The Tamesis
Hey, Upper East Siders: Rebecca Hessel Cohen brings Marie Antoinette to the cinematic world of Gossip Girl for LoveShackFancy’s fall 2026 series, set in Cooper Hewitt, the Gilded Age mansion in Blair Waldorf’s hometown. What followed was an explosion of lace, bows and glitter. “She’s like Blair Waldorf meets Marie Antoinette if she had an iPhone,” said Hessel Cohen.
Retro has always been Hessel Cohen’s starting point, and he looks to the Paris market for inspiration. Here, Edwardian silhouettes sit side by side with dusty-pink Dior bar jackets from the John Galliano era. “I collected all the Gallianos,” she said. There are also more modern styles. Fitting in with the latest (albeit short-lived) cultural obsession of 2016, a model wore a brown taffeta high-low skirt paired with white lace leggings and a white lace tank top adorned with a rhinestone-encrusted bow brooch.
Autumn 2026 demonstrates the growing scope of Hessel Cohen’s responsibilities. She bet big on corsets, most of which were made and decorated in New York’s Garment District. “Beading is really new to us and more sophisticated,” she said. An emphasis on craftsmanship has led Hessel Cohen to push the price of LoveShackFancy’s highly embellished pieces to $3,000, she said. “For the first time in this series we are actually giving higher prices,” she added. “If it’s really beautifully constructed, our customers will pay for it.”
Hessel Cohen clearly cares about aesthetics, even to the point where waiters serving attendees a plate of crepes with caviar were wearing matching pink velvet blazers. But when the foundation needs to come into play, does all that gilding matter? Choose a bodice embroidered with flowers, accented with rhinestones and antique pearls. When the model turned around, she revealed a bare metal zipper that ran along the spine of the bodice. If Hesel Cohen asked her customers to pay luxury prices, she should consider hidden zippers as important as antique pearls.
