Robin Giles’ inspiration for her athleisure collection “1992” initially started with the themes and concepts in Phillip K. Dick’s 1969 sci-fi novel “Ubik.” Set within a futuristic version of 1992, the characters find themselves attempting to solve a murder mystery while trapped within a deteriorating virtual reality program. Robin has been interested in science and technology since she was young, and finds vintage interpretations of technology to be especially inspiring. With this preliminary inspiration, Robin started brainstorming ways to interpret V.R. and “glitched out tech” visuals into clothing.




One of the linchpins in “1992” is the chartreuse and gray printed fabric that helped set the color story and tone for the entire collection. The print reminded Robin of wire frame art and older, stylized depictions of the inner workings of computers. The fabric is a comfortable and cool athletic double knit, which helped narrow Robin’s focus to creating a very wearable and trendy athleisure collection for men and women.


Confident in her inspiration, color story and fashion category, Robin studied trends and saw that both the 90’s and motorcycle wear and predicted to be popular in the Spring and Summer of 2021. Robin took those concepts and incorporated elements of her V.R. inspiration through garment details and fabric manipulation. Padded and quilted patches on jackets and pants incorporate motorcycle details as well as the line work of the printed fabric and wire frame art. Robin cut and sewed black and white 2” squares together to create contrast panels that suggested a pixelated image. Certain design features are repeated to suggest that parts of the garment were “cut & paste.”


“1992” eventually reached its final iteration as a very wearable, androgynous, casual line that looks appropriate and feels comfortable in a variety of settings throughout the day. The customer for Robin’s line wants to look trendy and creative without sacrificing comfort. For whatever reason, they lead very active lives and need garments that will keep them cool while looking great. Robin is proud of her first collection and is ready to set her sights in a new goal.