According to Rebecca Hessel Cohen, these are LoveShackFancy’s house codes: pink, bows, lace, tulle and flowers. Every LoveShackFancy design has at least one. Most have two. Some have three or even four. “More is more for us,” Cohen said. “Our girl is busy day and night and takes out all the things. There is no stopping her.”
She often uses the term ‘girls’. Some of this has to be factual. LoveShackFancy attracts a wide age range, including teens. Go to any of their stores (17 worldwide and counting) and you’ll see daughters shopping with their mothers, and vice versa. (“Babies through the 1980s,” Cohen says of her clientele.)
It’s also because the LoveShackFancy universe—filled with tea parties, tiered cakes, and historically reimagined Marie Antoinettes that are carefree and unguillotined—should be ambitious in its blissful, romantic-bohemian lifestyle. ‘Women’ implies a sense of adult responsibility, a certain seriousness. It’s not the word you use for a brand built on fun and frivolity. This brand is intended for the Wendy’s in Neverland who want to escape the adult feeling. “We have good girls and not-so-good girls, but they’re still good girls,” Cohen said.
But that was the case for her fall 2024 collection women where Cohen wanted to appeal to more people. To start, she balanced all the pink with some black. It was still done in a LoveShackFancy way: the belt of one leather jacket was tied with a bow, another was lined with pink sheepskin. A mini dress was delivered with a tulle skirt, a lace bodice with floral sequins, And a bow. (Four codes and counting.) Then there was the corsetry. One of her idols, Betsy Johnson, told Cohen a few years ago that she needed to “step up her corset game.” So Cohen studied the fashions of Parisian cabaret dancers during the Victorian era and beyond annees folle. Then she went to work.
LoveShackFancy’s corsets were decidedly tamer than their historical counterparts, coming in ballet pink, cream and bridal white shades. Some show a playful innocence. Others felt strangely youthful, especially a pink and floral mini dress with a corset, bows and a lace skirt. There is a fine line between coquettish and childish.
