When Rihanna wanted to step out as a beauty boss for the launch of Fenty Hair in Los Angeles earlier this month, she tapped Khaite to make her custom merlot leather bomber jacket and straight skirt.
Why not? Cate Holstein has built her brand on bad ass women.
“People have really responded to it,” Holstein said of the look, which her atelier worked on for about a month.
Bad ass women can also show vulnerability, of course, which is its own kind of superpower, and one that Holstein has been interested in exploring a bit more lately, particularly since she’s become a mom and learned to let go a bit more.
Things are certainly going well for the two-time CFDA Women’s Designer of the Year award winner, who is opening stores on New York’s Madison Avenue and at Dallas’ Highland Park this fall, followed by one at South Coast Plaza in January.
“Everything has a lightness to it,” she said of the resort 2025 collection, which carries over from her spring collection the silk gazar dressing that has been a fashion girl favorite, and her color play (in this case pale pink, peach and dove gray), while skewing to slighter shoulders and closer cut silhouettes for a more Upper East Side lady effect.
“We’re exploring sharpness at a surface level rather than obvious toughness,” she said, showing off a black wool mohair suit that pairs a blazer with a pin tuck detail to shape and square off the sleeves, and creased trousers hemmed over red patent leather pumps. It’s one of the prettiest suits she’s ever made, next to the silver dome-buttoned black collarless jacket with tucks in the sleeves, paired with a black knit tube skirt with fishtail train.
Holstein’s M.O. is to reinvent core wardrobe staples, and many of the new leather coats and blazers were leaner with tailored shoulders and extra long rows of buttons. Knits were gossamer-fine, and skirts full, feminine and shaped by tucks, or slim, drawstring and two-tone silk canvas and crepe back satin.
She played with papery thin petal pink suede on a boxy safari jacket paired with mary janes for a soft power, and turned out more of her easy, one-and-done dresses in jersey, fringed knit and black tropical wool.
Then there was the gorgeous gazar, with its crisp hand and delicate look, fashioned into a ballet pink origami folded dress, an ecru slip with pin tuck details to add shape, and a gown swirled into an abstract flower bloom at the top for a modern day “Swan.”
“We really wanted grace and elegance going through this whole collection,” she said.
For more resort 2025 reviews, click here.