Delia: Educated Fashion
No-brainer knit tops thrown together with a pair of jeans or trousers epitomize the easy, California way of dressing. Veteran retailer Delia Seaman hopes her customers don’t take the easy way out when wearing designs from her line, Delia.
“[Delia is] more fashion-educated,” said Seaman, who strives to style her customers in unexpected combinations. “I would say that in L.A., things are styled a little bit too easily, so it starts to look too common in a way. I don’t think that it’s a bad thing. I just think that it becomes easy.”
As the owner of two boutiques, the romantically feminine Vionnet on Robertson Boulevard and the serious designer store Delia on Melrose Place, Seaman has sold her designs through her stores for the past seven years. She recently sold her stake in her first retail store, Curve, on Robertson Boulevard.
At first, Seaman made clothes for herself. Customers of her stores coveted her style and it evolved into producing fashions regularly to merchandise with the other items in the boutique.
“My stores have always been about styling. So if I have merchandise in the store that is supposed to look a certain way in an outfit and I don’t have the other piece to complete the outfit, that’s where the Delia line comes in,” Seaman said.
The combination of Seaman’s design knack, speedy production turnaround and limitless stock has made the Delia label the topselling label in all of her stores. Though Seaman has sold her clothes wholesale to select retailers in the past, September of this year marks the launch of a full-fledged collection for wholesale.
Between buying trips to New York, Paris and Milan, Seaman’s designs reflect what the market lacks. “I don’t want to step on any designers and collections. Most designers do what they do very well, and there is no need for anyone else to come in and do it,” she said.
Her designs have just the right amount of interest to be uncommon, but they are not too conceptual or over designed to be impractical. A simple black-and-gold metallic lace shell blouse and an apron dress with dip-dyed ribbon straps have the feminine touch with a sophisticated woman quality. Other items are more extravagant, such as a free-form lace vest with graduated sequins colors and hand beadwork.
Retail price points start at $195 for camisoles and go up to $1,800 for a dress. For more information, call the Fashionhaus showroom at (212) 575-1500. —Rhea Cortado
