Label: Hache, designed by Manuela Arcari Need to Know: Since 1990, this Italian fashion brand has quietly attracted well-heeled European doyennes with designer Manuela Arcari’s anonymously wearable, androgynous-leaning clothes. In a bid to go global, the company made its New York fashion week debut last Spring. For Fall ’13—which marked Hache’s second stateside show—Arcari paid homage to nineties grunge. Cropped biker jackets, knee-length kilts, mohair sweaters, and pin-striped trousers faintly called to mind Seattle chic by way of Bologna, without an ounce of plaid in sight. Featuring retooled technical fabrics such as embossed neoprene and bonded leather, Arcari maintained a muted color palette with navy and military green jacquards but punctuated the collection with pops of bubble-gum pink shearling and metallic leather. Admitting she loves menswear on a woman, Arcari (who also designs Hache’s Milan-based sister label Ter et Bantine) showed a minimalist take on the nineties with patchwork shirtdresses, voluminous trousers, and crisp poplin oxfords—a wink to the company’s roots as a shirtmaker.
1/2