Batsheva at W Department

Batsheva Hay was a lawyer, with a degree from Georgetown, when in 2016 she took a worn vintage Laura Ashley dress to a dressmaker to have it remade. She kept going. The label she founded that year works from a specific and slightly uneasy set of American references: the prairie dress, the Victorian collar, the housewife’s cotton, the dirndl, prints that are almost too innocent to be innocent. She was a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist in 2018 and has shown in New York since. AnOther’s interview is a good account of how she arrived at it.

What makes the work serious rather than a costume is that the construction is real. High collars are stiffened, skirts are tiered rather than gathered, and the silhouettes commit fully instead of winking.

Batsheva at W Department

W Department stocks Batsheva in women’s only. The dresses carry it: the Arya in cotton gingham, the Nanette in black crushed cotton velvet made in the USA, the Norma in turquoise viscose jersey, the Phillipa in red polyester chiffon over tulle, and the Bridet in a bow-print taffeta. The tops run from the Carroll in Italian cotton to the Grace Blouse in flocked polka-dot tulle, a Short Sleeve Dirndl Top, and the Skipper Blouse in red, made in New York City. There is a Bow Jacquard Skirt in 90 percent merino and 10 percent cashmere, and a Ruffle Pant.

This is the most openly ornamental line we carry, and it sits on the same floor as Ann Demeulemeester and Comme des Garçons without apology, because the conviction underneath is identical. Hay is not decorating. She is arguing that a house dress deserves the attention usually reserved for a suit, and she has been making that argument long enough now that it reads as a position rather than a mood.