Michelle Ochs is back and with her new label Et Ochs: she’s bringing sexy, slinky, streamlined dresses back, too—not that sensual dresses needed the help. In the three years since Ochs split up with Cushnie, and with fashion, the trend cycle has swung dramatically in favor of the svelte Ochs look. But while these stretchy, clingy pieces might seem of a kind with the other body-conscious pieces out there, Ochs’s garments are engineered for maximum kindness to the bodies inside them.
Take the first look, a stretch olive bodysuit-dress that can be pulled on over the wearer’s head and snapped in between the legs. No zippers necessary! Flare leggings, luxe boxy tees, and sweatshirt fabric blazers push the Ochs look into practical daywear, and even the most sequined evening piece is cut to feel more like wearing activewear than wearing a gown. Yes, she’s still minimalist and yes, she’s still glam, but Ochs’s woman feels a bit easier, more relaxed, and more self-assured than the last time we saw her on the runway.
That comes with Ochs’s own life changing; she became a mother during her fashion pause. Accordingly, she has reconsidered some shapes for a woman’s body. “Nothing harsh,” she says. Aesthetically, she seems to be embracing a more eclectic and off-kilter style; no simple symmetries or obvious slits. It will be interesting to see how women raised on Cushnie et Ochs, many of whom are mothers now too, buy and style these pieces. Their lives have matured, and Ochs has matured alongside them without doing the thing so many designers do for women over 30: giving them a drab navy suit or a mumsy tea dress. The Ochs client is unapologetically hot and definitely not a girl. Long live Hot Woman Summer.
