“How can we push our fabrics even further?” That’s the mission Adam Lippes set himself for fall. He’s always prioritized luxurious textiles, but at a showroom appointment earlier this week he rattled off the names of top European mills, an IYKYK list that included Taroni for a wafty hand-pleated coral silk dress, Luigi Verga for a printed silk wool pantsuit, and the cashmere makers at the small family-owned Filati Biagioli. That cashmere is a good place to start. This is not the quick-to-pill one-ply stuff you see at stores up and down Broadway, but thick, lofty yarn, knitted in a three-dimensional basketweave stitch. The sweaters, vests, and short skirts made from the stuff are finished with Swarovski pearls, fitting embellishments for the treasures they are.
Lippes is adding to his range at the other end of the spectrum, too. In December, he launched Franger, a collection of fine athleisure, and the turtlenecks used as layering pieces here underneath pieces like a crisp white cotton shirt and a floral print ankle-length dress are pulled from that line. Redefining casual for a post-pandemic world is one of the season’s emerging themes. Lippes’s take on the look includes slightly oversize camp shirts with matching bralettes—the twinset, reimagined—that he paired with banded edge wrap skirts or wide-leg trousers. Though he’s better known for dressier fare, he cuts a smart pair of pants.
About those dresses. For the Lippes customer who already has a closetful, he’s dreamed up some new proportions. A long-sleeve, banded seam blush silk dress softly belted with ribbon had a subtle, understated elegance, as did a blue dress in the same silk whose collar was finished with one of those Swarovski pearls. An embroidered slip dress had a more familiar silhouette, but with a special detail in the form of a Chantilly lace lining. “Nobody lines dresses in Chantilly lace,” Lippes laughed. “Who does that?” He does.
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