099: LANIER HICKS
lives in green silk flats and blue French workwear.
On Wednesday night, I stopped by a party to celebrate the designer, Lanier Hicks. It was a distinctly New York summer evening. On the cusp of a thunderstorm a stylish, if slightly sweaty, group packed into Lanier’s brand-new cellar-level studio. Guests spilled into the hallway for pictures and spilled wine into plastic cups. At least while I was there, they avoided spilling on each other (can’t speak for later though).
I like these raw summer parties that authentically capture the city’s youthful spunk—far from the claws of hype-y TikTok/corporate stuff. The hostess thanked me later for coming to her “steamy little grotto.”
Lanier, of course, is the subject of this week’s newsletter. She is a designer and illustrator working on interiors and events. She also pens the substack Dado Line (such a great name). Her friend and Habiter all-star, Amanda, introduced us and described her style really well: “Lanier has never followed a trend and turns out outfits like a big, beautiful sneeze.”
I love Lanier’s playful curiosity and her appetite for beauty and global style. Here’s what she’s been living in lately.
Describe your personal style. What are you living in right now and why?
I dress with different sensibilities depending on mood, situation, environment. Sometimes I want colors to speak the loudest, color and form, focusing on the shapes they create. Sometimes I want to wear costume pieces where I am playing with iconography, leaning into the symbolism or directly defacing it. I love things that feel like common nouns: silk blouse, red pants, navy bodysuit, batik skirt. I like when the lines have a common expression and aren’t too directional in their point of view. I like to be the one inserting the point of view on my clothing.
I have always loved global textile design techniques, be it printing, weaving or ornamentation. Ukrainian embroidery, Indian block printing, West African beading, Mexican woven jackets, Vietnamese áo dài, Japanese kimonos, Tibetan fur hats, Thai silks, Brazilian seed jewelry. I love it all! There are so many treasures in these traditional fabrication techniques that to not appreciate them feels criminal.
I grew up in the south, in northern Florida, where color and pattern are a part of life and style. There must be something about the heat that makes dressing boldly feel so natural. A tomato red dress and massive bug eye sunglasses feel so right under an oak tree in 90 degree weather. My mother has always been a fabulous dresser with such a natural eye. She has an appreciation for color and form that I love. She was always the best dressed person I knew growing up.
I feel like I’ve been wearing all of my clothes for so long now which is a beautiful thing about growing up. You know what you are waking up to every morning and aren’t surprised with what you are faced with in your closet. I typically wear a long sleeve cotton shirt or body suit with a skirt or pants to work and move in and ballet flats. In the summer, a long, comfortable dress is typical. I am usually in silk or cotton.
How often do you shop and where do you shop the most?
So infrequently, and buying things of any use even less frequently. I shop a lot when I travel, going to antiques stores for accessories, vintage stores for clothes. In the city, I shop at Beacon’s, Los Angeles Apparel, or my favorite silk store. I like to buy true one of one pieces or nameless solid color items with utility.
LANIER’S MOST WORN
Olive silk mandarin colored quilted jacket
Blue French workwear chore coat and matching pants from Front General - great for laboring in or travel days!
Navy and white stripe long sleeve t-shirt - go through about three of these a year, my mother always buys them for me for some reason. Just an unspoken tradition.
Best buy of the last year?
I love dresses. Dresses always feel like a complete form and expression so when you find a great one it feels so total. It is the whole look! It is just you in this dress! They are probably the things that have the largest impact on me. Zipping up a dress and looking in the mirror, there is no question of “what bottoms do I have that would work with this?” I mostly buy vintage dresses so when I bought an SC103 dress for a friend’s restaurant opening and it fit like a GLOVE, it was a pretty special moment. They have such a fabulous color sense.
My other favorite dress of last year was actually something I made. I have started a tradition of sewing my own birthday dress on the day of my birthday and this year’s creation was one of my favorites. It was a red and beige block Indian block printed strapless mini dress with a corresponding poncho? Cape? Topper? Thing! that gave it length at the front in the back but not the sides. I felt like myself in that.
What are you currently searching for?
Shoes! My shoes are looking back at me saying, “give me a break, lady!” I want the perfect, non-blister-inducing pair of 2.5 inch block heels I can walk 50 blocks in. I want them to be Prada-like in form and go with everything. I’m a 37 and open to new or vintage. Please send me any leads.
Green Silk Flats from 100% Silk - I’m on my second pair. Oddly goes with everything.
My grandmother’s gold charm bracelet
Vintage ankle length batik skirt
2010’s Marni Leather double zip coat - 2010’s Marni is my favorite to shop on TRR
What’s your go-to bodega/coffee/grocery-run outfit?
I love a Mexican embroidered cotton dress with ballet flats and big sunglasses in the summer. I had a bright orange one I wore constantly as a child and now I have one just the same, just a larger size.
Does your style change when you go to work?
I used to be an interior designer working from a desk everyday wearing pretty dresses, often a heel. Now my design is much more multidisciplinary, including event design and styling, where I have to be able to move and carry things. To be honest, it has really put a damper on my vibe as so often I have to think about practicality. Standing for 12 hour days on site. No kitten heels. Crawling on the ground in. No silk. Picking up heaving boxes. No fabulous, long skirts. It is a bit of an ongoing battle.
Vintage Carrera bug-eye sunglasses I put my prescription in with a 20% tint
Woven raffia basket I’ve had since 2014
What’s your go-to out for a night out?
There are certain outfits that I have been wearing for years now that just continue to do it for me. A night out is when you need those formulas to feel good and true to yourself. The last thing you want is to hate the way you look, maybe be a bit rushed, and then have to go face a full evening. Mine has been the same since graduating college and I still like the way it makes me feel. An oversized silk mandarin collar shirt, a vintage creme mini slip skirt, a pair of kitten heels, deep berry lipstick, gold hoop earrings, and my hair in a lumpy bun on top of my head.
What clothing item or accessory do you always travel with?
I always fill a dust bag with accessories and keep it in my medium Boat and Tote I use as my personal item. It becomes a little goodie bag of treasures that I pepper in throughout a trip: brass collars, glass beads, a broach in the shape of an iris, sashes made of silk, a silver cuff from New Mexico, shells I string on gold chains, bandanas. It is the play part! Dress up but it all fits in a dust bag!
Do you change your accessories or wear the same ones?
A bit of both! I have my base accessories and then bring in large, sculptural items as needed. I wear gold hoops, a gold collar necklace, my grandmother’s diamond and emerald ring as well as her ‘W’ signet ring. These are the items that remain on, especially the rings.
I love things that feel high impact and really don’t love a dainty thing. I want FORM. Big brass belt buckle in the shape of a bean, collar necklace in the shape of two fish kissing. I love my Gogo Jewelry pieces modeled off of seaweed.
she is soooo stylish! immediately subscibed to dado line.
Let me make you a dress!! Can’t promise professional construction but it will be fun to wear! 🤍🤍 Thank you for having me! 🐒🤍