“Redoing things” is the modus operandi at Re/Done, but for resort, it applied to more than jeans and blazers. On a Zoom call from Los Angeles, cofounder Sean Barron explained how his team pivoted its entire workflow to create a collection mid-pandemic: When their factories in Italy shut down, they had to find other craftspeople to sew the clothes; when shuttered mills couldn’t be called on for new fabrics, Barron sourced deadstock or used leftover material in Re/Done’s studio. The tweed blazer in the opening look required more time and care as a result, but as Barron put it, knowing its journey makes you want it even more.
In conversations around what we’ll wear “after the pandemic,” opinions are often split between two sides: special, investment-worthy pieces like that jacket, or amorphous sweats and athleisure. Where do jeans and cashmere sweaters fall on that sliding scale, exactly? Barron would likely place them closer to the former. Jeans can certainly be special: In fact, he was happy to report that Re/Done’s reworked vintage Levi’s have been selling exceptionally well, despite their high price point. Clearly it isn’t that women don’t want to shop; they just don’t want to buy something that may not feel relevant this time next year. That shift was already happening before the pandemic, but the unpredictability of the past four months put it in overdrive. Barron said it’s only reinforced his instincts to get back to Re/Done’s roots, with less “fashion” and more emphasis on timelessness, heritage, and quality. Those values are perhaps most important when it comes to the clothes we wear every day: jeans, T-shirts, sneakers, cardigans. Re/Done’s already nail that sweet spot.
Among the collection’s surprises were a silky dress pieced-together from vintage scarves and a pair of seamed leather trousers. They were actually reissued from a past collection, another effort to make use of what already existed, but this time, they’re arguably even better: Each panel of leather had been upcycled from a different vintage pair.
Re/Done could not host a show or presentation this season due to the coronavirus pandemic. In these extenuating circumstances, Vogue Runway has made an exception to its policy and is writing about this collection via photos and remote interviews.
