The fashion set is currently on its semi-annual tour of fashion weeks, from New York to London, and now Milan. The loudest takeaway thus far has been that the media is batshit for Batsheva, a collection of high-necked, long-sleeved, and generously frilled pioneer lady dresses from the New York designer Batsheva Hay. Breathless coverage from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the New Yorker, among others suggests that perhaps the Urban Prairie Girl is on her way to unseating the Silver Lake Shaman (and the Brooklyn Lumberjack before her) as fashion’s current muse.
I recently interviewed The RealReal’s chief merchant, Rati Levesque, about how the company uses data to track the desirability of certain items (Cartier Tanks are having a moment) and adjust pricing accordingly. On a personal note, she mentioned setting up an alert in the app for menswear-style coats from Loro Piana and Dries van Noten—a pro-tip for label-specific fashion hunts, or to find the one that got away from a past season.
Redesigning fashion
The interview with Levesque was one in a new Quartzy series of interviews called Redesigning Fashion that Marc Bain, Annaliese Griffin and I did with leaders in the field—you might call them fashion pioneers—who are forging paths we might barely have imagined a decade ago.
Marc Bain spoke with High Snobiety founder David Fischer, who took it back to the Blogspot days, when he started High Snobiety to share his thoughts about streetwear and sneakers. Today, that blog has grown into a publisher and creative agency with more than 9 million monthly visitors to its site and 2.4 million Instagram followers.
I enjoyed the New Yorker profile of Hay, especially as side-by-side reading with Cathy Horyn’s New York Magazine profile of Rachel Comey, one of my all-time favorite designers of clothing that I actually wear. It’s exciting to watch these women find success by dressing women as they like to dress themselves.
If you’re feeling this pioneer dress thing but can’t get your hands on (or wrap your head around) Batsheva, the California-based labels Doen and Christy Dawn make slightly more accessible versions. And there’s always vintage Laura Ashley on eBay.
Or, look for Ulla Johnson dresses on The RealReal
The RealReal, if you’re not already addicted, is a luxury online consignment site where people can sell the high-end clothes, accessories, and home goods they no longer use to people happy to buy them at a discount. They’ve recently opened stores in New York and Los Angeles, and have worked with over 9 million customers.
Fashion Fairy 