When Tanner Richie and Fletcher Kasell began ideating their spring 2025 presentation, they thought of featuring the artist Jeanette Getrost, tasking her with transforming one of their white gowns into something new. “We really like her work, so we didn’t give much direction,” said Richie. What could Getrost do with a blank canvas, particularly one alive and on the influencer and model Dylan Mulvaney? What an artist’s dilemma.
And that is just what the designers titled this collection: “The Artist’s Dilemma.” “It’s our own personal dilemma, in a way,” said Kassel, with Ritchie expanding: “We have so many ideas and now we touch so many categories that sometimes we have to pick and choose what we can do.” Since launching their label almost five years ago with a run of tote bags and tees, the design duo has rapidly expanded across lifestyle, bridal, menswear, womenswear, and everything in between. Such growth is certainly exciting, but it’s not an easy thing to pull off this early on.
Kasell and Ritchie have, minus the usual growing pains hiccups, stuck the landing. “We’ve upped the quality quite a bit now,” said Kassel. Expanding their wholesale and direct-to-consumer business has increased their orders, which has allowed them to level up their production partners. This change was most noticeable in the womenswear, which this season seemed to find the sweet spot between what customers and retailers are asking for and what Kasell and Ritchie want to make. A prim corseted dress with a full circle skirt meticulously gathered at the hip was a shining example, as was a yellow checkered jacket covered in sheer sequins. “The main improvements of the season come in the women’s,” said Kasell. “We’ve had a substantial offer in menswear for a while, so it was a little unbalanced until now.”
Most importantly, scaling has enabled Kasell and Ritchie to start drawing outside the lines some more. They faced white lace with PVC to make a fabulous trench coat, created a few playful bloomers (an ongoing trend, believe it or not, but one that worked well here), and rendered some of their signature silhouettes in swishy nylon, black and gingham, to give them a fresh spin. They were weird, fun, and effective. It’s this kind of thinking that will help them keep things interesting now they’ve built such a singular world.
Today’s presentation was arranged as a series of vignettes. Models polished silver, sharpened pencils, spun wool, exercised, or, in the case of Mulvaney, posed statuesquely. Her dress was covered in little black bows by the end of the show—a Tanner Fletcher signature. Sometimes the best way out of a dilemma is going back to the basics.