A traditional career trajectory in fashion progresses from school to a job in the industry and then, perhaps, to the launch of one’s own brand. Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez not only skipped the middle step, they sold their thesis project as their first collection. As if that weren’t enough, their origin story—Hernandez passing a note written on a napkin to Vogue’s Anna Wintour on a flight—made great copy. Their clothes, as you will see below, photograph equally as brilliantly.
Though they celebrated their brand’s 20th anniversary in 2023, the duo retain a boyish charm, even as their work has matured alongside their customers, uniting uptown and downtown attitudes. Early collections featured slim, young socialite-friendly bustier dresses and sporty nautical jackets; luxurious suede jackets and legging-slim pants. Prints are an important element of McCollough and Hernandez’s work, and they had a lasting hit with the tie-dyes they did for a California-inspired show, updating them over the years . Recently, they’ve been refining a more subtle and sensuous goddess line. “We liked this idea of a commitment to beauty and something that felt anti-cynical,” McCollough said when they presented a romantic, ruffled collection in Paris, but it could stand, more generally, as the designers’ guiding principle.
