Stella Ishii’s 6397 collections have always been about essential basics with a just-so grungy edge. Perfectionism never seemed like much of a 6397 thing. But the engineered slouch of 6397’s skater jeans or bomber jackets does take a certain technical skill. Over the course of COVID, Ishii hired a new designer and patternmaker to fine-tune the 6397 proportions and cut. The results, though subtle, make a big difference.
A showroom appointment revealed the allure of the brand’s new cotton suit, still slubby enough to appeal to their tomboyish customers but polished to attract working women not ready to return to tropical wool. Sweaters look lusher than ever before, with firm mock-neck collars and dropped shoulders. There’s also an in-house-designed print, used on board shorts and roomy shirtdresses, inspired by Ishii’s love of camouflage but abstracted into a watery floral. “It’s things we always wanted to do, done better,” she says of her new run. Photographed in her husband Jerry Kamitaki’s art studio, the collection hasn’t lost its heart, but it has gained a more upright, polished stride, which is to say if you are eager to put on jeans post-pandemic, you’ll want to make it 6397’s pert new baggies.
