THE SOCIAL NETWORK
from left: Michael Eckhaus; model Paloma Elsesser; Zoe Latta; model Oliver
Price; teacher and model Thea Garlid; model and actress May Hong; model
Rose Daniels; photographer Michael Bailey-Gates; model and artist Jane
Moseley; filmmaker Alia Raza; actor and model Hari Nef; model Raven; artist
and model Coco Gordon Moore; model Camilla Deterre; model Cole Mohr; actor
Anna Cordell; and model Mahi. Clothes from Eckhaus Latta’s spring 2020
collection. Hair, Holli Smith; makeup, Inge Grognard for MAC. Show stylist:
Avena Gallagher. Details, see In This Issue. Sittings Editor: Jorden Bickham.
LAST SEPTEMBER, guests arrived at
the Eckhaus Latta fashion show in
Brooklyn to find a vast warehouse
space transformed into a hippie play-
room. Rugs were splayed hither and
thither, with a dozen or so kids on top
of them crawling, climbing—doing kid
things. Eventually, as attendees settled
into their seats, the kids commenced
banging on pots and shaking maracas
and tambourines, creating a joyous
cacophony to accompany the models’
procession along a zigzagging runway.
The daughters of New York–based
designer and shop owner Maryam
Nassir Zadeh played in this “baby
orchestra,” as Mike Eckhaus and Zoe
Latta called it; so, too, the toddler son
of Mission Chinese cofounder Danny
Bowien and the rambunctious two-
year-old belonging to conductor Brian
Chippendale, a musician friend of
Latta and Eckhaus from Providence.
Yet other friends could be spotted on
the catwalk—designer-artist Susan
Cianciolo, for instance, and models
Paloma Elsesser and Camilla Deterre,
who have been Eckhaus Latta main-
stays since early on. Regulars at the
brand’s shows have grown accustomed
to such sightings: For Eckhaus, 30, and
Latta, 31, fashion is a family affair.
“When Zoe and I started out, we
didn’t have any money—or, to be hon-
est, any idea of how to run a fashion
business,” explains Eckhaus of his and
Latta’s community-minded approach
to their eight-year-old brand. “But we
did have this network of talented
friends who were willing to, like, play
with us. That’s the great thing about
being in your early 20s—all you’ve got
is ideas and time.”
It’s a month out from New York
Fashion Week, and Eckhaus is milling
about his Lower East Side studio, wait-
ing for a check-in call from Latta, who
runs a second studio out of L.A. This
unusual setup works thanks only to the
umbilical connection between the two
designers, who met as students at RISD
and who seem to have been engaged in
a nonstop conversation ever since.
Though neither studied fashion at
school, their desire to launch a brand
stemmed from
Eckaus Latta
By Maya Singer
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