Debut New York: Wrap Me Up

The general calm and sense of security a perfect, slouchy sweater induces is often undercut by the wearer’s knowledge that the item in question isn’t necessarily as cool or inviting towards others as it ideally would be.

We’ve found the answer to this dilemma in Micaela Greg’s Autumn/Winter 2009 collection – the label’s inaugural – a range of super soft knitwear inspired by optical art and origami folding techniques. The designers are San Francisco-based sisters who had the lofty influences of a master dressmaker grandmother and a grandfather skilled in the fine art of shoemaking and pursuant of the inventive properties lurking in the design world. With inherited attention to perfect craftsmanship and a natural inclination towards the innovative the sisters achieved design school degrees in knitwear (Masters at that) and design with an emphasis on pattern-making. The collective experiences bred a debut collection founded on patterns and structures out of the ordinary that celebrate an authentic design tradition and capture an insouciant, downtown attitude of modernity.

We’ve recently been reaching quickly for the open-front cocoon sweater created with spun sugar wool in milk-and-cookies black and white; warming when it needs to be, and light and breathable when the sun hits our shoulders during Sunday afternoon brunch. At night we were curled up on the sofa of our glowing apartments wearing the lean, perfectly tailored optic knit leggings, which on a more ambitious evening we’d pair with heels and a sharp, long blazer for dinner. And while it isn’t all knitwear all of the time for us, it could be – Micaela Greg’s butterfly wing draped skirt has a twisted-classic appeal that will work in the office on Monday with a bare leg, or over-the-knee boots.