Backstory: Iris von Arnim has a car accident to thank for her career in the fashion industry. In the early Seventies, she spent two years holed up in various hospitals in her native Silesia, Germany, after her legs were injured in a collision. With nothing else to do, she took up knitting. The rest is history. Arnim moved to Hamburg, Germany, opened a sweater shop and, by 1979, founded a self-named company that would be known throughout Germany and the surrounding countries — Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Luxembourg and Czech Republic — for its lush cashmere knits. Four years ago, her son, Valentin von Arnim, a former Wall Street banker, joined the company and is making a global push in the U.S. and Asia for fall.
Collection: Knitwear will continue to be the company’s bread and butter. The designs, however, veer “much more modern and sophisticated,” says Valentin von Arnim, whose mother still helms the Hamburg-based firm. “We have this very loyal customer base. But now we have to think about the new generation, who’s looking for something a little sexier and more exciting.” Thus, pullovers feature Crystallized-Swarovski Elements knitted into the shoulders while cardigans feature floral embellishments on the sleeves. The collection still hews to a classic, no-fuss sensibility, too, with the majority of design tweaks in the construction itself. “We’re subtly changing the knit patterns,” explains Valentin von Arnim, “by altering the speed and tensions of knit.”
Stats: The collection wholesales from $300 to $1,200 and will be available at Louis Boston in Boston, Lane Crawford in Hong Kong and Boutique 1 in Dubai.
I also love this look…….the zip ankle pants would prove to be a perfect wardrobe addition for the fall and winter months.
Jonathan Simkhai
Backstory: New York-born Jonathan Simkhai launched his fashion career at 15 when the owner of Habana Jeans in Scarsdale, N.Y., hired him on the spot after watching him style his friends in-store. Simkhai would spend the next three years helping with the buying and window displays. After graduating from high school, Simkhai took design classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons The New School for Design and has since worked at Ravel manufacturing, which is owned by his uncle. “He makes missy clothing for [department stores],” says Simkhai. “We were doing great stuff, but that customer wasn’t my girl. I was hungry to get out.”
Collection: Simkhai works a major borrowed-from-the-boys sensibility, inspired by his female friends who would often dig into his wardrobe. “I thought, let me make them their own pieces, based on the items from my closet,” he says. “Then I have my clothes back and they have their own.” The result is a debut fall collection of men’s wear-inspired offerings, as in a sheath cut from men’s suiting or a zip-up dress shaped like a baseball shirt. There are more humorous notes, as well. For instance, Simkhai adds underwear details (à la men’s briefs) on lamé shorts and long johns bottoms. As for the wire hems in his Ts, they were inspired by a crooked laundromat hanger. “I wanted to incorporate that into the collection to keep giving it that closet feel,” he says.
Stats: Wholesale prices range from $44 to $275. Intermix and Glassworks-studios.com have picked up the line.
This dress appears as though it was taken from the pages of 20′s or 30′s magazine….I’m loving that “vintage vibe.”
Zoe Twitt
Backstory: Melbourne-born Zoe Twitt comes from a fashion family — her parents ran a textile company while her grandparents owned a small dress label. “I was obsessed with sketching from a really young age,” says the New York-based Twitt. But she had ambitions to be an actress, too. So she studied theater and writing at Columbia University and, postcollege, simultaneously enrolled at Parsons The New School for Design and the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. Twitt ultimately chose the design route and launched her collection this spring. “The fashion industry is a lot kinder,” she says.
Collection: “I wanted to create a mélange of Gothic, classic and feminine,” says Twitt, 27. “And there are undertones of the occult.” She uses rock crystal embellishments throughout the streetwise collection — tracing shoulder cutouts, for instance, on a black tunic top. Other motifs include exposed zippers and cutouts that punctuate chunky sweaters and loose chiffon dresses. “A main thing for me is the multifunctional aspect,” she adds. “You can wear [the garments] zipped up or use the cutouts as a second armhole.” Design influences for Twitt include Madame Grès and Maria Cornejo.
Stats: The collection wholesales from $70 to $125 and is available at Searle, Factoriem and Eva in New York.
Kalen twill pants & lambskin jacket; Capro shirt & vest, Francis Klein glasses. The lambskin jacket is another phenomenal piece….the high, ruffled neck makes it all the more appealing.
Kaelen
Backstory: Toronto native Kaelen Farncombe may have studied English literature, but she always knew she was bound for the fashion world. So after graduating in 2007 from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, Farncombe headed to Parsons The New School for Design. While there, she interned at Jenni Kayne and Stella McCartney on the sales and marketing side. “What I took away from those jobs was that the creative aspect was something I was drawn to much more,” she says. Fall marks the designer’s debut collection.
