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 BY KATRINA SZISH
| | | ADAM and Ease | |  | | | | | There should be an ease to everything.
Meet Adam Lippes (LIP-pis), the Ivy League-educated brain behind the effortlessly stylish label ADAM. How does a psychology major and investment banking-bound Cornell grad land at the top of the fashion heap? Lucky for us, Lippes headed to Paris post-Cornell to balance his business brain with a bit of art history and architecture and subsequently fell in love with fashion. Upon returning stateside, he promptly landed an entry-level position as the assistant to the store manager at Polo Ralph Lauren. Less than a year later, he followed his boss to Oscar de la Renta, and in record time this young man who so desperately wanted to break into fashion was named Global Creative Director.
I joke that I went to the University de la Renta.
Lippes describes his eight-year tenure as an unparalleled learning experience, and he only half-jokingly admits that he’d like to go back for a refresher course. Yet with an expansive freestanding boutique in Manhattan’s high-rent Meatpacking District (and a myriad of others in the works), another well-received runway collection under his belt, and a rapidly expanding international presence (a bonus for Lippes, who loves to travel), Lippes’ skills clearly need no refreshing. Apparently his mentor agrees: Mr. de la Renta remains an investor in Lippes’ fast-growing company. | | | | | | | | | | I’m an American sportswear designer. That’s what I love.
T-shirts were Lippes’ bread and butter when he launched his adampluseve line in 2004 - a choice, he explains, that went beyond his inherent adoration of the all-American basic. When one’s mentor is Oscar de la Renta, the last thing one should do upon going solo is attempt to build a brand based on luxurious daywear and dresses. Naturally, Adam did t-shirts to a T, garnering a spot on Oprah’s list of favorite things. Buoyed by unbridled success, the line soon evolved to include more than just basics - for both women and men - and the label’s name was refined to ADAM. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | It’s not fun if my friends can’t afford my clothes.
His surprisingly well-priced designs (cashmere dresses start at $295) transform natural fabrics and materials into casually elegant essentials. A sweater dress gets an edge from cut-outs and metal accents; a cotton shift with organza overlay and wooden beads inspires wanderlust; an ankle-grazing silk sheath is transformed with shell embellishments. Lippes’ goal is to provide women with wearable clothes that are both high quality and affordable. | | | | | | | | | It’s about a feeling, about a sense of style more than a particular piece of clothing.
Lippes’ style icon is his mother, his muse Cate Blanchett - both of whom he describes as having “simple elegance.” However, much like the fashion flexibility displayed by Blanchett who can morph from earthy to otherworldly depending on the silhouette, the designer doesn’t shy away from the occasional showpiece: the covetable cream ostrich feather dress from Spring 2010 instantly comes to mind and would undoubtedly be at home on most red carpets.
I’m really not involved in the fashion industry. I don’t like the parties. I don’t like the glamour.
The more the fashion world embraces him - he was inducted into the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2007 -- the more Lippes digs in his heels when it comes to the fanfare that follows. He prefers business to bubbly. He chooses communing with customers over mingling with models. He would rather escape to his farm in the Berkshires than commandeer a banquette at the Boom Boom Room.
I feel true to my heart with what I do.
Lippes is neither fussy nor fulsome. He doesn’t share breathless tales of textile tragedies near-averted. He doesn’t air kiss or call you darling. There’s no trace of the insecurity that plagues (and often destroys) many otherwise-talented designers. Yet that’s not to say he isn’t fabulous. He is. He’s a man on a mission whose splendor lies in his success. Say hello to the new generation of American fashion designers. Say hello to Adam Lippes.
Visit: www.shopadam.com
ADAM by Adam Lippes will be featured at Fashion Dish for November. | | | | | | | | |
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