Before Isabel Wilkinson Schor was making fashion, she was covering it. She left her job at the New York Times’s T Magazine just before Covid struck, and founded Attersee in 2021. “The need,” she said, “came from always struggling with what to wear and having a functional wardrobe that would take me through all these different lives I felt I was leading as an editor: office, after, running around town, meetings—and wanting a polished wardrobe where the quality was there and the comfort was there and the ease was there.” Price is key too, Attersee clothes range from $450 to the low $2,000s.
Naturally, fellow editors were among her first clients, and word spread quickly. The office space Wikinson Schor rented on East 64th Street was soon converted into a by-appointment salon, and in fairly short order, that salon turned into a store. “We now have to staff it six days a week and people just buzz—it’s mostly walk-ins.”
What makes Attersee so popular? The market is filling up with women-led brands trying to milk the white space left vacant by too-expensive high fashion. Some of them have become must-see shows at New York Fashion Week. As a rule, those women all have design studio or design school experience; Wilkinson Schor came up through news rooms. If the brand’s success is something of a marvel, Wilkinson Schor isn’t taking it for granted. In addition to the 64th Street salon store, she keeps an office in the Garment District, and 70% of the clothes are made locally. Every day is still a hustle, but, she says, “it allows us to quickly action recuts, make more really quickly for clients, make custome orders in a nimble way.”
The spring lookbook opens with an all-white look, as many shows did in New York this season, but there are other distinguishing features that differentiate Attersee. An appealing athletic streak runs through pieces like an anorak with an industrial zip front pocket and a dress with drawstring pull cords at the waist, while others indigo pieces like a handknit sweater and a nubby stripes shirtdress have a zen-like Japanese quality. As a writer, Wilkinson Schor said, “I was always so inspired by makers and creators, and the risk of putting something out in the world. I had so much respect for it.” She’s come a long way from the easy, oversized cotton-linen shirt she started with.