The Slow Burn of Hot Clothes—Dion Lee Opens His First US Store

Eight years after Ronnie Fieg launched Kith Women, he’s betting big on the “fairer sex” and bringing on the Dutch designer Daniëlle Cathari as its new creative director. “I’ve always wanted to offer women the same experience that we we offer men, that they can shop the brand and footwear on the same level; but I’ve had the struggle of not knowing how to communicate it the same way and emotionally connect to it in the same way,” Fieg shares. “I wanted to make sure the person that we brought on board could wear and live through the product they create. That they eat, breathe, and live the brand inside and out.”

Fieg has famously expanded and developed his vision of American sportswear at in a way that reflects his own life(style)—the fabrics more luxurious, the clothes inclusive of more formal and professional settings. It makes sense then to bring someone on that could distill her own life into a covetable product. Interestingly, it was another designer who’s also changing the American contemporary menswear landscape that connected Fieg with Cathari. “My friend Teddy [Santis, founder and creative director of Aimé Leon Dore]—who’s friends with Daniëlle—he and I speak a lot and we always talk shop; he knew I was looking for somebody for this position and he brought her up to me.”

He’s been showing stateside for a decade, but it’s in the last couple of years that he’s become a designer to watch. “I think it’s me maturing, my taste maturing, and the product paralleling that,” says Lee. You can see it in his tailoring and in his more evening-leaning product, but there’s a new finesse to his fabrications across the board. Lee has an undeniably sizable business, which may surprise his New York Fashion Week peers. The thing about being young and making clothes that are seen as sexy and “on trend,” is that you’re boxed into the idea of being “emerging.”

“I do feel that I’ve been in a holding pattern waiting for these projects to materialize in order for people’s perception of the brand to evolve and for that misconception to be corrected,” he says. He knows that people don’t always have the strongest understanding of the brand, but he doesn’t see it as a problem. “Having shown in New York for close to 10 years, I’m aware that many brands come and go,” he says. “Brands can become the next big thing in two seconds, and I’ve taken a very slow-burn approach to building myself within the industry, having sat outside of the CFDA platform and not coming up through the industry here.” His outsider status may actually be his biggest asset. “What I’ve learned from my now quite lengthy time in the industry is that it’s about sticking to what you do and taking measured steps, even if they’re slow.”