This season, Lafayette 148 designer Emily Smith began with a single item: a patchwork quilt, made by her grandmother from old cut up aprons and recently given to her by her aunt. A humble, functional item received at the right moment, it suddenly took on the sheen of a family heirloom. “It sparked something about the idea of things being passed down that are made useful and functional at a certain time,” said Smith. “I love the idea that clothes sort of have the same life cycle.”
It’s impossible for Smith to examine the quilt and not be transported back to her childhood memories of road trips in Ohio, where the borders of sprawling cornfields met in neatly organized grids. “I wanted to lean into that part of America, the sort of farmland, the heartland, the workwear.” Such is represented in the collection’s own Ohio-Star inspired patchwork items, which range from an ivory and white leather midi skirt and matching jacket to a pastel diaphanous dress or a geometric pair of jeans. As a whole, it’s all very subconsciously America250, too.
Easy Americana embroidered white shirts and dresses, or pieces printed with what Smith calls “ditzy florals,” can be envisioned lazily swinging on a clothes line in the breeze. Conversely, a leather shirt with crocheted shoulder details provided a more city-folk feel; the same goes for a textured white Ohio Star button-down and skirt. One white patchwork knit sweater with an ultra-soft fringe offered a little bit of the in-between. The palette, for the most part, was purposefully gentle: “The purples really remind me of those evening nights when the sun is setting and the fireflies are flying over the cornfields, it just reminds you of the meadowlands.”
