LBV Plans First New York Fashion Week Runway Show, Launching Ready-to-Wear

Rosemary Feitelberg

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LBV LAYERS UP: As creative director of the accessories label LBV, Elizabeth Kennedy will be showing off her first ready-to-wear collection for the company during New York Fashion Week.

The ethos for LBVc/o Joss Sackler 2020 stemmed from the private women’s club by the same name that was started by Joss Sackler. Salonlike in that its members share ideas and interests, the debut collection is designed to be offshoots of Sackler’s style as well as her members. Confident in Kennedy’s design acumen, the club’s founder decided to invest in her to develop ready-to-wear, well-suited for on-the-go urbanites. Cocktail dresses, eveningwear and more tailored looks are part of the 40-style collection. It will be sold via the company’s e-commerce site in January and through an estimated 20 retailers for spring. The ready-to-wear will be in the $700-to-$3,000 retail range and the evening wear will fall between $1,800 and $7,000.

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The inaugural runway show will be Sept. 9 at the Bowery Terrace, and high-profile stylist Alex White will be working behind the scenes. Initially, the collection will be sold direct-to-consumer via the LBV site. But in a joint interview, Kennedy and Sackler said they have plans to wholesale the collection globally. There are also plans for pop-up retail events and trunk shows including ones that will be held at the LBV club. In keeping with that aesthetic, the idea is keep things personalized and experiential. Showgoers will also get a glimpse of Kennedy’s latest signature handbags for LBV that will be offered in exotic skins and with unique embellishments.

Kennedy, a Parsons grad, worked for more than a decade in design for Donna Karan, J. Mendel, Isaac Mizrahi and Max Mara before venturing out on her own. She launched a signature collection of eveningwear in 2012, but she left her namesake company last year. Litigation over her trademark is still going on, she said. Last year she filed a $1.3 million lawsuit, claiming that she was essentially forced out of her company by Robert Basil, who had been her largest investor. But Kennedy is focused on the potential of her new ready-to-wear, which could reach $1 million in wholesale volume in the next 12 months, by her and Sackler’s estimates.

Along with her relatively new job, the new label and the upcoming runway show, Kennedy also has a new baby — Sasha Teodora Bogojevic, who was born Aug. 1.

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