Stars—they're just like us! Over the past nine months, glamorously low-key options from new New York–based label Cinq à Sept have been popping up on the talk show and premiere circuit, worn by the sort of A-listers who typically prom dresses london in designer exclusives. There was Jennifer Lawrence at the Seoul premiere of Passengers in a sporty crop top paired with a floaty pink skirt; Jessica Chastain on Ellen in a sheath dress, its straps preslipped to hang just so on the arm; Bella Hadid at the couture shows in Paris in a pair of the brand's super-wide-leg trousers. The truly radical thing: None of those pieces costs more than $500, and each is available to mere mortals at a store where, chances are, you already shop.
Cinq à Sept (French for "five to seven"), a contemporary line conceived by Jane Siskin—the retail visionary behind 7 For All Mankind and the Olsen twins' diffusion line Elizabeth and James—is named for the magic hour when, according to Siskin, "anything seems possible." It debuted at Saks this past June and, from the looks of things, struck gold: The company has projected first-year sales of $85 million and is now carried in 288 stores, including Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, and Nordstrom. And it's not alone.
"The big shift in contemporary is that it's becoming far more design led," says Net-a-Porter fashion director Lisa Aiken. For years, "it was the bread and butter for many retailers but didn't really bring new ideas to the table." Now, in addition to Cinq à Sept, the luxury e-com behemoth has picked up a bevy of midpriced international labels that are setting trends rather than following them. These include Self-Portrait, London- based Malaysian designer Han Chong's Instagram-friendly range of guipure lace dresses whose flattering reveal-and-conceal cutouts and sheer overlays are favored by Beyoncé, Kerry Washington, and Chiara Ferragni; as well as the Danish label Ganni, which got a major lift in 2015 from Kate Bosworth, who tagged a photo of herself and pal Helena Christensen twinning in $570 faux-fur bombers as #gannigirls. A search of the hashtag also pulls up Kendall Jenner and Rihanna in Ganni's effortless floral dresses and trophy outerwear. "I think we owe Kate a beer for that one," jokes the label's designer, Ditte Reffstrup.
"I call it 'reverse sticker shock,'" Siskin says of the current wave of designers selling clothes with a mix of desirability and affordability not seen since before the days of street-style stars and digital influencers. Her next words will be music to most shoppers' ears: "We aspire to make a beautiful dress that the customer would expect, based on everything else on the floor, to be $795—and then she turns over the ticket and sees that it's $395."
With competition heating up in a category that, for years, has been chugging along while making few headlines, some contemporary-fashion stalwarts are benefiting, too. "I don't think there is a bigger trend right now than off-the-shoulder," Net-a-Porter's Aiken says, "and the first brand we carried it from was Tibi." That label was founded two decades ago, during the heyday of youthful, fashion-forward companies such as Catherine Malandrino and Daryl K. (Remember them? Designers who made cool clothes you wore everywhere and could actually afford?) Tibi survived to win over Generation Selfie, thanks to founder Amy Smilovic's savvy evolution; these days, her signature bohemianism informs not sweet prints, but exaggerated, color-drenched silhouettes that come alternatively exploded or shrunken. As for the brand's recent rainbow of au moment off-the-shoulder tops, Aiken says: "We sold them out over and over again."
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