This July, Dion Lee will open his first North American store in New York’s Soho. The 4,000-square-foot spot will be his first outpost outside of Australia, introducing Manhattanites to the full range of his offering. “I feel like I am still unknown in America,” he says. “Fashion people know me, but …” he trails off.
It seems crazy that Lee doesn’t have a larger audience. His second-skin sexiness has found fans across the celebrity sphere and on the hot girls and guys that haunt our physical and digital spaces. Ariana Grande wears his corset in her “Positions” music video, Jacob Elordi sports one on a magazine cover, and every single friend you have probably has one in their cart on Ssense.
It’s Lee’s knowledge of the customers he does have that has kept his business in growth mode during the pandemic. In Australia, where he has eight stores, sales are reportedly booming. Same for his e-commerce, where his ribbed knits and slinky dresses fly off the virtual racks. For fall 2021, he’s elaborated on his architectural and body conscious subversions, cutting prepster V-neck knits into harnesses, placing equestrian-inspired bits into a belt, and slicing into knit dresses and tops like a sensual surgeon. One of his more ingenious ideas this season is a tweak of the Y-front underpants that inspired layered ribbed cashmere bodysuits worn by male and female models. Very sexy and very singular.
Elsewhere, he is stretching out his denim offering, finding ways to cut corsetry into the material, and expanding his outerwear. The collection’s luxe shearling coats and boots, the latter made in partnership with the French company Both Footwear, reflect how Lee dresses in his own life: comfortably casual with a great coat and shoes. His surefootedness with his own personal style has no doubt helped him chart his course in fashion. The more Dion Lee’s collection looks like Dion Lee’s closet, the better it is. American customers are about to take note.