What the Designer Has in Store

Martin Grant has been making his mark with quietly feminine, audaciously tailored garments such as the one above, from his spring 2005 collection. (Maria Valentino For The Washington Post)

The collection that Grant presented for spring is distinguished by elegant shirtdresses, full skirts, short jackets with tailored collars, splashes of silver glitter, plenty of black and delicate details such as girlish tucking.

"I feel like the femininity will last a while," he says. "But I'm mixing the femininity thing with something slightly harder-edged and not so sugary sweet. I'm mixing soft and fluid and frilly things with a very serious coat.

"Tailoring is something I've been working on developing," he continues. "Now I feel I understand that. Now I can start doing other things. . . . This collection is about softening that tailored silhouette, but you still see a certain structure."

In a recent episode of "Will and Grace," the character of Karen Walker -- played by the actress Megan Mullally -- is wearing an ensemble that is a particularly nice example of the way in which Grant blends femininity, modernity and exacting cut. She wears a skirt suit in a metallic gold tweed. The skirt is slim -- not quite a pencil skirt, but nonetheless close to the body. The jacket has bracelet sleeves and a low-cut, rounded collar that frames the face and shoulders in a pretty but not provocative manner. The suit's label, however, does not read Martin Grant but rather Barneys New York Collection.

A more bottom-line-oriented training comes from his work with Barneys. "Just the fact of being able to go to New York and spend time there is quite inspiring. Also, the whole experience of working with other people and working in Italy," where the line is produced, is helpful, he says. "It's made me work faster. Time becomes more precious."

Barneys forces him to focus on more technical aspects of design; the collection will have to fit and appeal to far more people than his signature label. (Still, it would be fair to say that although the average Barneys customer could become a fan of the Martin Grant label, she is, by no means, average. Barneys does not cater to size 14s or those for whom St. John Knits are an aesthetic risk.)

In his own line, he indulges in more free-handed experimentation. The Barneys collection, he says, is driven by his design instincts, but his own collection pushes those ideas further. His collection is personal. For the store, the personal blends with the corporate philosophy.

The Barneys collection is "definitely a statement about the store. It's not trying to be a total statement about fashion, but it's something about quiet refinement. It's for someone who is influenced by fashion, who loves it. Some of her pieces are a little off from what's in fashion but just enough to make her interesting," says Judy Collinson, executive vice president for womenswear at Barneys New York.

The private label was launched more than 15 years ago with an emphasis on suits. Slowly the collection evolved into a cohesive group of sportswear with a distinctive point of view. To a great degree, it reflects the vaguely vintage, stylishly eccentric sensibility of Collinson herself. There has been recurring chatter about wholesaling the collection to other retailers, but so far, Collinson says, it has amounted to little more than talk.

When Grant signed on with Barneys in 2003, he followed Behnaz Sarafpour, who'd left to focus on her own label. She is now part of a group of dynamic young talents in the New York fashion industry. The fact that Grant finds designing for Barneys something of a tutorial on production, sales and marketing is exactly the intention of store executives.

"Behnaz started out with us, and she's been great with delivery," Collinson says of Sarafpour's prompt and efficient adherence to retail deadlines. "We know she always heard us talking about that. We hope they learn something from their experience here."

For Grant, the job has given him a greater understanding of the breadth of fashion customers and their needs. In designing for his signature label, for instance, Grant avoids relying on a muse -- a single real or fictional woman to inspire his work. Instead, he describes his style as "communistic."

"I look at lots of different people. Different kinds of people can inform me and become a different kind of hybrid," he says. A lot of his signature looks, he says, have little appeal on a hanger. They need to be tried on. So it helps to talk to customers, explain himself, and entice them into the fitting room. And the customers give him feedback. But that is not to say that he always listens to it.

"It's not so much advice, but they do say that things run too small," he says. His tone here is more matter-of-fact than apologetic. "Sizes in France tend to be smaller. Australian girls and American girls, some of them are more athletic.

"All clothing is not always for everyone," he says, more blunt than diplomatic. "I think there is a certain customer who fits that clothing and certain styles that suit larger women."

Through the Barneys brand, Grant may cater to a wider audience, but when the designer's name is on the label, it is his prerogative to cut his skirts and jackets as narrowly as his customer niche.