Orley (Q8833)
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| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Orley |
No description defined |
Statements
Props to team Orley for the most ingenious use of Swarovski crystals in a collection seen for a while. This young and much-supported New York knit-rooted house won the CFDA’s Swarovski Award for menswear, so, naturally, it was obliged to use its benefactor’s product in this lineup. Yet instead of unquestioningly bringing the bling, the designers discovered a trove of dead-stock matte stones, creamily flecked and imperfect, lying unloved in a factory in Austria. They were featured as buttons on the shoulders of submariner sweaters and micro-waffle tops, and were placed irregularly at the pocket flaps and buttoning of slimly pared workwear profile jackets. Crucially, they did not outshine a collection built on subtle explorations of texture and hand.Nick Drake, that arch heartbreak salver and soft-spoken howler at the moon, was the starting point for a collection that reflected him in its paisley, looks-scratchy-but-isn’t multi-fleck checks and jumbo cords. He would have felt less melancholic affinity for the fitted fine-gauge polos and soft sweatshirts—a by-popular-demand debut category for Orley. Drake is one of those artists who reward repeated listening, again and again, until his songs become personal signposts. That synced nicely with an offering that dwelled in the shelter of detail: the single loop-the-loop twists in the weave of a sweater, the feel of an all-silk fabrication that looked spun from something far wider, a bicolor rib knit whose purple heart was revealed only with flexing. For this first-timer, the appeal of Orley made gentle sense: Here was a collection of considered playfulness that would reward repeated wearing.
3 February 2017
When subverting suburbia, who better to look to than Todd Solondz? This season, stills from the director’s pitch-black classicsHappinessandWelcome to the Dollhouseboth turned up on Orley’s mood board. Also tucked in there were frames from the film adaptation of Daniel Clowes’sGhost Worldand various works by artist Mike Kelley, a fellow Detroit native (brothers Matthew and Alex Orley hail from there) and knitwear enthusiast in his own right. Think of Kelley’s not-quite-right yarn-stuffed toy on the cover of Sonic Youth’sDirtyand you’ll get a general sense of this latest offering: cheery but just a touch twisted.The proudly preppy trio behind the niche-y knitwear label—the two brothers and Matthew’s wife, Samantha—specialize in revisionist takes on pieces like the polo and, yes, even the twinset. For Spring, they made a surprisingly cogent case for the latter, whipped up in spring green space-dyed yarn. Admittedly, specific is the girl who’s going to kick it in a twinset these days, but the anachronistic appeal of its presence wasn’t lost; at a preview, the designers pointed to the uncanny, historically unplaceable quality of their references, like Solondz’s movies. That was evident in their cool, superfine three-bar plaid printed crewnecks—second-skin clingy and slightly sheer, their cut felt runway timely while the pattern had a certain air of ’60s suburban living room to it.Among the more trend-driven pieces here were great-looking spongy cherry-red and white flares, meant to pool casually over sneakers, and a matching tie-back top whipped up from 100 percent silk yarn. Twisted nostalgia? Only subtly so, but they’ll still likely prove among the more salable takeaways from this season’s jaunt down memory lane.
27 September 2016
Navel gazingisn’t usually a term levied as a compliment. But Alex, Matthew, and Samantha Orley have made good fashion grist out of the stock they’ve taken in themselves. The most recent winner of the CFDA Swarovski Award for Menswear,Orleyhas, since its inception, drawn on the designers’ personal experiences of growing up in the Detroit burbs, not to mention their shared family history. That exploration hasn’t concluded, but this time out, the three Orleys pivoted, and turned to artist Mike Kelley and filmmaker Todd Solondz for a different, more twisted perspective on suburban ennui.There was a compelling sense of surrealness and perversity in the preppy-ish looks the trio turned out this season. Kelley-inspired swirls acid-tripped across fine-cotton tees or were textured into the brand’s signature engineered knits. And a certain Solondz-ian offness was to be found in the collection’s combination of a rather bilious palette and meticulous, all-American silhouettes. At an appointment today, Alex Orley spoke about the idea of “compounded time”—of an aesthetic that translates across eras, such that you feel anchored more in a sensibility than a moment. This outing got that idea across very well.Looking outward, to Kelley and Solondz, wasn’t the only way that the Orley crew were opening up their perspective. This collection was also marked by its greater focus on cut-and-sew knits and woven materials, many of them, like the terrific lightweight wool plaid, made in collaboration with legendary Italian mills such as Tessitura di Crevacuore. (This development was thanks to a partnership with the Milano Unica Fabric Program.) The Orleys have a keen sense of materials, as evidenced by the knits for which they’re best known, but here they demonstrated their textile savvy across a wider range of looks. Orley’s growing fan base will appreciate that.
