Lafayette 148’s creative director Emily Smith is embracing a true cruise narrative for the resort season.
On the heels of opening the brand’s first freestanding Canadian store in Toronto — with additional locations in Florida (in Palm Beach Gardens and Naples), Chicago and Los Angeles in development — the collection smartly offers ample buy now, wear now seasonal wardrobing, for wherever the Lafayette 148 luxury customer is traveling.
Looking for cold-weather statement shearling outerwear and artisanal après-ski Fair Isle knits, or perhaps everyday denim, maritime knits and sophisticated tailoring? The collection has it all. But beyond retail strategy, the true cruise, global mind-set naturally plays into the brand’s heritage and Smith’s reinvigorated pillars. A slightly minimalist, ’90s elan pays homage to the brand’s 1996 inception, while luxe takes on modernist, Americana workwear injects influences from its current Brooklyn Navy Yard headquarters.
For instance, a naval-inspired jacket with a nautical Breton stripe cashmere-silk knit sweater and long, front-slit ’90s-inspired denim skirt, complete with chunky Neoprene platform sandals. Raw indigo denim also played an important role in uniform daywear — like a low-rise, wide-leg jean with color-blocked cool blue and amber brown button-up, or a mixed denim, linen and suede chore jacket with leather buttons.
“Throughout the whole collection, you’ll see colorblocking…our artistic word being “collaging,” whether through different textures being mixed together, or materials, prints and colors,” Smith said during a preview, speaking to the collection’s myriad bicolored knits, a lightweight napa jacket, and a standout patchwork floral and plaid skirt.
Elsewhere, new riffs on holiday dressing (ranging from a floor-length plaid ballgown or blue babydoll frock, both styled with knit balaclavas), and minimalist dressing across suiting (a playful yellow silk faille rendition with matching fuzzy shearling overcoat, or sleek black set with elongated, crisp white button-down) and chic day-to-night attire (strapless slips over slim trousers) rounded out the practical-meets-aspirational assortment.
As seen on model Tasha Tilberg, Smith’s collection once again proved the brand’s luxury appeal through craftsmanship, materiality and pristine construction, while offering a fashionably understated take on the modern wardrobe.
