Drew Barrymore on Her Dear Drew Clothing Line: It 'Makes Me Happy'
Step into the Dear Drew pop up shop in New York City’s Soho neighborhood and you’ll want to book a vacation — and max out your credit card on pieces to pack for that vacation. But thanks to accessible price points you can shop the store (which Drew Barrymore and her interior design partner Francesca de la Fuente transformed in just three weeks) guilt-free.
“It’s everyone’s dream to have a pop up store, it feels like playing store,” Barrymore told PEOPLE at an opening event for Dear Drew at 14 Crosby. “We threw ourselves into it. When we got this space, it was genuinely a white box. And then I was like, ‘I know, let’s turn it into an interior of a train or an airport — a Pan Am or TWA terminal.”
As with everything Barrymore puts her mark on, accessibility was top of mind when designing her debut clothing line, which features a variety of apparel, jewelry and accessories, at prices ranging from $28 to $248, with a mission to “provide positive inspiration and a grounding voice to all women.”
“Price point is very important to me,” she said. “We know what’s happening on the runway, but we don’t want to charge those kind of prices.”
And Barrymore’s free-spirited style carries through her collection, with modern takes on retro silhouettes.
“Aggressively retro is not really our thing, but timeless and classic and not losing sight of elements that have a romance to them,” she explained. “I have the kind of body type that I have had to learn how to dress where it’s empowering and flattering but I like to cover up a lot of things, cinch at places, sometimes I go flowy and voluminous. It’s about mixing and matching.”
The focus on fit is something Barrymore has become committed to as a result of her work on countless sets and appearances on countless red carpets.
“I grew up in costume houses so I learned various lessons about tailoring from these women who have worked at Warner Brothers for fifty years and can tell you everything about why it was this way in a Western film or why it’s this way in the 1920s and how a dart and a gusset can make something so much more flattering. I just really loved that knowledge.”
And of course she pulled inspiration from all the vintage pieces in her own personal wardrobe.
“I bought so many clothes over the years, especially vintage stuff and tried to rework it in tailoring to suit me,” she shared. “I think there is something very important about the way it fits.”
Her attention to detail can also be seen on the sweet messages like “there’s beauty in everything” sewn into some of the pieces.
“We just like to do details like that — when I take a coat off and look inside, that kind of note makes me happy,” she shared. “And it’s not like the ‘Slay all day’ kind of message, because I’m like, ‘How do you do that?'”
Three of Barrymore’s favorite pieces at the store are the heart fanny pack (which is already sold out, but set for restock), lavender faux fur cropped jacket and the statement geometric earrings. But if you can’t make it to NYC, shop some of our top pics from Dear Drew’s selection at Amazon.
Buy It! Houston ST Tulip Sleeve Plaid Blouse, $68; amazon.com
Buy It! Grand Central Drop Earrings, $68; amazon.com
Buy It! Weekend Cashmere Wrap Top, $131; amazon.com
Buy It! Broadway Tie Neck Color Block Blouse, $68; amazon.com
Buy It! Date Night Clutch, $95; amazon.com
Buy It! Wall St Color Block Trench Coat, $120.57; amazon.cm