For an independent designer like Adam Lippes without big budgets for advertising or celebrity placement, face time with customers is invaluable. (This is something we’ve been hearing more and more lately, despite the increasing dominance of e-commerce.) For Lippes’s part, he says it’s invaluable not just for the bump he sees in sales when he’s the one advising clients established and new, but also for the feedback. The series of long dresses at the end of his Resort lookbook, for example, are the result of the requests he received for the category when he was on the ground—in Dallas, in San Francisco, in Boston. Up until now, he’s focused his attentions mostly on other areas—polished daywear, cocktail dresses, a strong outerwear offering, something he calls “athluxury”—but why not give the ladies what they want? After all, as he put it, “My job is making pieces that women feel good in. It’s as simple as that.”
Regarding those long evening pieces, there was a nice variety: strapless duchesse silk in a vibrant chartreuse, fluid pink chiffon piped in cerise, a sleek one-shoulder jumpsuit trimmed generously with Swarovski crystals. What united them was their timelessness; while relevant to the fashion conversation, they don’t look like they’ll date or age, which is a relevant factor when you’re investing in something. What caught your eye here was the extraordinary lengths Lippes goes to to add specialness to his pieces. A black acid-wash jean jacket boasts Gobstopper-size pearl buttons, and a floral print coat is lined in a different fabric in the matching print. The floral print is a collaboration with Putnam & Putnam, Lippes’s favorite florist, and it’s so vibrant and engaging there’s a high chance that, yes, he’ll get a special request for a gown in it.
