Fresh off working on a collaboration with Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show,” Emily Smith is in a New York state of mind. Marking 30 years, the brand is looking to its home base for inspiration. “We thought a great way to tell the story is to really speak to the women that we’ve been dressing,” she said ahead of her spring preview. Today, of course, the brand is global, but the spring celebration is about something more intimate: “A moment just to really celebrate New York women,” Smith said.
Held high above the city, Smith took a page from The New Yorker’s use of its cartoons: She commissioned cartoons based on her sketches, imagining them in the real world and then naming each look after one of the city’s diverse groups of female archetypes, putting the brand and the city that never sleeps in an affectionate dialogue.
“Everybody thinks New York is so serious, but there’s such a light side when you live here. And I like to bring that to other people,” she said.
She imagined a full wardrobe, a bit pared back for the season, boiled down to the ease and love of fabrication the brand has made its bedrock. A full-length linen-twill dress in white with a cotton-silk sweater tossed over her shoulders was ideal for her “Culinary Purist,” while a leopard-print matching jacket and shorts was seen on her “Central Park Strollers.”
She hand-painted depictions of Manhattan pieds-à-terre on a white silk-twill day dress and scarves, adding a polished whimsy. Each mannequin had a few other New York City icons as accessories, with Metro Cards peeking out and a “have a nice day” handbag shaped like a classic to-go plastic bag. For night? A hand-knit black dress with chiffon ribbon woven through to add a tiny bit of shine, while the chiffon jumped out of the base of the skirt, adding volume.
Following her customer’s life, she imbued that classic Lafayette 148 “undone-ness“ throughout. It’s an ease that adds personal touch, like on a button down in lightweight Italian wool. “It’s just a big, oversize white or boyfriend shirt but the way the buttons are placed, you can wrap it and pin it or button it in the back,” Smith said of the multiple ways to wear the look.
It’s that sort of thoughtful bang for your buck that will cement the brand for 30 more years in their customers’ wardrobes.