“Quiet luxurious, oh God,” Isabel Wilkinson Schor, the designer of Attersee, mentioned with a small sigh. “I don’t think about us part of that development in any respect. It’s been round for a really very long time, and it’s equated with minimalism. I don’t see what we’re doing as minimalism.”
Attersee, which Ms. Wilkinson Schor based in 2021, is understood for the varieties of top of the range, strokeable materials related to the development. The garments are traditional in that they aren’t meant to simply exit of fashion, however do have quirks: a knit tube wrap as a substitute for a cardigan, a print of determine drawings, a plissé silk cape gown and caftans for summer season and winter.
The impetus for the road was merely to search out on a regular basis garments that have been snug and exquisite, not the sort of factor that will be worn solely to an enormous occasion annually. There are oversize collarless shirts in a silk-cashmere mix for $525, sculpted duchesse satin vests for $725 and linen-cotton Mary Janes made in collaboration with the Italian shoemaker Drogheria Crivellini for $175.
This week Attersee, which is called after an Austrian lake the place the artist Gustav Klimt spent summers, is opening its first public showroom, in a former health studio on the Higher East Aspect. It’s a working house for Ms. Wilkinson Schor and her workers in addition to an appointment-only place for purchasers to see and take a look at on the garments in individual.
Ms. Wilkinson Schor, the previous digital director of T journal, grew up on East nineteenth Avenue in Manhattan, consuming at Veselka and buying at Love Saves the Day. Till she moved to the Higher East Aspect in 2020, she had lived downtown for her complete life.
Transferring didn’t change how she dressed, she mentioned: “I don’t see what we’re doing as uptown in any method. The factor that has modified within the final three years is the hats I put on on any given day.”
That’s the place the impulse to design garments began. “Day-to-night dressing is the most important cliché,” she mentioned. “However I labored in numerous workplaces, and I actively didn’t need to look company. I used to have an unimaginable quantity of agita round getting dressed. I wished to look polished and put collectively and to transition after work to a special however associated individual, whether or not it’s dinner with my youngsters and tub time or going out.”
She wished waistbands that didn’t dig into her abdomen, wools that didn’t really feel itchy, knits that might breathe however didn’t present underwear beneath, a gown that might be worn throughout the day.
They’re the sort of garments that ladies champion, the type typically made by feminine designers — Phoebe Philo’s Céline, the Row, Toteme and Kallmeyer come to thoughts. Additionally, they aren’t as excessive octane or celeb pleasant as these from extra headline-grabbing trend homes.
“I’d say we’re adjoining to the style world,” Ms. Wilkinson Schor, 37, mentioned. “We’re extra impressed by listening to what our clients want. I don’t suppose we’ll ever present at trend week.”
Attersee has sometimes had pop-ups in New York, Los Angeles, Palm Seaside, Fla., and different spots. The pop-ups might be so busy that they felt nearly antithetical to the Attersee ethos. However they have been nonetheless fruitful.
“I spent 45 minutes with a lady who I’d say was in her early 60s and who informed me all concerning the colours that did and didn’t work for her pores and skin tone and neck traces and arm protection,” Ms. Wilkinson Schor mentioned. “I beloved her suggestions a lot that now we have stayed in contact, and I think about her a super-user.”
The brand new house, at 26 East sixty fourth Avenue, is adorned in darkish woods and shades of ivory. As a substitute of hiring a designer, Ms. Wilkinson Schor drew upon her personal associates, together with the French inside designer Fabrizio Casiraghi, who suggested through late-night WhatsApp chats.
An space within the entrance is merchandised like a boutique and might be made non-public through sliding doorways. The remainder of the house is dominated by two lengthy tables that might be used as work areas or for events. On one desk is a e-book of artworks by Barbara Hepworth. An image of her in her studio in a jacket impressed one in every of Attersee’s designs.
The showroom is a take a look at for a attainable retailer sooner or later. Ms. Wilkinson Schor has began engaged on customized items, together with a number of marriage ceremony clothes and outfits for pink carpet appearances. She has plans to develop the equipment assortment and supply extra knits.
“Lots of people ask for swim, however I don’t suppose we are going to anytime quickly,” she mentioned.
There have been many studying curves within the transition from editor to clothier, together with refining match, the timing when garments are delivered, even when to advertise a heavy jacket on the Attersee Instagram account.
“I take a look at this as a special method of storytelling,” Ms. Wilkinson Schor mentioned. “My arms are tied and I’m blindfolded, and I’m studying to create a world with out the identical instruments I had.”
