Gabrielle Union’s New York & Company Line Finally Launched

Gabrielle Union has been a style icon ever since her days as Clovers cheerleader. As perfectly demonstrated by her and her super chic husband Dwayne Wade’s recent appearances at Paris fashion week, this sartorial savvy duo have never shied away from a bold, risk-taking look. And now the actress has brought that same high-end sensibility to her new clothing line in collaboration with NY+CO that after months of teaser photos and seeing the pieces effortlessly styled into Union’s everyday wardrobe has finally launched online and in NY+CO stores today. The Gabrielle Union Collection will feature 51 pieces in total, with seven designs sold exclusively online that range from work-ready basics to more casual weekend looks, all of which can be mixed and matched for any occasion. And if all that wasn’t enough reason to get your wallet out, everything in the collection except outerwear will retail for under $100 in a super inclusive size range of 0-20. PeopleStyle spoke with the Being Mary Jane star to find out how her personal style helped shape this new collection.

While Union has had a long and significant career in Hollywood, attending an endless stream of award shows, film premieres, and events, when asked what her favorited look of all time is she admits, “Generally, I love all of them, but it’s usually the last red carpet is the best red carpet.” Make sense considering it’s probably difficult to keep all of those fabulous outfits straight. Union continues, “I’m like what are we going to do now? I mean, we just killed it. What are we going to do.” Though she admits, “the last big one was probably CFDA, the Rodarte coat? Everything. I’m chasing the dragon I don’t know what we’re going to do next. But now it’s this, this is my next red carpet moment.”

It’s also hard to keep track of your favorite looks when your personal style is constantly changing and developing. While Union describes her current style as, “all over the map,” she adds, “I used to really be…I wanted to be safe, I wanted to be liked, I didn’t want to stand out I just wanted to look nice and presentable and I didn’t want anyone to point me out for, what was it? ‘When Bad Clothes Happen to Good People.’ I lived in fear of that segment in the magazine.”

But one day all of that changed, she explains, “I just got to this really great place in life wher I was like F it, I don’t care, I just dressed for my mood for that day. And I started to work with Thomas Kikos and he was like, can we just go there? Can we just try different stuff? He’s like if you don’t like it you don’t have to wear it and I started trying stuff and I loved how I felt and then we just started looking through images and getting fashion muses, having fashion muses and trying different stuff and then developing like my own style and I literally goes from my drop crotch joggers and emebellished pants to always having a statement outerwear.”