Facets of Life: Badgley Mischka

Searching for wardrobe inspiration these days can be a confounding experience. Peruse the windows on Worth and Madison Avenues or Rodeo Drive, scroll through the scores of collections on Vogue Runway, visit your favorite go-to sites online, and we can’t blame you if you want to hold onto your head, then throw a sweatshirt over it, and stay home. These jackets are cropped. But those jackets are long. Some skirts now cascade to midcalf, while others billow at the knee, hit mid-thigh, or the heck with skirts, because why aren’t you stepping into leather shorts? Designers’ concepts of dressing up have never been less homogenous and are likely to be upended from one season to the next.

Or you could look at a label that is unwavering in its clear-eyed commitment. Mark Badgley and James Mischka believe every woman should be a star on her own red carpet. Having dressed just about everyone you can name who’s ever been nominated for a shining trophy, the duo admits without apology in their Designer Spotlight interview that “we love the glory days of old Hollywood when the studio system manufactured dreamy lives. What’s wrong with a little fantasy?” Does anyone have a problem with that?

We have always admired Badgley Mischka’s reliance on elegance, but their current collection that we photographed, which features relaxed construction, a streamlining of volume, and promotes a clean, airier, more youthful approach, proved to be such a fortuitous pairing with Gabriel & Co.’s most recent additions to our own line that the designers were eager to call out their fresh, easy-sex appeal. “These pieces are so light and playful; they are what I would buy for my mother, my sister, my niece, and even a few I’d get for myself!”

There’s nothing wrong with fast fashion, provided it’s inexpensive enough that you can pay it off just as quickly. But Badgley Mischka boasts loyal clients who often don their dresses from past presentations, and they still make heads turn because, as Dominick Gabel says, “It’s always a win when you strive for timelessness. You should love a piece you’ve had for 20 years as much as you did when you first put it on. Maybe more so now because you’ve made memories while wearing it.” As James Mischka shrewdly observes, don’t get cowed by the avalanche of trends on every corner. All you have to do is “look fantastic and feel glamourous.”

For complete insight into the collaboration, view here.