LOOKBOOK: LOEFFLER RANDALL

Just because there wasn't a runway show doesn't mean they don't have style.

For emerging designers, things have a set order:

Make some cool clothes.  Get them on celebrities.  Pose for a shelter magazine in your too-cool apartment.  Break into Barneys Co-Op.  Then, after a few starlets show up at your runway show, you can start making shoes.

But Jessie Randall and Brian Murphy went backwards: First they made the shoes out of their Brooklyn apartment, in a neighborhood appropriately named Cobble Hill.  Then they won awards, won a deal with Target, and won some blessed extra studio space.  And then, last year, they made some clothes.

Below is the latest Loeffler Randall collection, for Fall '09.  Details like studs and hardware usually seen on boots and handbags were transferred to dresses and peacoats.  Colored tights continued into Kool-Aid shorts and blouses.  And the shoes?  Yeah, they're pretty awesome, too - but still designed in Brooklyn, with love.
--FARAN KRENTCIL



This story was published on February 26, 2009.