It’s taken Trish Wescoat Pound around three decades to become an overnight success. Her brand TWP, has the wind at its sails after moving from a presentation format to the runway and greatly expanding its retail footprint. An assist from the designer’s old pal, the prolific fashion entrepreneur Andrew Rosen, certainly hasn’t hurt.
Wescoat Pound’s bread and butter remains a type of elevated American sportswear: familiar pieces with a tweak here and there impart a sense of cool girl ease to classic shirting, full-cut pants, and crisp, masculine outerwear silhouettes. “Borrowed from him, but claimed by her,” is how she put it at her airy downtown showroom (where her adorable dog, Theo, roamed freely). Resort was quite expansive, including everything from new belts to an eveningwear capsule of mix-and-match tuxedo-inspired pieces with a few sequins and feathers tossed in for good measure (gowns—too fussy!).
An Oklahoma native, there’s a slight feeling of the prairie in Wescoat Pound’s clothes. Wrap-skirts in paper-thin leather or a shimmery coated ticker-stripe cotton evoked aprons; an addition to her breezily cut shirts—a longtime bestseller and signature—included a style that gently hints at cowboy life with its snap buttons and leather shoulder accents. That no-nonsense Midwest practicality is a progression of her easy, urbane foundation, and provides her clothes with an intriguing tension—the country girl who moved to the big city (which is Wescoat Pound’s own story). The juxtaposition was best represented by a pair of barrel-leg jeans topped with a cummerbund.
Despite its languid, low-key sensuality, there’s also a lived-in utility to much of Wescoat Pound’s work. Take a wrap-front jacket with a tie waist, which features deep side-vents so the wearer can easily slip her hands into the pant pockets; or a tool belt-inspired bag that wraps around the waist for easy access to life’s necessities (the sort of telling detail you get when a woman designs for other women). This season was about giving the customer what she wants—yes, the easy-to-wear matching sets, the pleated, flowing pants, the skimmy little base-layer knits that they already know and love—but adding in just enough novelty to keep her intrigued. Here, it was a tunic with a leather neckline, a sporty pullover anorak, and a dramatic jacket made from strips of woven leather. “You know, if you have a great piece of outerwear,” said Wescoat Pound, “I think your whole outfit is made.”
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