One year ago, fashion industry veteran Melissa Skoog joined Cartolina and took the reins as creative director from East Coast entrepreneur and founder Margaret Anne Nolen.
Skoog started her career in editorial at Vogue before moving into merchandising (under Mickey Drexler at Banana Republic) and later, serving as vice president of public relationships at Prada before cofounding her now-closed mentorship platform, the Juggl (2020 to 2025), and simultaneously founding her ongoing brand strategy and communications firm, Skoog Productions.
With a year under her belt back with her hands in the product — which the creative director told WWD she has always loved — she opened up about her first fall collection for Cartolina.
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Coming into the brand, Skoog said she reimagined how the team was organized and worked before dipping her toes into design while utilizing the calendarization, product life cycle and editorial trend forecasting skills she honed throughout her 30-plus year career.
“Cartolina started around 2021 and Margaret Ann has a store in Nantucket called Center Point. It started as cashmere sweaters and cover-ups; she got the notion to cover all categories within ready-to-wear, so we’ve gone from a brand that does more speciality item dressing and vanity sizing to standard sizing and fully merchandised,” she explained.
For their New England, coastal-living woman who loves to feel “put together, polished and feminine but not too dressy or formal,” Skoog said the brand designs into four categories: elevated weekend, work to dinner, travel and special occasion.
As seen through the fall 2026 campaign, it’s about feminine, thoughtful details; artful prints and timeless designs meant to be effortless and easy. Highlights of the collection, guided by Skoog’s vision, include windowpane prints, tweed layers and the introduction of animal print faille layers, including a great novelty olive and black trenchcoat, alongside ample feminine floral styles.
“Faille has such a rich texture and holds color and print beautifully. It reminds me of a dirndl skirt I wore during my Prada days often — a great fabric to dress up or down,” Skoog said of the coat. She also pointed out a brown seersucker striped pant with their brand staple Peggy top as well as a navy bouclé cropped Anywhere jacket with an oversized curved lapel and slightly cropped bell sleeve that was designed for trans-seasonal dressing.
The collection, priced $198 to $648, will be available via the brand’s e-commerce, at its Nantucket and New York City stores and at select specialty boutiques and retail partners across the U.S. Currently, the brand delivers four collections a year — spring, summer, fall, holiday — and plans to add a resort collection for the first time in December and a capsule collection in January.
“What’s been so interesting is stepping into this while looking at it from a merchandising lens,” Skoog explained. However, she saw how within the brand’s regime change, the tried-and-true Cartolina customer remains strong and knows what she wants. So she’s been going back into the brand’s archive, which will culminate in its “reintroduction” for spring 2027.
“The next year ahead is really re-exploring and making sure that we are giving her what she is seeking for us — novelty, special details, and not something she can find anywhere else.”
