DALLAS — It was a bit of a homecoming for Adam Lippes when Conservatory owner Brian Bolke held a seated luncheon as an informal presentation of his fall collection for 32 guests in the store’s Teak Tearoom here on Thursday.
Bolke staged the first trunk show of Lippes’ career 11 years ago when he co-owned Forty Five Ten, and Lippes made such close friends in Dallas that he hasn’t stayed at a hotel since.
“I fell in love with Dallas and I’m lucky to say I think Dallas fell in love back,” Lippes said in an interview before a Champagne reception. “Not only were they supportive as some of the best customers ever, they really opened their arms and their ideas and have become very close friends,” said Lippes, who wore a crisp gray Brunello Cucinelli suit.
He instantly clicked with fashion aficionados Nancy Rogers and Cindy Rachofsky, who both formerly worked in the business — Rogers as a private label designer and Rachofsky as an Anne Klein sales representative.
Annika Cail and Marguerite Hoffman
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Rogers and Rachofsky served as cohosts for the event, which drew guests including Marguerite Hoffman, Jessica Nowitzki, Cinda Hicks, Wanda Gierhart Fearing, Elaine Agather, Melissa Morris, Sharon Young, Porschla Kidd, Sue Gragg and others.
Lippes slotted the stop into a packed schedule. He’s due Wednesday at his boutique in Palm Beach to introduce a luxury tabletop collection produced by Zoë de Givenchy, with glassware by Lobmeyr.
Then it’s off to London to finalize a store lease. Dallas is also on the radar for a monobrand boutique.
Handbags will launch in stores next fall, and business is booming thanks to First Lady Melania Trump wearing his ensemble to the presidential inauguration.
The first lady “knows clothes,” Lippes said. “She understands construction, she knows fabrics, she knows what she likes.”
Sales about doubled in the first quarter on a comparable basis, Lippes said, and the company was previously growing 30 to 40 percent annually. Pants are the top-selling category.
“It’s been 10 years of slowly growing the brand and now it’s finally reaching that hockey stick sort of thing,” Lippes said.
It helps to have customers like guest Missy Rogers (no relation to Nancy Rogers), who said after the presentation that she wanted “it all.”
Kasey Lemon, Porsche Kidd and Jojo Fleiss.
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Rachovsky said she loves Lippes’ clothes because “they’re comfortable and they’re wearable and they’re timeless, and that’s really all I care about — truly, it is.”
During the informal show of 18 looks, Lippes narrated “why these clothes are so expensive.” He pointed out that everything is lined in silk, he uses the “finest fabrications in the world” and digs through archives to reproduce ones that other houses won’t have, and it takes four men in India about a week to embroider the gold glass beads on a shimmering silk tulle gown priced at $11,900. The ladies murmured approval, breaking into applause for new cowboy boots created with Partlow, which was cofounded by Dallas resident Kasey Lemkin.
Bookings from the Conservatory event are expected to reach $150,000, Bolke said, led by a mother-of-pearl-encrusted long-sleeve gown for $9,990 and matching slipdress at $6,990 and pink silk duchesse satin opera coat for $4,290.
Lynsey Eaton, Kasey Lemon and Jessica Nowitzki.
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