The colorful halter dress on slide 18 of Ulla Johnson’s lookbook is made from silk habotai, hand-dyed in Bangalore, India, and still shows fine folds and wrinkles from the dyeing process. It’s an easy knockout, as effortless to wear as it is impossible not to notice. Also lively: a bed jacket and evening dress with straps in a short, fluffy, all-over fringe. If Johnson’s collection seems more lavish than usual, it may be because she looked to Niki de Saint Phalle, the eccentric French artist who famously built a 40-acre “Tarot Garden” in Tuscany with sculptures depicting the 22 major arcana of the tarot represent, which are so monumental. that their heads clear the tops of the olive trees among which they are nestled. Not that there’s anything overtly referencing these looks.
Johnson started her brand 25 years ago and her aesthetic has since been well refined. Her showroom was bustling with buyers, not because she flitted from one esoteric theme to another, but because of the reliability with which she breathed new life into her polished bohemian dresses. This season, one midi-length number combines 10 different types of lace, and another is made from eight different types of knits. That hand-dyed silk habotai is particularly special: more of a 100-unit dress than a 1,000-unit dress, she said, adding, “In fashion, the question is always what’s next? I have thought about what is needed.” Her business is growing. Denim and knitwear are on the rise, as are shoes, which she recently started making with a licensee, but she is expanding thoughtfully. For example, the braided t-strap flats are made of vegan leather.
