Designers who weren’t affected by mill and factory closures in China, Italy, and New York finished their resort collections before the pandemic. Others, like Nili Lotan, did most of the work over the past few months. Their made-in-quarantine collections offer a glimpse of what women will be wearing in November, when some of us will still be working from home. More importantly, though, they also begin to answer the question of fashion’s role in times of crisis: Is it even appropriate to make new stuff right now? And do women want to spend their time and money on clothes?
Fashion is meant to reflect the times in which we’re living, which explains the number of sweatpants in this season’s resort look books. For many designers, including Lotan, there’s been a general sense of paring back too. She said many of her stores specifically requested sweaters, likely because knitwear sales did well last year and a cashmere turtleneck isn’t a huge leap from the sweatshirts we’ve been wearing every day. In cream ribbed-knit or charcoal cables, Lotan’s knits felt subdued too; they’re sweaters to reach for when you want to feel put-together, but not pretentious. “I didn’t want anything fancy,” she said on a Zoom call. “It just doesn’t feel appropriate to dress up.” Throughout the pandemic, she studied every single order that came through on her brand’s e-commerce site, and saw that women were on that page too. There’s an argument to be made for dressing boldly in times of stress, but Lotan’s customer isn’t that type.
Lotan follows her instincts and felt like she needed a clean slate, starting with the palette: calming blue, soft ivory, and neutrals like black, camel, and chocolate. The clothes themselves were similarly spare, an extension of her refined, classics-oriented fall 2020 collection but with less of a ’70s bent. Sweaters and army pants, button-downs and jeans, hoodies and joggers, the “looks” registered more as clothes than full-on fashion, and that was intentional.
Lotan doesn’t expect her customer to engage in mind-bending styling or accessorizing right now, because she isn’t either; she wants easy, well-made items she can throw on without a second thought. It’s the nuances of proportion, fabric, and fit that keep it all feeling recognizably NL: Her patch-pocket flares skim the hips; shirts are just slouchy enough; sweaters are generous, but not oversized. Outerwear is a growing category for Lotan, and it’s where she injected the most “fashion” here: See the fringed suede jackets, soft shearlings with zero hardware, and a vaguely nostalgic, intarsia’d wrap that would make an excellent replacement for your hoodie.
