![]() ![]() “Who can I imagine wearing this? Cindy Sherman, Courtney Love?” she says of her creative process, though most often she is designing for herself, with the philosophy that there will be an audience for like-minded women who share her desire for clothing that is unconventional but easy to wear. Why do I want it? When it comes to seasonal collections, Hay marches to the beat of her own drum, quietly ignoring the traditional fashion calendar and instead simply creating new styles when she gets inspired – which often happens when she visits quilt and hobby-fabric producers. In 2018, she was a runner up in that year’s CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund – awarded $150,000 towards the growth of her brand – and has since appeared in the pages of American Vogue, The New Yorker and the New York Times, among others. Now, Batsheva counts stockists worldwide – alongside Matches Fashion, Hay’s clothing can be found at Browns Fashion and Paris’ Galeries Lafayette, as well as stores in Nigeria, Belarus, Russia, and Japan. Soon, Batsheva was a red-carpet mainstay: “Erykah Badu, Cindy Sherman, Courtney Love, and Celine Dion have supported me from the beginning and speak to the range of personalities that are attracted to my unique clothes,” Hay says. Shortly after this, celebrity stylist Kate Young discovered the young label, commissioning her to make a custom dusty-pink micro-floral blouse for Natalie Portman Hailey Benton Gates also became an early fan, stumbling across the brand after searching for clothing made from moire silk. Ruth Chapman, founder of Matches Fashion, overheard someone talking about Hay’s designs and would end up placing an order for 500 dresses to be sold on the site. Hay continued making dresses for herself, sourcing fabrics on eBay – something she continues to this day – and a local flea market, as well as designing her own prints herself. ![]() Friends started reaching out and asking me to post my silhouettes on Instagram, which led them to wanting to buy for themselves,” she says. Inspired, she decided to make a dress for herself – in ten different fabrics – reaching out to a pattern maker through a friend. The only thing I liked to wear was vintage, and I thought, ‘Why can I not find something new and fresh that is as good as what I find in a flea market?’” ![]() I did not feel that what I saw in stores was smart, weird and comfortable the way that I wanted it. “I wanted to feel good about myself as a woman, as a new mother. Immersed in a strange new world alongside her husband, photographer Alexei Hay, she found herself reconnecting with the clothes she wore in her youth – among them, garments by British designer Laura Ashley. We had just moved to a new neighbourhood in the Upper West Side of Manhattan,” Hay tells AnOther. “I became a new mother and felt very lost with what to do next in my life. She wasn’t always a designer, though – before her much-talked-about take on the humble “house dress” became her namesake line, she worked as a lawyer. Who is it? Batsheva Hay was born and raised in New York and like the city her pieces are infused with an electric kind of energy. ![]()
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