Eckhaus Latta Knows Exactly What Your Plain White Tee Needs

In the past seven seasons since designers Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta co-founded their contemporary label Eckhaus Latta, they’ve proven themselves to be anti-establishment without explicitly stating so. Meaning: They don’t need celebrities in their front row (or on their runway) or overtly political elements to make headlines, and are always interested in embracing the unconventional (the two just celebrated a shoppable exhibition at the Whitney Museum). For spring 2019, Eckhaus Latta showed steady growth — and proved, yet again, that really good clothes can get the entire fashion community on the L train to Brooklyn.

Photo: Ovidiu Hrubaru/WWD/REX/Shutterstock.

Photo: Ovidiu Hrubaru/WWD/REX/Shutterstock.

To the tune of the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra (which is exactly what it sounds and looks like: reckless, uneven banging on colorful, inanimate objects), models charged through a vacant warehouse in serious clothes. Sheer dresses of out-of-the-box crocheting techniques, straight-legged denim with contrast cuffs, tie-dye prints as elegant as oil paintings, and even some classic suiting all sounds really fun, doesn’t it? Whether or not it was Eckhaus or Latta’s decision to juxtapose so many elements under one roof was beside the point because, by look 45 — a beaded top that left little to the imagination — it was clear the two were making sense of what they’ve learned from each other over the past few years.

Since opening their retail store in L.A. in 2016, it’s clear the duo has learned a lot about what people really want out of clothes: wearability, utility, and ease (not to be confused with boring or “normal”). Those concepts call to mind a few pairs of jeans that came down the runway: The only stand-out elements from any of them were contrast stitching and buttons. Nothing more, nothing less — but exactly the type of oomph needed to spruce up a crisp white T-shirt. (Though to be fair, this is Eckhaus Latta we’re talking about, so that tee would be knitted, replete with a conscious cut-out, and completely see-through.)

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