LoveShackFancy is going global. This is meant both literally—the New York brand recently found a European distributor, allowing its signature “girls just want to have fun” aesthetic to be sold from France to Italy—and figuratively: founder Rebecca Hessel Cohen said that the muse for her pre-fall collection is a “global goddess” who changes multiple times a day. “She’s really traveling, she’s really on the go,” Cohen added from her Flatiron showroom.
To where, exactly? Cohen says Lake Como, for starters: flowy boho dresses are lined with Venetian lace, whereas matching pink gingham scallop sets give off a retro Roman Holiday-inspired air. Another dress features dainty watercolor Amalfi lemons. The next stop on the LoveShackFancy customer’s euro girl summer is St. Tropez, where airy blue-and-white maxi dresses evoke the iconic tablecloth prints of Le Club 55. (“My favorite place ever,” Cohen said.) Then it is off to Ibiza to have some fun in the sun; one standout dress is intricately sewn with 50,000 shells, sequins, pearls, and beads. “It took weeks to make,” she added. That over-the-top garment is an outlier: Cohen said she didn’t want this collection to be “fussy”—and indeed, much of it looks like something you could throw over a swimsuit as you head to lunch. “We wanted a dreamy, soft, neutral summer palette,” Cohen explained.
Eventually though, it’s time to board that Delta flight back to America—and, when she lands, she’s ready for ice coffee, air-conditioning, and a hearty dose of red-white-and-blue. Blue jeans come with cherries near the pocket, as does a frilly mini-dress. (The latter is a bit juvenile, but it is supposed to be: Cohen has previously said the age range of her brand is “babies to 80s.”) “We leaned into America’s sweetheart—a little pinup, a little kitschy, but also fun and girly,” she said. Still, a black dress with lingerie-like edges suggests that one day that sweetheart might grow up, rebel, and start a new life that involves smoking cigarettes in Paris.
