Black Label San Francisco
When Rita DiLorenzo first started constructing clothes, she literally pieced together the idea of mixing dressy and casual by sewing the fabric from a frilly vintage silk blouse together with a thrift-store T-shirt to create a new garment.
For her contemporary women’s line, Black Label San Francisco, DiLorenzo continues to balance the ladylike tailored look with a relaxed casualness in a more conceptual sense.
“Women want to be able to look classy and stylish but not sacrifice a sense of comfort and ease,” said DiLorenzo, who has worked as a pattern designer for Bebe and as a freelance technical designer for Banana Republic. “It’s like, ’I want to wear this silk dress, but I don’t want to show up at this party and be completely overdressed.’”
She achieves this balance by layering understated bark-brown silk chiffon over a feminine floral print and solid lilac skirt on one dress. A tucked sueded-silk charmeuse dress paired with a long-sleeve hooded cotton/ poly/Lycra Henley shirt is both vintage-chic and cozy.
The name Black Label harks back to DiLorenzo’s days of recycling garments. “It was the idea that you can take out a garment, black out its label and sort of reappropriate it,” she explained.
The current Black Label line, launched in Spring 2006, has evolved to all-new fabrics with an environmental awareness. DiLorenzo sources mainly natural fibers such as silk, cotton, wool, hemp/silk and hemp/cotton and produces all of the garments five blocks from her home in San Francisco’s Mission District.
Camille Mason, owner of the boutique Magnet in Berkeley, Calif., said that supporting the local community is part of the San Francisco lifestyle. “The Bay Area has always had a grassroots feeling about it, and it carries over,” said Mason, who bought Black Label for her store, which stocks Corey Lynn Calter, Mint and San Francisco–based Talla.
Mason added that she was attracted to DiLorenzo’s artistic voice and unique design details. “I heard amazing things about her [artwork], and I think it really comes out in her clothing,” Mason said. The line has also been sold to Catbird and Neacute;da, both in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Wholesale price points for Black Label start at $38 for a silk chiffon shell and go up to $150 for a silk charmeuse tucked dress.
For more information, contact the True Collaborative Fashion showroom at (503) 222-5151.
—Rhea Cortado
