With Her Size-Inclusive 11 Honoré Collection, Lena Dunham Introduces a New Character
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Lena Dunham has experienced fashion from all angles. Few can say they’ve walked the catwalk at London Fashion Week for 16 Arlington, as she did in 2020, thrifted their way through Brooklyn’s vintage emporiums, and crafted characters whose taste in clothing is as memorable as their dialogue. Dunham’s path from lifelong enthusiast to Vogue cover star is well documented, but until recently, her interest was limited to personal style. This week s launch of 11 Honoré x Lena Dunham changes all that with a five-piece collection that fulfills her wardrobe wishlist.
Like many of her previous projects, the capsule began with a character. “I had this early 90s SoHo woman in mind bopping through her day from one appointment to the next,” shared Dunham on the phone from London where she’s filming the comedy, Catherine, Called Birdy. “Maybe she’s heading to the farmers market or having dinner with friends and has to stop by her studio. Imagining her day unwinding was huge for me, because then you can feel it all come to life.”
The character focus is evident within the collection. Offered in sizes 12 to 26, the lineup of scalloped-edged pinstripe blazers and patterned shirt dresses in shades of olive and marigold would look right at home on the big screen. Girls fans might picture Shoshanna or Jessa, but the looks also align with Dunham’s modern magpie aesthetic. “I’ve always been about color and pattern—the louder, the better,” she says. “If it looks like Auntie Mame wearing a pair of PJs and knocking back champagne or [as though] a kindergartener hot glued on a bunch of fake rhinestones, that’s where my style lives.” Such eclecticism is still rare within the plus-size luxury market, a space where Dunham felt there was room for improvement.
The capsule itself grew out of Dunham’s friendship with 11 Honoré founder Patrick Herning. First introduced to the site as a customer, Dunham found the size-inclusive e-tailer to be an oasis of good taste. After months of buying her Rachel Comey separates and GANNI dresses on the site, she met Herning in the fall of 2019. The pair hit it off immediately. After some back and forth—and the onset of the global pandemic—both felt a clothing collection informed by Dunham’s experiences would be ideal. “Lena was so open about her journey, which had a profound impact on what she wanted to develop,” says Herning. “There is just this authenticity. From the print style to buttons and edges, it all feels very her.”
Like many women, Dunham experienced weight fluctuations over time and saw the difference in the options available for straight-size consumers versus what was offered to their plus-sized peers. “I’ve always been someone who’s had a curvy body, and the market was something that truly interested me [as] I was starting to see a lot of the holes within it,” she explains. “11 Honoré already filled some of those, and it was great to find pieces there that I loved and spoke to my tastes. I’m someone who loves to feel powerful in my clothes and likes them to have a sense of humor, so I thought there might be a world where I have something to say [in fashion] and about creating plus-size garments. When I started talking to Patrick, I realized that he would be the perfect guide.”
Dunham’s perspective on dressing can be aptly summed up in one world: cheeky. There is a playfulness to her clothing choices, whether it’s pure irreverence like the coordinating Christopher Kane mini-dresses she and Girls co-star Jemima Kirke wore at the 2019 Camp-themed Met Gala or punchy floral Prada she graced the Emmys carpet back in 2013. But her love of whimsy was often at odds with much of what she found when pursuing stores. “Sometimes it seems that the people who make plus size clothing think that women want to disappear,” she says. “That because our bodies are curvy, we don’t want to be seen any longer, and that’s just not true.” Those attitudes were something Dunham sought to counter within her designs. Bold, upbeat, and filled with detail, her pieces aren’t for wallflowers. “I wanted these clothes to say something and have a perspective,” says Dunham. “They aren’t trying to hide because the people who are wearing them have historically been told that they should hide.”