In Earnest (Q4791)

Byron Lars is a fashion veteran whose new line, In Earnest, launched last year. A star of the 1990s fashion scene in New York, Lars was known for his fantastical, glamorous shows and sexy shirting, some of which he’s reintroduced for fall. There’s a V-neck dress shown layered over black palazzo jeans and a carefully pieced, to-the-waist top with printed lace inserts. These looks, noted Lars on a call, “harken back to my beginnings in this whole industry when I started with shirting. That was based on practicality, because I knew I’d get my hands on shirting fabrics pretty easily… but what was at the core of my thinking then, and I’ve rediscovered now, is to root the aesthetic in an American sensibility. And there’s just nothing more American than an Oxford shirt.”Other Americana touches include sporty side stripes on pants and an original take on a varsity-style jacket that features Victorian puff sleeves and a zipper-trimmed frill. They’re a world apart from silvery “cyborg” leggings and several qipao silhouettes. How did they fit into this red-white-and-blue take on fall? “It’s impossible to extract Chinese culture from the American experience,” said Lars. “What is ultimately American to me is really a global sensibility because everybody’s here and everybody’s bringing what they know and we’ve adapted to it and it’s become American.”Mixing cultures can be a tricky proposition; layering pieces and mixing fabrics and prints is the In Earnest aesthetic. (The lace on the pieced shirt, for example, was printed with stripes to match the woven material it was paired with.) More might be more in Lars’s world, but the collection delivers a sense of abundance and joy rather than a feeling of the baroque, in part because many of the pieces are designed to be worn in more than one way, plus they have a “hand.” “Texture is just everything!” exclaimed Lars. “Since e-commerce is so important, you have to be able to touch things with your eyes.”