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The interplay of plushness and sleekness is well-trod territory in fashion. If I had a dollar for every time a designer uttered the phrase “something hard with something soft” during an appointment, I’d be a millionaire. While Michelle Ochs is exploring popular ideas with Et Ochs, she does it in her own way. Nowhere else on the New York Fashion Week calendar—or in Europe, I’d venture—will we see clothing suspended by moldable metal wires. Ochs’s blazers, puffer jackets, and almost Mugler-ian bustier dresses are all built with metal filaments at the hems, so that the wearer can construct her own silhouette and change it by the day.
Adjusting fashion to meet a woman’s needs or mood has been what Ochs excels at with her new brand, now in its third season. Her T-shirt bodysuits, intentionally oversized and grungy, are among her most popular early hits, as are her no-zipper evening dresses that just pull on over the head. She’s added metal buckles this season, somewhat evocative of Seven Easy Pieces–era Donna Karan—on the whole, Ochs seems to operate in a post-Karan wake. Sensuous, cerebral, sexy, and smart, her clothing takes the guesswork out of getting dressed without losing its specialness. Ochs’s steely aesthetic, grounded in postmodern materials, is what makes her stand apart too—it’s a feat to do sexy and cold. That’s spiritually cold, I mean: her giant padded puffer seems ideal for these 18-degree days.
