Construction is underway in a new uptown retail space for Adam Lippes, though retail isn’t quite the way to put it. Rather than opening another store—Houston, which bowed in May, was his second after a boutique in Brookfield Place in lower Manhattan—Lippes is creating a by-appointment salon, a place to engage one-on-one with his clothes and enjoy his well-curated world.
Anyone unfamiliar with his decorating sensibilities need only open this month’s Architectural Digest. If the new space is anything like his Berkshires home, which was photographed for the magazine in its high summer splendor, it will be a place his clients want to linger—if not move in. He reports that the feature in AD has prompted some inquiries about his availability as an interior decorator.
Naturally, Lippes has brought his trademark discerning eye to his new resort collection. A spin through the racks reveals, among other things, a dress in a floral print inspired by an 18 century botanical painted by hand in his studio and wide-leg khaki trousers embroidered down the sides with the same motif, high-waisted leather culottes with brass buttons lifted from authentic fencing uniforms, and a leopard jacquard glinting with metallic thread on a full midi-skirt and straight-leg trousers.
His focus in this pre-season was sportswear separates. “I wanted to go back to a little more of an easier way of dressing,” he said, adding the caveat that it’s all “as refined and luxurious as we can make it.” Charcoal gray cashmere suiting and the cashmere “denim” in a deep shade of indigo he used for a relaxed jumpsuit both lived up to their luxury billing, while the collection’s many belted paperbag waists had the sense of ease that he was after. An evening column in pale double-face Taroni silk crepe with a drape detail above one hip elegantly combined the two instincts.