Rentrayage’s Erin Beatty is experiencing a bit of a professional existential crisis. “I’ve found that my interest in fashion… doesn’t exist,” she said on a Zoom from her home in Connecticut. “The idea of fashion in this time and in this moment feels so self-aggrandizing, and I’ve really had to sit with it because that’s what I’ve spent my life [doing]. So I had to ask myself, ‘What am I interested in? What do I care about?’” She discovered she still cared about clothing and getting dressed; but specifically, she cared about the clothes that women wear and the clothes they choose to repeat.
It makes sense that her interests lie in denim, which people in general tend to feel close connections with, and which is meant to be worn as many times as possible, with the reward that it gets better with wear. As a kind of palette cleanser, Beatty started the season with a cream-colored denim, which she used on a jacket with darts at the waist that made it both more fitted, but also added a bit of flair. She also used the fabric on a wonderful A-line circle skirt, and a new style of trousers inspired by a workwear pant with a high waist and a clean flat front. A ’90s-style maxi denim skirt made by cutting open the legs on a pair of jeans (you know the one) was updated by turning the usual triangular inset into a curved one that followed the lines of the body.
Elsewhere her signature collage style shone: a vintage graphic T-shirt with the graphic covered by a variety of crochet doilies; a half-zip sweatshirt with an unorthodox floral fabric inset; and another with princess seams for a close fit, and contrasting balloon sleeves. A polka dot slipdress (“polka dots never expire.” said Beatty during our preview) had a pretty lace trim at the v-neck and side seams: it would likely go on to live a long life in someone’s wardrobe.
