When most of fashion’s current trends can feel like a risk, 6397 offers something of a guarantee. The best jeans your bottom can find? They make those, now in a bright ’90s wash with a square cut in the hips to give you a little grungy swagger. A frump-free knit to keep you cozy? Yep, it’s done in a loose, rectangular cut or a lemony prepster stripe. A graphic tee that’s totally unpretentious? Plenty of those, now in Spanish as a quiet protest against America’s ever-worsening immigration policies. Hanging across several rails in Stella Ishii’s Soho showroom, the Resort collection was filled out with even more good stuff, from a grandpa plaid mac to an inside-out seamed silver slip to a Lurex-shot gray suit with a “flight attendant” miniskirt. There are board shorts, camouflage puffer vests, delicate pointelle knit tees, and a whole menswear collection made of the same fabrications as the womenswear, not to mention kids’ tees and a selection of patchwork bags in denim and khaki.
This might not sound revelatory to the uninitiated—“It’s, like, jeans and a T-shirt?” you could shrug, eyes rolling—but the meticulous nature of 6397’s fabrications and the precision of its cuts set the work apart. But more than any seam or jacquard, what makes 6397 special is its soul. A 6397 collection is not just wardrobe essentials, it’s also pieces workshopped by a tribe of women who put a bit of their own history into every piece. Reach for a 6397 piece and you might be getting a version of creative director Ishii’s famous mandarin-collar winter coat or model Janelle Fishman’s favorite Nirvana tee or design director Lori Lindsay’s summertime jean. There’s a story in each piece, and, reader, I wish I had the time to tell you them all.
