A New Unisex Line Captures the Romance of a Secluded Life Out East

Michael Ward and Michael Smaldone, two fashion-industry veterans, have launched an easy collection of simple, luxurious clothing.

Out East, a picturesque sunset is not just an Instagram moment, it’s a near-daily experience. As the 5:00 p.m. sun makes its way over Manhattan, where the people who haven’t quite figured out how to skip out from the grind of city life are still toiling over their desks, the sky over Peconic Bay dials up the saturation to electric sorbet colors. If you’re lucky, you might get to see it while sitting in a deck chair, sipping a North Fork rosé. Michael Ward and Michael Smaldone are two such people, who, after a career in the proverbial rat race of the high-fashion world, have set up havens in Bellport and Sag Harbor. Together they’ve just launched a humble, unisex collection, TheSalting.

The name comes from—where else?—the by-the-sea lifestyle you can have along the stony beaches and quiet paths of Long Island’s easternmost villages. It’s also a nod to the of-the-earth ethos that permeates their work. Everything from the enveloping coats to the extraordinarily soft tees is made in America from natural fibers. There’s an easy simplicity to their loose caftans, wooly ponchos, and rope-trim fedora hats, the latter of which they promise will work on any person. (They’re not wrong, check their Instagram for the proof.) The clothing, too, is versatile enough to suit all kinds of people, whether you fancy yourself the Out East type or not. A taped-seam trench could just as easily be spotted in Fidi as on the Shelter Island ferry.

Just as Ward and Smaldone have a holistic approach to their garments, the same goes for their business. The collection is quite small to start, but they have big plans that include ceramics, a larger knitwear operation, and selling actual, American-sourced salt. E-commerce is planned for sometime within the year, too. On it, they’d be wise to offer the chocolate chip cookies Smaldone bakes with their proprietary salt at appointments. They’d pair nicely with a Long Island white and one of those supernatural sunsets.

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