I LOVE THE LADIES
The designers I wear daily are women. I don’t wear them because they are women; I wear them because they are good.
I’m sitting here on my couch wearing a several year-old red floral “Henri” shirt by the Los Angeles brand, Doên. I’ve known the sisters behind Doên, Margaret and Katherine Kleveland, for years now. I’ve been been on a hot date with their mom. Anyway, I wear this shirt when I want to feel casual but together, comfortable and pretty.
Turns out I want to feel like that most days. I was looking at my closet last week (either during packing or unpacking, something I still suck at), and what struck me, apart from the obscene profusion of printed shirts, was that it was filled mostly by five brands: Doên, Zimmermann, Maison Mayle (by Jane Mayle), Ulla Johnson and Daniella Kallmeyer. Can you believe it, they’re all chicks!
But I don’t wear their clothes because they are women, I wear them because they are good. And yes, I would wager that because they are women, they know what the ladies want to wear without forcing it, laboring it, making it too damn pointy.
With these designers, you can’t smell the effort. Their businesses are of all sizes: Aussie sisters, Nicky and Simone Zimmermann - after starting business 31 years ago by selling swimwear at a local flea market in Sydney - just sold a majority stake in their business which valued it at a giant $1.8 billion. Ulla Johnson (or “Ulla,” as the ladies who wear her often just say) has a freakish talent with shape and print and a tens of million-dollar business, while the Doên gals, thanks to their gamine clothes and brilliant price point, are, I’m sure are catching up fast.
British beauty and downtown darling (lol, that sounded very Page Six), Jane Mayle opened her legendary NoLita boutique in 1999 before taking a break from fashion for a few years. Revisiting her cult, she came back in 2015, working small scale and super hands on. (Literally, when I’m out in one of Jane’s shirts, at least two women ask me, “Who made that?”)
And Daniella Kallmeyer of Kallmeyer? This is weird but go with me, we met in 2009 on a fashion competition show (novel concept!) called The Fashion Show that was hosted by Iman and Isaac Mizrahi and I was a spare part. Daniella, who was a baby but had a quiet self-confidence, came in second. Well, she got going, opened a studio and eventually a store on the Lower East Side and now makes the most perfect suiting, trousers, shirts, and cult jeans that are fluid as what you bring to them.
All these women – who are, above all, lovely, creative and good people – have my respect because they have worked modestly and consistently in an incredibly wearing (pun intended) business. They all have their communities: Zimmermann’s floral, ruffled lovelies, Ulla’s bohemian rhapodizers, Doen’s vintage loving filles, Jane Mayle’s silky downtown denim girls, and Kallmeyer’s low-key but knowing grown-ups.
Meanwhile, opening in December, The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s next exhibition is titled, ‘Women Dressing Women’. This is their blurb: “The Costume Institute's fall 2023 exhibition will explore the creativity and artistic legacy of women fashion designers from The Met’s permanent collection, tracing a lineage of makers from the turn of the twentieth century to the present day by highlighting celebrated designers, new voices, and forgotten histories alike.”
It will be compelling, of course, but made me sigh. Just like International Women’s Day (wow, we get a whole day!?) makes me sigh. Breaking news: I’m aware of women’s history but I yearn for a world when, on calendar-sanctioned occasions, half of the global population doesn’t have to be lumped together to be “celebrated.”
Maybe female designers – so many I admire in addition to this fabulous five - don’t need to be splayed on a museum banner because they’re just getting on with it. Making other women feel great, feel like themselves, but more fetching, better armed, more protected.
And isn’t that where real power lies?
Yes, the part at the end - spot on! Also, thanks for sharing the names of these wonderful designers.
we must also hail our sister jj martin of la double j. and god i miss anne valerie hash's line. and how about isabel marant? honestly her stuff never gets old. that there are too many to fit in your word count is a GOOD THING.