15 July 2016
Today’sOrleyshow was a bit of a conundrum. The aim, according to Alex Orley, who designs the young line with his brother Matthew and sister-in-law Samantha, was to “tell a story through knitwear,” utilizing as many knitwear techniques as they could. That resulted in many fine pieces, but it also made for a collection that was, essentially, about clothes qua clothes, as opposed to a collection wherein the clothes serve a larger vision of who the Orley man or woman is now.The memorable looks, though, made the case for Orley’s potential. Chief among these were the deconstructed cable-knit sweaters, which got at the lineup’s loosely interpreted maritime theme in a fresh way. There was a distinctive attitude in those sweaters, conveyed via canny techniques that deserved to be further explored. The same could be said of the collection’s other standouts, the floral and nautilus-printed knits that managed the trick of being very pretty without being at all frothy. That was an interesting tone to strike, especially in the menswear, and it echoed in subtle touches like the bell shape given to a few crewneck sweaters.Elsewhere, the interest was in the make of the clothes and their fine details. In the women’s line, the engineered knit pleats were especially well wrought, and the knit faux shearlings had real punch, particularly in a coat featuring an asymmetric collar and contrast trim. The menswear had less pop, but the knit tailoring, trim knit polos, and dense waffle-knit sweaters will undoubtedly have a ton of hanger appeal. The palette was also noteworthy, giving the offering as a whole a poetic expressiveness it would otherwise have lacked. Speaking after the show, Alex noted that one of the animating ideas of the Orley brand is to subtract the machismo from masculine looks, and the palette was one area of this collection where you felt that that modus operandi—a smart one—had been rigorously applied. If the designers can extend that thinking to every aspect of their work, and extrapolate it with the inventiveness they brought to bear in their fantastic unraveled fisherman’s knits, then they’ll be telling a story people can’t wait to hear.
4 February 2016
What’s new in a glutted knitwear market? The trio behindOrley, husband-and-wife teamMatthewandSamantha Orley, and Matt’s brotherAlex, are hard at work figuring out just that. Yarns are the bread-and-butter for the brand, and so, for its third women’s offering (the first season,Fall ’15, was picked up by Barneys), the designers wisely opted to emphasize their foundation in knitwear before branching out into wovens.Of an all-knit lineup, the team estimated 70 percent to be Italian-loomed, the rest handmade in New York, and stressed their desire to create a narrative, “not just a really nice cashmere sweater.” That end game was clear from the word go, with every piece of the Spring lineup speaking to a certain off-kilter, almost Tenenbaum-esque take on preppiness, from polo shirts to sweater vests (yep, sweater vests). Take a cotton-cashmere pleated skirt in a mod-looking custom graphic print. It had a splash of retro quirk to it without feeling overly precious. A pair of mulberry and tussah silk flares, though, sat firmly on this side of the 21st century and echoed the industry’s current yen for head-to-toe sweater dressing—so polished you could take them to the office, but so forgivingly stretchy you might just opt to wear them forSVUreruns at home, too. Things heated up in a cable-knit pullover with a surprisingly sexy back and open panels, the result of crocheting around laser-cut plastic discs.At a recent studio preview, Alex emphasized the importance of not just reworking their men’s styles for women—six months from now the trio expect their girls’ business to outstrip their guys’. Here was a lineup that was strong, but also single-minded enough that you’d look forward to seeing how the label will diversify next season. One of the collection’s standouts, a crocheted shift in cherry-red and white stripes, offered a promising hint.
21 September 2015
Orley has always been a family affair: The label is helmed, after all, by brothers Alex and Matthew Orley, and Matthew's wife, Samantha. This season, the trio went whole hog on the family thing, bringing Mom and Dad into the picture. As they explained before their presentation today, they found inspiration in the "opposites attract" nature of the Orley parents' marriage, not to mention the '70s era in which they first met. Around that time, Mr. Orley was a preppy young New York lawyer ("preppy," Matthew noted, "but withverywide collars"), while his bride-to-be was on the West Coast following the Dead. Free spirit meets company man. Hilarity ensues.Actually, you didn't really need all that backstory to appreciate what the Orleys were up to here. This collection engaged a dialogue between the buttoned-up and the unraveled, the straightforward and the eccentrically off. This dynamic was evidenced in particular by the slightly oddball proportions—the plaid jacket, cut full and square; the trousers with a gentle taper and a subtle crop. Given Orley's background as a knitwear brand, it was no surprise that the sweaters asserted the theme most of all, with natty polos given an abbreviated, midriff-baring cut. Indeed, there was a lot of skin on show, from the double-face tailored knit vest, worn on its own, to the short, popcorn-knit tanks, to the semi-sheer paisley sweaters in hand-crocheted Japanese silk. Those sweaters apparently took 90 hours apiece to make, which underlined another key objective for the designers this season: To raise their knitwear game. That they did, indeed. Mom and Dad would surely be proud.
