How to Be an It Girl

ORSEUND IRIS HAS BEEN EVERY IT-GIRL’S DREAM BRAND FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS, THANKS TO FOUNDER AND CREATIVE DIRECTOR LANA JOHNSON’S INSTAGRAM SAVVY

When Lana Johnson founded Orseund Iris three years ago, she expected someone, somewhere would take notice. “When I launched the seasonal collection, no one gave a damn and no one cared,” she says. “It was really hard.

Like, ‘Oh my God! What is this reaction?’” At the time, Instagram was coming to its zenith so the designer began harnessing the platform to “create content and get people to care”.

Subsequently the brand took off and became the go-to label for It-girls everywhere. Soon, Kourtney Kardashian was spotted on the streets of LA in Johnson’s now ubiquitous boiler suit, and the Hadids and the Jenners made it their mission to be photographed as many times as possible in what is arguably Orseund Iris’s most famous piece — a reinterpretation of a corset with boning semi-circling the bottom of the bust and the rest made of ribbed cotton. Emily Ratajkowski has worn basically the entire catalogue.

Now available on Net-A-Porter, the brand has come a long way from its beginnings, but Johnson’s path to success provides an example of how young designers can make it big without following prescribed routes.

Thanks to a degree from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, a host of jobs working retail, and design internships at Rosie Assoulin and Assembly New York, Johnson was able to navigate the world of production, from scouting companies in Manhattan’s Garment District to dropping pieces outside the seasonal calendar, and make it work to her benefit. “The non-seasonal drop has been natural. In the beginning, I was bootstrapping it and funding the brand myself, so I wanted to focus and make the best thing I could and edit and curate my designs based on the reactions from Instagram. I’d wear the samples and see if anyone made a comment. If you’re wearing something you design and no one says anything then you know it isn’t right. So there was a lot of testing.”

Originally inspired by Johnson’s twin sister Amber, the pieces are a juxtaposition of New York edge and Victorian gentility. “My sister and I have different styles. She’s a female director and fierce and confident. She’s badass and loves a little more leather. We have different styles, though.

I’m a bit softer, more feminine – like the pieces.

“Because they’re quite in your face, and I love that, but there’s a duality of masculine and feminine which I find very strong.”

While the brand has broadened its colourways, offering classic hues for the Net-A-Porter woman, it has not deviated from its core customer.

“The Orseund Iris girl is confident, bold. She is fierce. She loves rare things. She likes feeling special and strong. The Orseund Iris girl is you.”