Nanette Lepore

Nanette Lepore grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, then moved to New York and, in 1992, opened a design studio in the Garment District on a $5,000 loan from her father. She never left. Decades later she was still cutting patterns blocks from that same office, and became one of the loudest voices fighting to keep New York's garment trade alive. The label she built there is a contemporary one: ruffled, colorful, unmistakably feminine, not a mass-market basics line. That sensibility runs through the dresses here: floral mesh in a fit-and-flare cut, an embroidered midi, a floral shift with an off-the-shoulder neckline, all built around prints and shape rather than plain solids. Striped straight-leg pants round out the racks for shoppers who want the prints without the skirt. If you already know Nanette Lepore from department-store racks, this is the same design language at a different price point — the prints and ruffles she's built her name on since 1992.