Luxe Liner
A local trend-setter starts her own line.
Gretta Luxe doyenne Gretchen Monahan has already cornered the local couture market. Her next step? Creating soft, perfect tees. Earlier this year, she teamed up with New York–based designers Estee and Sharon Elkayam, and began work on Gretta Couture, a collection of casual and dressy separates to be sold exclusively in Monahan’s shops and online at grettastyle.com.
“We wanted pieces that would mix and match well, and become essentials for the modern woman,” Monahan says of the tailored wrap dresses, grandfather sweaters, dainty camisoles—and yes, perfect layering tees—that make up her fall-winter 2006 line.
Her prints and patterns—tiny ivory chainlinks on French-blue backgrounds, delicate teal and white dots on taupe—take inspiration from vintage men’s neckties, and her cashmere, silk, and lace fabrics lend all the pieces a feminine, flirty edge.
“Above all, I wanted sexy,” Monahan explains. “I don’t like clothes that make ladies look like men.”
“We wanted pieces that would mix and match well, and become essentials for the modern woman,” Monahan says of the tailored wrap dresses, grandfather sweaters, dainty camisoles—and yes, perfect layering tees—that make up her fall-winter 2006 line.
Her prints and patterns—tiny ivory chainlinks on French-blue backgrounds, delicate teal and white dots on taupe—take inspiration from vintage men’s neckties, and her cashmere, silk, and lace fabrics lend all the pieces a feminine, flirty edge.
“Above all, I wanted sexy,” Monahan explains. “I don’t like clothes that make ladies look like men.”
Originally published in Boston magazine, September 2006
