It is received wisdom that New York is a city of transplants. Whether it is from other states or from countries around the globe, the feeling is that this is a place made to host the whole gamut of people in the world. Which makes calling New York home both a simple and a complicated thing. For one, once you live here long enough to earn the coveted descriptor of “New Yorker,” you get the feeling that there’s no other place in the world you could exist. But for a pocket of those same people who were not born here, for the lucky ones, home can also be where you come from.
The team at 6397 ruminated on the idea of “hometown” this season. As in New York, where the label and its founder, Stella Ishii, are based; and in consideration of the idea of community and one’s “own people,” explained designer Lizzie Owens. Owens’s own roots made it into this lineup via a couple of denim styles with a southwestern vibe. Yet the way the seasonal concept came across most compellingly is in her reflection on how clothing epitomizes the idea of home. Prioritizing comfort, she did a run of cozy knit separates, some with twisted seams (an Owens signature), others with snood hoods, and one, the standout, handknit in Peru.
The idea of protection continues coming up in outerwear, and some of Owens’s terrific toppers speak to that overarching preoccupation—see the way she’s placed buttons under lapels to fasten tailored jackets all the way to the top, or how a barn jacket cinches at the waist and is finished with a sense of grit with spots and stains. But that said, it was the softness imbued into some of the tailored pieces that felt the most sincere and individual. The hem of a cropped jacket whose hem was a ribbed knit, and a generously cut wool flax tuxedo style featured cotton sateen lapels. “It’s coming from my menswear roots,” said Owens of her tailoring, “but you put it on and it’s actually so soft.” She was talking about her cut, but it applies to the choice of fabrics, too. (Ishii should consider a menswear line, while we’re here.)
Some of Owens’s coats also snap at the vents to open or close depending on one’s lifestyle: “To ride a horse…or a Citi Bike!” she quipped. It’s this kind of charming consideration that makes it evident that New York is home for Owens, and it’s exactly what has made her such a welcome addition to the 6397 universe—she just makes really fun clothes.
