Michelle Duncan Is Balancing Her Day Job at Estée Lauder With a New Project: Her Own Line of Dresses
Duncan gallery
Even on the chilliest days of New York Fashion Week, it wasn’t unusual to see a girl in a flowery silk dress, a bohemian maxi skirt, or something else breezy and diaphanous (styled with boots and tights, hopefully). That wanderlust-y look has transcended runway trends and become the cornerstone of many women’s wardrobes—but it’s really not Michelle Duncan’s vibe. In fact, her new collection of dresses is the complete inverse. She describes them as “heavy,” with thick, substantial fabrics that “make you feel like you’re going out in the world with armor.” They’re curve-hugging and precisely tailored, with long sleeves, nipped waists, and box pleats. There’s something a little punk about the tartan schoolgirl skirt, while a strict coat trimmed with beads and feathers could easily go black tie.
It all mirrors Duncan’s own style, which is happily disconnected from whatever’s happening on the runways. She wears exclusively black and white (with occasional pops of red, usually in the form of lipstick), collects Alaïa, and is rarely without a flick of liquid eyeliner. She’s the first to tell you she has zero fashion experience: As the global partnerships and creative strategy lead at Estée Lauder (overseeing both Estée Lauder and brands under its umbrella, such as MAC, Bobbi Brown, Clinique, and La Mer), she says it’s her experience in makeup that informed her new line. “Beauty and fashion have the same philosophy—you’re empowering women,” she explained at Estée Lauder’s Fifth Avenue HQ (which might have the best views in all of Manhattan). “In the past few years, I’ve been building and building what I wanted to do and trying to gain the knowledge and experience. With everything happening with women in the world right now, I wanted to create this mentality through [clothing] that you can literally do anything—I want women in my clothes to feel, I don’t want to say protected, but to feel powerful because it fits so well and shows the right curves. Femininity to me is about your shape, so I want that to show.”
Duncan unveiled her small collection last Saturday at Mission Chinese Food, where an insider-y crowd—Vanessa Traina, Leigh Lezark, Harley Viera-Newton, Jen Brill, et al.—got an up-close look at the sculptural wool dresses, studded leather sheaths, and ancient Duncan tartan skirts. (Her dad’s side is Scottish.) Duncan met many of those people through her “real” job, which is “especially intertwined” with fashion: She goes backstage at Fashion Week, oversees designer collaborations, and more broadly, leads creative strategy for every Estée brand. That means she’s often traveling too; the company has offices in more than 50 countries, from China to the United Arab Emirates.
So how did she possibly find time to design and energy to produce a collection from scratch, you wonder? She chalks it up to sheer willpower and a creative, “fluid” workplace. “Estée Lauder is very unique because I’m able to have my ‘9-to-5’ job here and then go work on other projects at night,” she explains. “I’m on calls at 5 a.m., and then I’m visiting our different brands’ offices, working on collaborations and creative talent. . . . I have to be out in the world all day. I’ve been going to source all of my fabrics on Saturdays, and my production people have been staying open at night because it’s Fashion Week. Occasionally I’ll ask my husband to pick up a sample [in the Garment District] since he works near Grand Central Station,” she continues. “My days have been very, very busy, and I have some very cool stuff happening at this work right now, so it’s giving me energy.”
In other words, she’s not quitting her day job anytime soon. Should Duncan grow and scale into a bigger brand, we’d imagine it would be more difficult to juggle two careers. But it’s hard to picture one without the other: The clothes were very much influenced by Duncan’s colleagues and experiences at Estée. “A lot of my inspiration came from the women I’ve met here,” she says. “I remember some of the first interactions I had were with these women in long Valentino coats and Birkin bags in every color. . . . But then I’ll go down to MAC’s offices and everyone’s wearing a black crop top and a ton of makeup, and at Bobbi Brown’s office, everyone is wearing jeans. It’s really fun because if you’re coming uptown [to the HQ], you want to put on your best, or you can wear your Goth moment to MAC.”
She hopes her clothes are suited to all of those women, but especially the girl who wants to “dress” for work and isn’t showing up to board meetings in jeans and sneakers. At her party, Duncan was wearing the sculptural, drop-waist gray wool shirtdress with a burst of red beading at the shoulder, plus matching red tights and Mary Janes—and a swipe of red lipstick, of course. For like-minded women with a passion for both clothing and makeup, there was a dress with a single blown-up kiss print embroidered with crimson beads.
