LoveShackFancy makes its New York Fashion Week debut — and yes, there will be lots of pink

In the weeks leading up to New York Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2023, TZR will feature a few new names on its runway. From young designers to cult favorite brands, these are labels to put on your radar. Watch this space for more.

In the year Since launching LoveShackFancy in 2013, the brand’s founder and creative director, Rebecca Hessel Cohen, has opened 14 stores across the country and counting—an expansion that has generated so much excitement among customers that they travel to attend boutique openings. The label’s signature colorful, pink and floral clothing. The brand has found a long-lived home in many department stores and e-retailers (think Net-A-Porter, Shopbop and Matchesfashion). And, business was not the only survivor of the pandemic. It thrived with a 125% net sales growth from 2020 to 2021, probably because it focused on the extremely popular cottage core styles that made people feel beautiful and comfortable in their homes. So it’s only natural that Cohen’s next move will take New York Fashion Week by storm. And this season, she sure does: her brand’s big debut is on September 12 at the spring/summer 2023 runway.

While about half of her stores may be scattered across prosperous cities in the South and West, Cohen is New York City — and perhaps now more than ever, she wants you to know it. From the way she describes her upcoming Spring/Summer 2023 collection, it looks like LoveShack Fancy is coming back to town after years of making a name for themselves across America. In order, it makes sense: any good hero’s journey ends with a return home. In this case, Cohen grew up on the Upper East Side.

“[The LoveShackFancy girl] Not the vegetable farmer girl vibes she was before. Now we are saying that she has re-entered the city life,” she said. What that might look like from cottagecore- and Edwardian-style freaks (the only possible word for them) to tights and bodycon dresses. “I guess most styles aren’t too shabby. Let’s say, they’re more refined in some of the imagery,” Cohen told TZR. She points to Y2K-style elements, bias-cut skirts, branded power supplies and “a lot of fun, different decorations.” [and] Creations like rainbow sleeves, pearls and sequins, taffeta and tulle. It looks like a sartorial experiment (from her description and the sketches below), though still in her glamorous, ultra-feminine beauty.

While it remains to be seen what kind of event the presentation will be, Cohen has proven that she knows how to throw a party, not only with her chic boutiques, but also with her private events. At the end of August, she hosted a dinner party for friends and family at her home in Southampton. According to Cohen, it was intimate for the more than 50 guests at LoveShackFancy decorated tables. Later montage to her account and the brand’s official page – post a window in LoveShackFancy mode de vi. Afterwards, she told her team about the compliments she received from people who watched the video, with some comparing the decor to something they wanted to do at their wedding. Cohen saw the private gathering as an opportunity to create social media content for her brand (which coincided with her 40th birthday party at The Plaza Hotel in February, which was later dubbed by the press as LoveShackFancy’s unofficial New York Fashion Week event).

For some, this combination of work and life may seem like a sacrifice. At the very least, given the relevance of LoveShackFancy’s rise, it’s a commitment – one that clearly paid off. Even in the resale market, search demand for the brand increased by 77% from 2021 to 2022 on TheRealReal, and the number of items purchased in 2021 doubled compared to 2020, said Noelle Sciacca, Senior Fashion Leader, Women’s, Fine Jewelry & Home at TheRealReal. . Cohen attributes LoveShackFancy’s prosperity to a chic aesthetic — “sorority girl style” with a quirky element. Cohen’s savvy use of social media, combined with the rise of Dopamine clothing and post-Covid weddings, has given Loveshack Fancy plenty of room to remain a romantic favorite to this day. That said, a true visionary angler has a sense of direction.

“Sexy” might not be the first word someone would use to describe LoveShackFancy, but that might change with the next collection. Elaborating on her latest work, Cohen said the idea involves examining the brand’s ethos through a more mature and “flirty” lens — akin to the coming-of-age experience, as it’s said in fashion — but adding an air of innocence. ” What LoveShackFancy is known for won’t go away completely. Because the label appeals to an older crowd, in Cohen’s words, “four to one hundred,” she and her two design directors are careful to think of the myriad customers when creating these clothes.

And fans of the brand won’t have to worry too much about stepping out of their favorite rococo pieces: LoveShackFancy’s signature color, pink, appears in 22 “dreamy” shades, Cohen says, and still draws inspiration from her extensive collection. Vintage textiles and fabrics for the clothing line. The LoveShackFancy girl is “global and always on the go!” Versatility was very important, she said.

In terms of logistics, the show will be held in the Smithsonian Design Museum’s Cooper Hewitt Garden. “[It’s] The presentation meets party, garden and fun vibes,” she says. With such a focus on world-building, it’s only natural to expect him to be fully immersed in this event as well. “Everything we do gives a bit of theatricality.”

Does one hope Cohen will be found? Betty Johnson, a designer with a shared passion for sassy silhouettes. (Their career trajectories are strikingly similar: both cut their teeth in fashion and style working at magazines; Johnson at Mademoiselle and Cohen in Cosmopolitan.) “I spent many afternoons in my youth. [the Betsey Johnson boutique] Try to dress after dress, says Cohen. “Last year, she went to our store in Charleston and FaceTimed me. It really was such a full-circle moment. Having her join the show makes my year.

The New York Fashion Week debut is one of several boxes LoveShackFancy plans to check soon, and overall, the founder is keeping an open mind when it comes to brand expansion. Loveshack Fancy will open a New York City showroom later this month and will add a beauty line to its umbrella in 2023, in addition to perfumes inspired by Cohen’s eldest daughter. Additional store openings are also underway, including the first international location in London. “I think about our daughter in the world and what she wants to do and where and what’s fun and inspiring,” Cohen says. I still love Shack’s fancy hotels, restaurants, [or] Cafes. So, you never know. “