For Sander Lak, absence really did make the heart grow fonder. Following a five-year gap after the shuttering of Sies Marjan, Lak reemerged last year with a new eponymous brand rooted not in runway fashion but colorful, just quirky enough essentials, and swiftly landed over 20 top stores and trailers, Maxfield, By George, and Net-a-Porter among them. “Yes, I had certain expectations, but you still don’t really know,” Lak confided. “I thought, what if nobody knows me anymore, and what if nobody remembers? And then, it was none of that.”
With early sales of collection one providing a confidence boost, he’s in Paris this week showing off collection two. True to the agenda he set out back in June, it’s no wild 180, but a doubling down on his first outing’s popular silhouettes and a deepening of his commitment to lively color and everyday eclecticism.
Lak’s plan for Sanderlak is to shift mood, palette, and prints year-to-year, a concept he developed based on his own peripatetic lifestyle. This collection is the second of his Los Angeles era, but where last season was dripping in sunshine, this one is tinged by the neon glamour of the Sunset Strip after dark. These aren’t clothes for clubbing, per se, but with their rich hues and glossy textures, a fuchsia faux fur, a crackled leather jacket, and velour leisure suits wouldn’t be out of place at the Whiskey or on the back of one of the stars of Rachel Sennott’s I Love LA.
If the southern California metropolis that is Los Angeles has a special place in hearts from New York to Paris it’s thanks to its laidback lifestyle. Lak really nailed it with an unstructured hot pink corduroy pantsuit, the jacket of which was as easy-wearing as the bordeaux button-down he showed underneath. We expect to see it out and about wherever Marjan’s fans may roam.
