Cotton Tales
A good T-shirt is no longer hard to find—with labels such as The Row, the business of haute-basics is blossoming. Much more difficult to find, however, are good basic-basics—white tanks that won’t break the bank, a T-shirt that you can roll out of bed or wear to the office underneath a cardigan.
Fortunately for us, a proactive person shared our complaint, stylist Leslie Fremar. (If you don’t know her by name, you’ve definitely seen her work; she dressed Scarlett Johansson in Dolce and Gabbana for the Met Ball). While we were content to sit and whine, Fremar approached cotton giant Fruit of the Loom to solve the problem: “I have been wearing Fruit of the Loom men’s ribbed tanks for years and was having a hard time finding a great affordable women’s version, so I had an idea to approach them to make my own,” Fremar told us. The result (fruits, if you will) is a capsule collection of tees, tanks, leggings, and comfy cotton dresses designed by Fremar. “I wanted everything to be simple, affordable, comfortable, and stylish,” she explained. Do not, however, dismiss Fremar as another stylist-turned-designer, “I definitely have a new respect for designers…I have been a stylist for a long time and never really thought it was time to branch out. However, the longer you do something the more obvious the holes in the market become,” Leslie told us.
The element that most shocked Fremar, however, was not the design process but rather “the retail aspect. I realized you can be an expert in one thing and have no clue about another; retail is a whole other world in fashion, that editors and stylist do not get to experience.” Prices range from $22 to $50 dollars; available at Bloomingdales.
