Lily Aldridge Tries Out Bangs, Surprises Her Model Pals With Her Designs and More From Her Velvet Collection Photoshoot!

The model talks style and beauty and her new collection with PEOPLE

Published on February 24, 2014 02:00 PM

Courtesy Lily Aldridge

Lily Aldridge may be the crop top queen of the red carpet, but in her day-to-day life, she’s much more laid-back. That’s why she took it upon herself to design a collection for Velvet, named after her friends and family, that she herself would love to wear. She shared some exclusive behind-the-scenes photos with us from the shoot for her latest collection and dished on everything from her faux bangs to surprising her model pals with their namesake clothes.

Our first question, of course, was “Is that fringe for real?” Unfortunately she was just having fun for the photoshoot, but she might be sold on the style. “I think I’m going to cut bangs in the next two weeks, I loved them so much,” she told PEOPLE. “I’m definitely low maintenance — [with bangs] there’s a little more upkeep but I’ll do a little bang. I’ve gone short, dark, light.” We’ve got our fingers crossed for the follow-through.

With that out of the way, Aldridge walked us through the collection, pointing out some of her favorites, from the Aziya jacket to the Rita shirt and the Behati crop top — yep, named for fellow Victoria’s Secret Angel Behati Prinsloo. She shared that she loves to wait until the clothes are produced to show her pals the pieces named for them. “I surprise them,” she said. “This collection, Behati inspired a crop top and when we were doing the shoot for it I took a picture of it said ‘This is named for you.’ She wrote back immediately, ‘OMG I love it send me one!'”

In these pics, Aldridge is wearing the Rita top with a vintage belt and jeans for the Topanga Canyon, Calif., shoot, but she says she could easily dress it up for night. “I have amazing Helmut Lang leather pants that I wear all the time,” she said. “Add Jimmy Choo pumps, half tuck [the shirt], put your hair down and add red lip. It’s a super sexy night look.” (Yeah, we’re borrowing that for our next night out. Thanks Lily.)

So who is she hoping to see in her new collection, which just launched on the site? “Any girl could wear it! There’s a piece for everyone,” she says, then adds, “Jennifer Lawrence is my girl crush right now. If she could wear it I’d be happy with that.” We think this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Check out Aldridge’s latest collection here, then tell us: What’s your favorite piece? Do you think she should keep the bangs? Tell us below!

–Alex Apatoff