Khaite Pre-Fall 2024
Following her second CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year Award, Khaite designer Catherine Holstein is kicking into even higher gear. She plans to open two new stores in 2024, one on Madison Avenue and the other at South Coast Plaza in Southern California.
And she’s made a significant investment in handbags, with the aim of growing the category from 45 to to 60 percent of the business in the next two years.
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Exhibit A, front and center for pre-fall, the Zoe tote in a patchwork grid of painted python, black, caramel and white leather, all materials used in the collection. It’s a great looking bag and testament to Holstein’s balance of the creative and commercial as she’s built a new luxury brand in just five short years.
She also redesigned the bestselling Lotus bag in a leather and canvas combo, the Lilith frame evening bag now with a shearling handle, and is venturing into the ultra-luxury $4,000 to $5,000 The Row Margaux price point with more structured options.
Functionality is also paramount for Holstein, who specializes in gritty glam wardrobing pieces that evolve with slight tweaks in proportion, length and toughness — the ideal leather jacket, denim jacket, black dress, tailored blazer, knit sets and so on.
For pre-fall, the news was her obsession with elongating the torso, which translated into power shoulders on outerwear; sleek bustier dresses; low-slung silk gazar trousers, and paper bag waist skirts which had baby ribbed knits or glam origami folded tops tucked in.
“I always have the same story and I’m embarrassed about it,” she said of her inspiration for the season. “But there’s something very late ’70s, early ’80s New York.…I keep imagining Ellen Burstyn trotting down the street with a pair of really severe boots and black leather gloves and this bag with a trench. So that was the starting point — a cool end-of-‘Klute’ era going into the ’80s and you can see that with the shoulders and in the jackets, paired with the sporty minimalism that is who we are today as well.”
The season’s leather trench is oversize and buttery, the bomber is super cropped over a cream open knit skirt, the moto comes in bright white leather, belted with power shoulders, and the formal black overcoat is nipped slightly at the waist to emphasize the feminine maxi length. There’s a chic oversize leather letterman jacket, and a swoon-worthy short toggle coat with leather accents, too.
A romantic orchid pink organza column evening dress stood out, worn with long black gloves, as did a sportier but still sophisticated black funnel neck windbreaker with draped bubbled back, and a black anorak worn with low-slung nylon column skirt, expanding the brand’s range.
The new boot is a thigh-high version of the second-skin Apollo, and the newest shoe is a pointed-toe sandal with leather ankle ties.
For her evolving jewelry range, she’s introducing futuristic looking ear cuffs that cover the entire ear lobe “like liquid body parts,” Holstein said with a sci-fi wink.
Next up? New York Fashion Week. Following her last cinematic outing at the Park Avenue Armory, she’ll be showing at a 50,000-square-foot soundstage at Chelsea Piers.
Her architect husband, Griffin Frazen, who designed the first Khaite retail store in SoHo, will be designing the show once again with all the storytelling that continues to drive her creatively.
Frazen is becoming a frequent collaborator, Holstein said, adding that she was glad he was with her at the CFDA Awards in November.
“He didn’t come with me last year and it was really nice, especially considering how much of a part of the brand he is now,” she said. “I was just really flabbergasted and honored and touched…to win it for the second time and I think to be the first woman to ever win it twice in a row was something I never saw for myself in my career.”
Launch Gallery: Khaite Pre-Fall 2024
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