This season Eckhaus Latta presented a collection that felt both polished and homespun, which brilliantly showed how their aesthetic, and skill set, has matured. The opening look, Jane Mosely in a shearling coat and loose, pinstripe pants, encapsulated this perfectly, demonstrating their love of tailoring and experimenting with new materials. “They’re never thematic, they just kind of evolve from one season to the next, said Mike Eckhaus after the show. “I think this season we just really wanted to push ourselves with silhouette and textiles, and really focus on what those two things mean to us. Zoe was talking about going back to our roots… Now we feel confident in making clothing, and have a really strong team around it, how can we push forward?”
You could feel that forward momentum and strength in every look, from the pinstripe tailoring, to the checkerboard printed dresses, to their signature knits, this season imagined in colorful squares. It exuded confidence (perhaps also due to their exceptional casting, which once again included friends such as Paloma Elsesser and Susan Ciancolo). “Having the facilities to reach fabric minimums means we can develop the fabrics we need,” said Zoe Latta of the jump in quality, “And couldn’t make with our own hands, which was something we were doing in previous seasons, and still do.” The duo also had an unexpected collaboration in the form of UGG, with whom they partnered on shoes and a few shearling jackets (the shearling is a by-product). “We’ve done a couple of shearling jackets throughout the years, but every one has been hand stitched. Having furriers that know what they’re doing is a very different approach.” Evidently, the UGG collab was a fruitful one. “They’re such an iconic shoe,” said Eckhaus, “and we got to play with them in this way where we made them blocky, and into heels.” “When they first approached us, we were confounded by how we could do it without being offensively subversive,” said Latta. “And through working with them we totally fell in love, and stand by their product,” and beyond, it sounds, their sustainability practice. “And they’re everywhere in LA,” laughed Latta.
This fabric research was most evident in a jacquard woven with scenes of Yosemite, which spoke to Eckhaus Latta’s love of both the pastoral and futuristic. Their signature tie-dye denim came in pink and green this season, worn to great effect with an orange floral top that wove around the body. Pleated looks were particularly strong, whether in a floor length gown or erupting from a chic tailored mini dress. You had the feeling that this was their proposition for an entire Eckhaus Latta wardrobe, or a world, where they were referencing their past seasons to move their vision forward. “We wanted to really push the volume and make it architectural,” said Eckhaus of their explorations of shape. Not that big gestures are really their style. “We think about our own lives. It’s not necessarily biographical, but just in the sense that we started this when we were young, and naive, and we’ve definitely learned a lot over the last X number of years. I think our vision is based around what we would want to wear, or our friends would want to wear, and that can shift and grow.”
