle at our ranch during winter. Yes, I can drive a tractor. I can operate a wide variety of farm equipment including arc welders, chainsaws, tetters, tractor rakes, and post hole diggers. I always joke that if the world came to an end, I could survive. My father and I would do entire sections of a hay field at once, him driving the big Ford tractor with the mower attached and me driving the smaller tractor with a tedder behind him, fluffing up the hay before raking it into windrows. As you can see below, the Mulleavys captured the feeling of being in a hay field with their dress below.

Not only is my life visually linked to the imagery of the great plains, but I understand what it means to farm them as well. Giving you a rundown on my Arkie past (oh, the horror!), is completely relevant to this collection because I understood Rodarte’s references at a visceral, spiritual, and intuitive level. I wouldn’t be telling you about my secret past as a farm hand unless I was serious in saying that the Mulleavys complete and totally captured the entire spirit and essence of the plains in a clothing collection. This is why their work is considered art. Because it is art.

I understood immediately that nauseous color of yellow-green in the “tornado dress.” Why? Because everyone who grows up in tornado alley knows that during a tornadic storm the sky turns an eerily sickening shade of vomit before the hail starts punching holes in windshields and shingles start peeling off the roof. That color meant I better collect all my favorite beanie babies from my bedroom (I’m a child of the 90s) quickly before my parents made our family huddle in the basement.

And the storm dress reminded me of a wall cloud, which my mother used to drive me and my brothers to the top of Mount Sequoyah to watch roll into Fayetteville from the Oklahoma plains. Storms usually “cook up” during the day with the heat of the sun and usually arrived just after sunset. The combination of warm and cool air and violently reacts to create supercells.

For me to have this profound of a connection to a designer collection is simply extraordinary. Beyond the artistic and visual splendor of Rodarte Fall 2011, I have a deeply personal attachment. I told Kate Mulleavy all of this when I had the chance to chat with her at Ikram’s 10th anniversary party. She was delighted. Kate told me that she loves to hear from people who grow up in ‘Tornado County’ that they love Fall 2011 because she and her sister grew up in California. They took a risk by referencing a somewhat alien land. To hear from people like me that we “get” the collection and get the references means they succeeded. Yes Kate, you not only succeeded but you continue to elevate the craft of fashion as a true art. “Succeed” seems like such an insignificant verb to describe their profound and ever increasing achievements, but it goes a long way in showing how humble and true to their craft Kate and Laura are.

*All photos courtesy of Style.com: Spring 2008 and Fall 2011

Yes this is a total gushy piece, but I don’t care. I’m allowed to fall in love with clothing. And the Mulleavy sisters.