Low-Down Luxe

An emerging crop of American labels are designing everything from denim to rings, and injecting a unique energy into the expanding, trend-insensitive, dressed-down luxury category.

Overpriced, heavily distressed jeans were all the rage three years ago. But to Keith Richardson and Jerrod Cornish, these denim emblems of casual luxury were rather "obscene" sources of "frustration." Thus, in 2003 the duo founded Corpus, a none-too-flamboyant label of slender, "raw and indigo rinsed" men's jeans, "focusing more on what is left off [the garment] than what is put on."

For a/w '06-'07, the label is casting a unique and suspendered spell on the super-skinny denim movement. There's the "11 oz. black speckle" low-rise Stick jean with "busted seam detailing" that gives a nod to blue-collar Britannia while channeling a rakish punk vibe. The Tal S rises slightly higher, but the "12 oz. vintage selvedge hatch" gives just the right tautness, so the jeans' androgynous appeal is overrun with plain coolness. There's a fetching women's version made of jersey that comes with stirrups, the perfect manifestation of the label's concept of dressed-down luxury. Corpus is manufactured in downtown Los Angeles and sells at Jake in Chicago and Steven Alan in New York.

For the editorially overlooked but loyally followed six-year-old label Gary Graham, luxury is a modern deconstruction of hand-dyed natural fabrics that rarely strays from the designer's signature murky palette of "neutrals from silver to green" and "brown to black," which he calls "stains."

Inspired by Disfarmer's poetic images of rural life in Arkansas, this alumnus of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's current collection teems with charming antiquity: skirts, varying in length, are multi-seamed, gathered and layered with tulle, and heavily embroidered, with rough-hewn edges; one dress is reminiscent of a demure schoolgirl's jumper, while the disheveled silk version calls to mind a Southern belle's party frock; tops have tiered necklines, while trousers are fluid and outsized; and coats are fitted around the torso — one gorgeously paneled in jacquard.

Graham's timeless designs appear to have been recently plucked from the attic of a wealthy patroness of the arts — the kind of woman for whom quiet concept is preferential to over-the-top opulence. Graham's ostensible conceptual allusion to Lars von Trier's Manderlay makes the collection not stylistically anachronistic, but confidently in step with fashion's current moody and languid layering. Gary Graham is available at If boutique in New York, Curve in Los Angeles, Nordstrom nationwide, and Holt Renfrew in Toronto.

In contrast to Gary Graham's low profile, Los Angeles-based Paula Thomas' Thomas Wylde seems to "love rock-and-roll" as much as Joan Jett. Thomas, a former stylist and model, infuses just the right measure of rock into femininity, and has converted young Hollywood starlets such as Sienna Miller and Lindsay Lohan since the line's launch last year.

For s/s '06, the hit-making offerings from Thomas are a shoulder bag made of black, slouchy, studded distressed leather (a prevalent treatment in the collection), and a sleek black tuxedo with full high-waisted trousers. Apart from the introduction of Georgia O'Keefe's cow-skull prints and more color choices, however, the real story for a/w '06-'07 is the label's strong-shouldered outerwear with nipped-in waistlines, featuring military and medieval-looking jackets. A wool tweed trench coat is accented with Barolo lamb leather, while the slender Mayfair tuxedo jacket is lined in cow-skull-printed silk, and the luxurious piece de resistance comes in the form of a Victorian-inspired jacket with a high neckline lined in chinchilla. Other notable fall offerings are the skull-adorned cashmere sweaters, tank tops, floor-length dresses, and accessories that can "hang in either gender’s closet." Thomas Wylde is flying off the racks at Maxfield in Los Angeles and Royal Flush in Tokyo.

It's expensive to work with stingray, so Lincoln Brown of Lincoln's NY, who uses the luxury skins for his made-to-measure shoes, has recently begun to use leftover strips to create a line of handmade rings with a silver leather lining. Coming in a variety of colors from lime green to denim blue, Brown's LC line of rings debuted this summer, selling for $40 exclusively at Odin for men and women. Colors and sizes vary. Get a finger in one of these rings that epitomize luxury gone sporty.

-Robert Cordero