For resort, Lafayette 148’s Emily Smith wanted to “do something that sort of celebrated mother nature in some sense.” So she and her team packed up and took to the Arctic in search of the Northern Lights. In Norway, they went on many different adventures trying to see the celestial show. “It’s not a given that you’re going to see those things; the first night there was a blizzard so we booked a tour—you kind of have to chase the light.”
And chase the light she did, infusing her new collection with holographic details and their solid-color counterpart, a heavenly pastel palette. In the former category were a super-thin gold crackled leather explorer jacket and midi-length skirt, a sensible beige sweater woven with very un-sensible tinsel, and all manners of starry embellishments like sequins and Swarovski stones and buttons. A Northern Lights print in hazy pastels was developed directly from a photo Smith took while in Norway and used for a floaty, A-line dress layered over a spaghetti strap slip with allover sequins, and another crisp tan suit with tender pastel brushstrokes.
“Everything really speaks to the movement of the lights—you know, they’re not static—they actually dance in the air, it’s so beautiful,” Smith added. The lineup offers her devotees something for every moment of their lives: liquid silk gowns or the cool ’90s alternative of a ballgown skirt worn with a classic knit for evenings out; and heavy cashmere ribbed trousers, coated cotton “expedition jackets,” and workhorse sweaters (including a remix of the classic fair isle with fields of color instead of the classic geometric patterns), for wherever their very un-static lives might take them.