Lingua Franca is harkening back to its Nebraska roots for International Women’s Day.
The premium cashmere brand is teaming up with the National Willa Cather Center, an organization dedicated to keeping the feminist author’s memory and written works alive, for a special collection.
Rachelle Hruska MacPherson, Lingua Franca’s founder and designer, is a Nebraska native who has long admired the Pulitzer Prize author who moved to the midwestern state at the age of nine. Cather wrote extensively about pioneer America, the Great Plains in the 19th century and the European immigrant experience, including classic novels like 1918’s “My Ántonia.” This year marks the 100th anniversary of her Pulitzer for World War I novel “One of Ours.”
Related Articles
Though MacPherson has been a New York City transplant for more than 20 years — and once lived steps away from Cather’s West Village apartment — she feels strongly about honoring her birthplace.
You May Also Like
“Though I am a proud New Yorker, at the end of the day, I will always be a small-town girl from Nebraska. For our spring ’22 collection, I took a pilgrimage home to the rolling hills of the prairies I grew up on,” the designer told WWD. “I found inspiration in my grandma Irene, the woman whose phone number was the first I learned by heart, and who tended to her roses like everything else in her life, with great grace and commitment. Shooting local models at Irene’s old home in Ceresco [Nebraska] brought a flood of childhood memories. It was a day I will never forget. She was there with us.”
The offering includes ready-to-wear in the form of dresses, tops and skirts, as well as Lingua Franca’s signature cashmere crewnecks. Hand-stitched on the sweaters are phrases like “an adventurous life,” “I only want impossible things,” and “the end is nothing the road is all.” Lingua Franca’s clothing is all ethically sourced.
Prices range from $350 to $600 and a portion of the proceeds from the collaboration will go to support the National Willa Cather Center in Red Cloud, Neb. The Center offers educational opportunities for patrons to experience Cather’s work, explore historic landmarks related to her life and times, foster creativity and embrace the arts and humanities.
Since its founding in 2016, Lingua Franca has donated more than $1 million to more than 227 charities.