On this episode of the In Her Shoes podcast, the Cut editor-in-chief Lindsay Peoples talks to Lotan about sustainability, why she doesn’t do fashion shows, her love of flip-flops, and more
Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Dudi Hasson Fashion designer Nili Lotan worked for other companies — including Liz Claiborne, Nautica, and Ralph Lauren — for 23 years before she started her own line in 2003. Ever since she’s been in charge, Lotan has been following her instincts to create classic pieces she wants to live in. Known for her timeless staples and high-quality garments, Lotan was encouraged from a young age to develop her personal style.
Nili: I’m laughing because I actually just put on my flip-flops because my sandals are right next to me and I have an issue with the closure, so I just put on my flip-flops, but —Nili: There’s something iconic about these flip-flops. For years in the summer, I used to walk around with flip-flops because it’s just the most comfortable shoe for me. And although I could wear the most elegant things on the top, I still wear my flip-flops, summer and winter.
Lindsay: That’s a beautiful story. I mean, when you started out in the industry, because of that, did you have a really clear idea of how you wanted to build your brand or were you just going off of loving the design and the creativity by it? It’s exactly like speaking eloquently. Dressing in style is dressing eloquently, in a way. I think there is things that we’re drawn to naturally, and it depends where you grow up. It depends what are you surrounded with. For me, it was very simple. I wear a lot of black, I wear a lot of white, so that makes it simple. I don’t wear too many prints or complicated patterns. I’m drawn to leopards and kind of rock and roll prints, I should say. I could call it that way.
On top of it, obviously, I like things to be sexy. Sexy not in a way that they are vulgar, but sexy in a way that they project something to the outside that’s stimulating, that it’s engaging, that it’s cool. And so to me, there’s certain points on a woman’s body, whether it’s a shirt that I do or a dress that I do, a pant that I do, that I like to emphasize, and it’s not the obvious part.
Today, people talk about sustainability. They also mean using recycled materials, using thick, grown, made man materials versus others. I think this is a little more difficult to do because the process of making clothes is not a sustainable process, and I think it’s going to take years till we’ll learn how to make clothes from air.
I never had that kind of money because I started my business with $25,000 of my own, and I’ve never had anyone invested in the business and put a lot of money to the point that I can say, “Okay, let’s spend half a million dollars on a show, and let’s see what it brings us.” I didn’t have that luxury. So instead of that, I opened a store in East Hamptons and in Tribeca that cost me, altogether, to open, $25,000 to $50,000.
Lindsay: Did you have to make any shifts around your business or just the way that you work, throughout this pandemic? Did you have to pivot at all or change anything? Obviously, your brand is continuously relevant because it’s something that people can wear all the time and is not so event-driven, like a lot of brands that only do cocktail dresses or something like that.
I kind of tried to help and give at the same time, help myself and give at the same time, where most of the things that were important is, No. 1, not to end up with inventory, and No. 2, how to shift the type of clothing that was relevant. What I did is I hooked up with a manufacturer that the majority of their product was sweatshirt and sweatpant and T-shirts, and all these comfortable clothes that we all wore during the pandemic, and started to produce, focusing on that category of clothing.
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