17 July 2015
Much like the storied Italian knitwear houses that it aims to emulate, New York-based luxury label Orley is a family affair. It's run by two brothers, Alex and Matthew, and Matthew's wife, Samantha. They launched menswear for Spring 2014, designing finely knit polos, elastic-waist track pants, and above-the-knee shorts in incredibly particular hues like dusty terra-cotta, Dijon yellow, and sage green. From the start, there was a clear intention here: Take "old guy" clothes and make them look young. But not too young that the old guys still won't want to buy them. "We have never tried to define our men's customer by an age. For us it has always been more about defining the mind-set," Alex said. "I think our customer in both men's and women's share an ageless youthfulness."Resort 2016 marked Orley's second foray into womenswear. While the men's collection included woven fabrics, women's was knitwear only. "We wanted to tell a full story, but to tell it in as focused a way as possible," Samantha said, although they didn't forgo structure for softness. For instance, a crochet bomber and matching pencil skirt were made from Japanese silk tape yarn, which has as much shape as any sturdy woven. A pointed collar vest was knit on a fine-gauge machine, but plied up and double-faced so that it felt like a proper piece of outerwear. To capitalize on the popularity of cable-knit without offering too much sameness, the team developed a bubbly "scallop" pattern that was fashioned into a kicky skirt and shell. The look was a bit prim and a bit sporty, and just quirky enough to appeal to a range of shopping archetypes.There are crossovers from the menswear line—the fine-gauge polos are there, as are the graphic jacquards—but it was important to the Orleys that the women's looks not mirror the men's. "This isn't just our men's clothes for women," Matthew said. "It's about capturing a feminine mind-set." And that they did. Orley's advantage over other emerging brands is that its point of view has been clear from the get-go. But it's still going to take some time to find a customer willing to invest in a name they don't know. (And it is indeed an investment. The crochet bomber, for instance, will retail for $2,795.) Still, Orley is offering something unique, and that is admirable.
4 June 2015
Seeing Orley's models, lined up casually and chatting in pigeon pairs as if waiting to boardsomethingheaded forsomewheretony, it was hard not to draw a line to Mr. Ripley and his entourage. There was a boarding school/grand tour feel to the cable-knit sweaters, cropped trousers, and twinsets (on both sexes). Or maybe it was in the collection's starting point: details in American painter William Merritt Chase's portraits. But the clothes were neither costumey nor cliché, and the addition of women's ready-to-wear for Fall brought a larger, long-range game plan into view for brothers Alex and Matthew Orley and Matthew's wife, Samantha. (Ten bucks says there's a lifestyle brand brewing: The trio has gone from men's sweaters to women's clothes in three years.)The clothes were rooted in classic American staples, the stuff our grandparents' wardrobes were filled with, the workhorse pieces people wore every day. The idea was a good one. "It's something familiar, but done in a subverted way," Alex explained during the presentation. There was a nostalgic charm to a green striped sweater set for her and a baby blue knit polo and cardigan for him, both spun from Cariaggi merino. Or the way in which the women's cream knit skirts hit properly just below the knee and the men's tailored pants were cropped at the ankle, as if to rile Dad in the least offensive way possible. Orley's designers have a nice sense of color and they aren't shy about using it, from the tart green and soothing blues to cream, gray, and darker tones. The women's looks were done exclusively in knits and stole the show, especially a gray cable sweater and skirt with a stripe of black color-block and its twin in reverse colors. The team relished in adding small details, like jersey-covered buttons and hand-finished grosgrain ribbons at waistbands for women and old-timey jacket closures for men. Just the sort of neat-o touches you might have seen in Grandpa's and Grandma's closets.
13 February 2015
It's been a monumental summer for luxury knitwear label Orley, which consists of brothers Alex and Matthew, as well as Samantha, née Florence—she and Matthew were married just weeks ago. Besides that major personal moment, the team kicked off the season by joining the CFDA Incubator, and in July they were named finalists in the 2014 CFDA/VogueFashion Fund. Since the men's market is on a different schedule, Orley's Spring 2015 line was introduced to buyers in the middle of the summer, which means they were working on that too. (New accounts include By George in Austin, Texas; Matches in the U.K.; and Journal Standard in Japan.) Oh, and they launched e-commerce this week. So it seemed that Wednesday afternoon's presentation at the High Line Hotel was one of the least stressful things the Orleys have tackled in the past six months. "It's the icing on the cake," said Alex.High on those many successes, the team seemed delighted to show off Spring to friends, family, and press. Inspired by the photorealist paintings of Robert Bechtle and Robert Cottingham, the idea was to capture a "subversive take on American iconography," as Alex put it. Tropes from the late 1960s were everywhere, with proportions skewed and colors softened to mimic an old photograph. Pink Italian linen trousers were cropped far above the ankle and worn with the brand's best-selling knit polo in Cariaggi's extra-fine merino. (The Orleys love fancy Italian fabrics.) A plaid pullover was paired with a button-up and shorts in the same print to make three individually respectable pieces look a bit more fashion-y. And a light blue trench in an Italian techno fabric—paired with shorts made of Japanese shirting—was the sort of thing that would work in just about any closet. Faded red sweatpants worn with an open-front shirt jacket made a case for keeping that trend alive.It was all styled with scrunched-down wool socks and sneakers in custom fabrics and colors, designed in collaboration with men's footwear brand Greats (another first). Yes, knitwear is still the thing, but Orley is doing much, much more. And it seems the industry is betting on them.
4 September 2014