Every prolific fashion designer is known for their signatures. Elsa Schiaparelli brought “Shocking Pink” to runways, while Coco Chanel distinguished herself with clean lines, tweed suits and the ever-relevant “little black dress.” Key players in Nashville’s fashion scene are no strangers to these identifying marks — and Laura Citron sets herself apart with glitter, vibrant colors and all things avant-garde.
“My mantra is ‘fashion is fantasy,’” she says. “It’s the idea that you shouldn’t wait until the special moments to wear the special occasion dresses. Every day that you’re alive is the occasion, and you are the occasion.”
Sequins And Denim
In her latest collection, Citron amps up her glitzy, maximalist style. While all her collections are seasonless, her latest pieces are fitting for a spring release, featuring “light, airy fabrics that are mixed in with some heavier sequin [and] glitter-punching fabrics.” Her flowy, patterned gowns and shimmering jumpsuits are sure to make a statement at your next gala or cocktail party.
For the first time, she’s also incorporated more laidback pieces that, while colorful and patterned, can be worn day-to-day — not just at upscale events. “I always say, ‘Throw on a sequin jacket with jeans on a Tuesday night, and go to dinner,’” she says.
Like all of Citron’s designs, each new piece is attentively crafted, often featuring hand-beaded embellishments. When working on her collection, she found several raw fabrics with interesting prints. To make the colors fit within her style, she had them hand-dyed, creating one-of-a-kind textiles that can’t be found anywhere else.
“A lot of my customers are peacocks — musicians, or just people who don’t want to wear anything that anyone else is wearing,” says Citron. “So when I tell them that this fabric was created in-house, it really speaks true to what they are looking for.”
Classic Quality
But style isn’t her only focus. Enamored with ’60s and ’70s fashion, Citron seeks to bring back the quality she thinks has been lost over the years. “There were so many details that were lost in the past and design elements of quality that have gone away, like lining things or putting a dart [or a] pleat,” she says. “Those tiny things can make such a big difference in the way a garment falls and drapes on you.”
Fabric-covered buttons, intricate linings and elegant vintage-inspired silhouettes distinguish Citron’s designs from other retro-inspired labels. Her admiration of yesteryear’s fashion sparked early at her childhood home in Louisiana.
“As a child in my mom’s closet, [I’d say], ‘I don’t understand why people don’t wear these clothes all the time,’” she says. “They gave me so much joy, so I just thought if people had more of these, then maybe they would feel the joy that I feel.”
This joy is key to Citron’s design philosophy. (She doesn’t call her style “dopamine dressing” for nothing.) “When you wear a bright color, you get a literal pop of dopamine in your brain that makes you happy,” she says. “And other people who see that happy color on you have a little pop of dopamine in their brain. It’s truly feel-good fashion.”
Citron’s dopamine-inducing pieces often glimmer onstage at concerts and on red carpets (most recently, at the 2026 Academy Awards). Her partner, Andrew Clancey, brings similar delight to these spaces through his renowned fashion line, Any Old Iron.
It Takes Two
Citron and Clancey have both a personal and professional relationship, often serving as each other’s creative collaborators. “We’ll be working together all day long on our collections, and then we come home, and we keep talking about our collections,” says Citron. “I know that can sound ridiculous and exhausting, but it doesn’t feel that way when it’s exciting to you.”
The couple debuted their latest collections in tandem at a release party in March at the Any Old Iron storefront downtown. The evening also featured an exhibit of photographs that Paris-based James Isaac Jones shot of Citron’s past collections.
While Citron and Clancey’s lines are both known for being retro, ornate and larger-than-life, they’re distinct from one another. Citron describes her style as “feminine-inspired disco Studio 54 glam,” while she considers Clancey’s “more rock-‘n’-roll-inspired, edgy [and] hard.”
But she admits that she and Clancey have subconsciously influenced each other’s creative eyes. “I think it’s sort of like designing with your best friend,” says Citron. “And it’s so nice having someone to springboard ideas off of constantly. We do that all the time.”
Philanthropic Fashion
Citron and Clancey often pair up to support philanthropic organizations, including Nashville Humane Association. They’ve coheadlined the beloved Cause for Paws fundraiser and most recently strutted down the runway with furry friends at this year’s Unleashed (see page 75). “I’m happiest when I can incorporate fashion and philanthropy,” says Citron.
Citron also serves on the board of Fashion is for Every Body, a cause dedicated to making fashion more inclusive and accessible for people of all backgrounds and physical abilities. The organization provides size- and ability-inclusive resources for designers, aiming to shape the industry’s future by highlighting the needs of underserved demographics.
“I can understand how some people think fashion can be superficial and superfluous — and it can be — but for me, fashion has always been empowerment,” she says. “My goal with fashion has always been making people feel good about themselves. That’s when I feel like I’m doing my very best work.”
In working with Fashion is For Every Body over the years — often as a featured designer — Citron has learned how to make her own pieces more accessible. “If you have a model who cannot use her hands very well, then you can change from buttons to snaps to velcro — things that are easier to maneuver,” she says. People don’t just leave Citron’s custom fittings with perfectly tailored looks — they also walk away with necessary accommodations that make their clothing easier to wear.
For Citron, fashion is about instilling confidence, joy and dignity — three pillars she’ll surely keep in mind when designing and producing her next collection in a six-month process that will begin once her current collection debuts. “That’s the power of clothing,” she says. “It can be seen as colorful armor.”