Collection: “I have a classic sensibility,” says Farncombe, “but I’m interested in layering and off-kilter shapes.” The streamlined collection focuses on the dialogue between tailoring and drapery, often in a single garment. Left open, for instance, a leather jacket hangs gently in folds; belted, it creates an exaggerated peplumed silhouette. “A lot of the pieces don’t have sewn-in closures,” she adds. “I wanted my clothes to be something you make personal and style your own way.” Farncombe’s palette, meanwhile, sticks to an urban array of blacks, whites and grays, with the occasional pop of blush and vivid blue. “I’m not a print person,” she says.
Stats: Wholesale prices range from $125 to $385.
Hunter Dixon dress, Guishem shoes (love their shoe designs)
Hunter Dixon
Backstory: Three years ago, Hunter Bell and Jennifer Dixon were two Southern bells sharing an apartment in New York. Bell wanted to be a designer; Dixon, an entrepreneur. They partnered, dispensed with any romantic rags-to-riches notions and approached things pragmatically: Bell took a day job at a hedge fund while whipping up a collection on the side, and Dixon pounded the pavement, securing a few retailers and pitching potential investors. Their hard work paid off: In October, one of the financiers Bell worked with set Dixon up with venture capitalist John Pound, president of Boston’s Integrity Brands Inc., which is investing in the fledgling line.
Collection: Bell’s inspiration comes from her own closet or what she would like to see in it. At present, that’s loads of color and feminine flourishes done within reason. Dresses and tanks have ruffled details and vibrant prints, but Bell and Dixon are tuned into a working woman’s reality, which often entails day-to-night transitions and usually travel. Thus, they have a custom-blouse program of eight styles available in eight colors, that always include black and white. “Basically, after our first collection we found that blouses were the bestsellers,” says Dixon. “You can take them with you anywhere and wear them anywhere.”
Stats: Wholesale prices range from $90 to $200 for blouses and $80 to $250 for skirts, jackets and dresses. The collection is available at Saks Fifth Avenue as well as The Gallerie in Aspen, Colo., Tulipano in Atlanta and House of Eve in Kuwait.
Jane Oh dress, Guishem shoes
Jane Oh
Backstory: Jane Oh was surrounded by fashion practically from the day she was born. Her mother owns the denim manufacturer Stone Blue Inc. in her native Los Angeles. And when Oh, now 30, received a business degree from the University of Southern California in 2002, mom offered her a job at the company, where she spent the next year learning the production and design ropes. “I started making my own clothes,” she says, “and showed them to a buyer for the first time. I showed her, like, 70 things, with no storyline or anything.” The buyer’s reaction? “‘Wow, you don’t know what you’re doing,’” Oh recalls now, with a laugh. That harsh reality check prompted her to enroll at Parsons The New School for Design in 2003.
Collection: Oh culls her inspiration from the posh and polished Fifties, à la Audrey Hepburn. And the designer, who also interned in the accessories department at Marc Jacobs and with the footwear licensee of Michael Kors, knows full well what a cliché it is to name the film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” as her main influence — but it is. “Ever since I was little I always wished we could dress like that, with the gloves and the hats,” Oh says. “There’s just something very sexy and confident about that look.” Her debut collection, to that end, works a Parisian sophisticate vibe with plenty of LBDs, whether sheath-style or poufed, and beribboned jackets, blouses and dresses.
Stats: Wholesale prices range from $68 to $300. Blush and Blink in New York and The Finerie in Seattle have picked up the line.
Capara wool jacket, patent leather and light wool split dress and pants; Guishem shoes
Capara
Backstory: Twins Olivera and Vera Capara, born in Bosnia but raised in Germany, share nearly identical CVs. In 2000, both graduated from The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, where they now beside, and went on to work for Dries Van Noten. After participating in France’s Hyères fashion festival two years later, they launched their first collection, Vera and Olivera Capara, which only lasted a season; by 2003, both sisters were at Maison Martin Margiela, designing for his Artisanal line. They would spend four years there before going their separate ways — Vera to Jil Sande and Olivera, to accessories company Delvaux. “Thank god we had at least a different experience,” says Olivera. “It was very good to see that you’re capable of doing things on your own.” For spring, the two came back together and launched Capara.
Collection: “Innovative yet elegant” — that’s how the sisters would best like to describe their collection. “We want to give the clothes meaning, a concept,” says Olivera, “but still have it be elegant and feminine.” For fall, there’s a major focus on tailoring, in loose, boxy silhouettes reminiscent of Margiela. “It’s natural that you take away these influences,” Oliver remarks, noting that she’s partial to oversized garments herself. Other plays on proportion include jackets with exaggerated asymmetrical hems and half-coat/half-dress hybrids.
Stats: Wholesale prices for the collection range from $100 to $500.
