Khaite's '90s Lingerie Dressing

September 12, 2026, backstage at Khaite's SS27 collection, unveiled in a vast storehouse at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. After the show, designer Catherine Holstein shared her thoughts backstage.

"I wanted to make the collection that feels most like me. Even the parts no one would notice, like the back of the skirt Kaia Gerber wore, were filled with handmade corset construction. I wanted to capture those invisible moments of special hand-finishing that only reveal themselves when you open up the garment."

The answer Khaite, which buyers use every season as a barometer of sensibility at New York Fashion Week, offered for its 10th anniversary wasn't a new silhouette or bold color, but "the inside of the clothes."

Why Khaite Chose Handcraft

Even for clothes that look simple on the outside, Khaite made everything by hand, down to the corset construction and detailed finishing threads that only reveal themselves when you turn the garment inside out. Rather than surface-level show for others, it chose to offer a very small number of customers "the reality of true handcraft" that only the person wearing the clothes can fully feel.

In the end, Khaite's strategy of "luxury you only understand once you open it up" works as the core language that fully justifies the brand's high price tags. The moment a sales associate goes beyond showing the exterior in store, opens up the inside of the garment, and explains that "others can't see it, but inside there's hand-finishing precise enough to pass down for generations," a price tag in the thousands of dollars becomes persuasive to the customer not as mere consumption, but as a worthwhile investment.

Shrunken Leather

Silhouette shifts at bellwether brands are a leading indicator for gauging the flow of the entire market. It's notable that Khaite's signature oversized leather outerwear shifted to shrunken proportions this season.

This aligns with the trend of "a return to '90s slim silhouettes" that major luxury e-commerce players and buyers have recently pointed to. As New York's most influential brand scaled down its proportions starting with the SS27 season, it clearly signaled that the life cycle centered on big shoulders and oversized outerwear, which dominated the contemporary market for the past several years, has reached a turning point.

Lingerie Silhouettes

The key silhouettes Khaite presented, such as exposed bra tops, minidresses that slip naturally off the shoulder, and slip lingerie, align with the slip dressing grammar of Calvin Klein Collection. Lingerie dressing inspired by underwear archives from the 1920s to the 1940s has emerged as an agreed-upon mainstream trend in the SS27 New York market.

The same lingerie trend was rolled out in segmented forms across different categories: minimalism and high-end craft.

💡 Fashion Buyer Insights

Recalibrating Proportions in Leather and Jacket Orders
When building SS27 orders, you need to reflect the shrunken signal from Khaite by increasing the share of cropped and slim proportions, and proactively set a sell-down calendar for carryover inventory of existing oversized outerwear.

Selecting Low-Risk Categories
You can propose crinoline-style belt accessories, sheer button-up shirts, and soft peplum tops, which translate the lingerie trend into everyday wear, as key pieces with a low barrier to entry.

Tracking 10th-Anniversary Retail Momentum
You should track signals of flagship store expansion and global distribution reorganization announced around Khaite's 10th anniversary, using them as variables in setting wholesale and buying terms.

💡 EDITORIAL SMALL TALK

A Look Completed with Peplum Details and Layering
This is the style presented this time by Khaite, the brand behind the boots-over-jeans and newsboy cap trends. It completed the look by layering peplum details that flare at the waistline over shirts or pants, adding tousled "bed-head" hair.