Rozae Outlook

Last season, L.A.-based designer Rozae Nichols shuttered her namesake label and went, as so many were going, back to basics. She created IAN, a new collection, and traded in the flouncy, Angeleno-casual designs for a pared-down range of mostly black staples. The old Nichols wasn’t gone—IAN remained, like its predecessor, made in Los Angeles, with insistently woman-friendly shapes and fabrications and hand-finished details—but she was definitely muting her free-to-be vibe. IAN was sleek, streamlined, L.A.-gone-New York—and two of New York’s best boutiques, Barneys and Opening Ceremony, quickly snapped it up.

IAN soldiers on, but for fall, Nichols is dipping a toe back into brighter-colored waters with ROZAE, a second line that emphasizes prints, often in wild juxtaposition. (The collection was influenced by the great mix-master Robert Rauschenberg, as well as fellow artists Sigmar Polke and Yayoi Kusama.) The boho-run-amok look is a refreshing antidote to stringent minimalism, one that’s gaining traction in New York, L.A., and nationwide. The debut collection has already been picked up at Ikram in Chicago and The Webster in Miami.