Adam Lippes did not idle away his time in lockdown. His spring lookbook features a new range of semi-precious and enameled 24-karat gold plated jewelry that he made with a small family-run factory in Rhode Island. The signet rings, wrist cuffs, exuberant floral earrings, and pillbox charms worn on substantial gold chains mix and match with his new ready-to-wear, but they’re designed to age well—Lippes calls them “forever pieces.” The enameled pillbox charms, for instance, are inspired by his own collection of antiques.
The last six months have reshaped Lippes’s thinking about his label, or at least the way he approached the new season. “Where did we start? What was our ethos? We asked ourselves those questions,” he said over a Zoom call. The concepts he rallied around include refinement and comfort, luxury and ease. “We’re in a business to make and sell more, but the world is telling us to make and sell less,” he added.
Think of this collection, then, as “The Condensed Adam Lippes.” Focused mostly on daywear, the 16 looks span tailoring, shirt dresses and slip dresses, and knits. But if these are AL essentials, they aren’t basics; each piece has a special flourish. The jacket is finished with double-face silk ribbons at the waistband to adjust its silhouette, the smocking on a ruffled white shirt features subtle tone-on-tone embroideries, and the slip dress is cut in a heavy French silk and suspended from delicate silk cording.
All these clothes reward close inspection. The pandemic may continue to make once taken-for-granted intimacies—lunch with a friend, a dinner party—difficult or impossible well into 2021. But Lippes reports his customers are telling him they want to dress up again, even if only for themselves. In that regard, a top and pants in a blue Japanese sweatshirting material bonded with black guipure lace looked especially well-suited to this moment.
