“It’s such an overused term in fashion, but she’s ‘It'” declared Briah Taubman of the girl she’s eyeing to dress with her emerging label, Briah Artemis. If either of those Briahs ring a bell, it’s probably because they were both behind the little white sash dress with “Miss Should Be Headliner” scrawled across it that Charli XCX wore to perform at Coachella this year.
Artemis is Taubman’s middle name (her initials are, in fact, B.R.A.T.). “I was researching it one day and was like, “the Greek goddess of the hunt? She’s so cool, so badass. I want to affiliate my girl with that,’” she said, speaking at her Williamsburg studio. A huntress herself, Taubman hunted down Charli’s stylist Chris Horan and frequently cold emails others for similar celebrity placements, Chloë Sevigny, Clairo and Renee Rapp among them.
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Taubman, a Parsons and CFDA Future Fashion graduate specializing in knitwear, cut her teeth in the studios of Proenza Schouler and Khaite where she now supports herself styling freelance. Being on set stirred her desire to start her own line, she explained, saying: “I had so many ideas of things that I wanted to be there, but just weren’t.”
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One of those pieces is the frayed taffeta flag top in her second collection. As Taubman sees it, Briah Artemis is a platform to dismantle Western ideals — her debut collection took on beauty (hence the pageant dress) and here she’s taken apart the American dream.
Looking to the 1950s nuclear family, Taubman envisioned moments of vulnerability behind the white picket fence. Lacy peep-holes and dresses with disorderly draping and gaping backs evoke the housewife coming undone, a microcosm for “the idea of our entire country coming undone,” she said.
Americana motifs and archetypes were “f–ked up” elsewhere too, like Mickey Mouse whose head is severed from his body on upcycled Ts paired with briefs or bumster-esque zip-around leggings. Alexander McQueen is a prominent fixture on Taubman’s mood board and his freeform construction techniques certainly inspire hers, though she’s been working to balance that with his refined tailoring as seen in spring’s wool crackerjack trousers.
The naval officer, like the housewife and the pro-athlete donning a star-spangled singlet (a collaboration with the artist JAK) are all patriotic uniforms to be recontextualized by the Briah Artemis “It” girl who’ll likely wear them out dancing as her form of protest. In fact, she already did last Thursday while fêting the collection’s launch at East Village hot spot Monsieur.
When asked what her American dream is, Taubman responded, saying it would be to see Briah Artemis at Dover Street Market, “and to dress Lady Gaga. I do know her stylist.”
Briah Artemis is currently available direct-to-consumer. Prices range from $170 to $1,265.