Of all the 57 labels showing on the official New York Fashion Week Calendar this week, one has made an unusual move late in life. In its third decade, Lafayette 148 has shifted from a largely wholesale department-store staple operating in the mid-priced “contemporary” space to a luxury label sold at Bergdorf Goodman and Moda Operandi. Though the label is 29 years old, this is its third season presenting at NYFW.
It’s a move into exclusivity that many mid-tier brands would love to make, but few manage. When I first heard about it, I assumed it the label had acquired a generous new private equity investor, or maybe the board of directors had decided a strategic shift was in order.
But founder and chief executive Deirdre Quinn set me straight when I asked. “There’s no private equity,” she tutored me with a laugh. “I don’t have a board. We’re self-funded.” She describes the shift upmarket as the only way the brand could survive seismic shifts in the fashion industry of the past decade — the malaise of many department stores, an overabundance of contemporary-priced apparel, wild fluctuations in demand and supply chains — working with her creative director, Emily Smith, who joined in 2003 as an intern.
