ESQUE/BY relies on a more traditional approach to fashion by maintaining the idea that garments should evolve over time, just as tailors used to. Pieces don’t need to remain stagnant. The brand therefore uses techniques like generous seam allowances and deep hems, so that alterations can be made as one’s body changes and transforms. The brand is inviting of the fact that all bodies, but femme bodies in particular, go through a lifetime of adapting to their environment. And ESQUE/BY doesn’t want to shy away from this reality. In fact, they want to celebrate it.
Asking herself, “Why do we accept that our bodies are the problem when clothes don’t fit?” Lee began to question conventionality at its core. Using her background in computational and systems biology, she began designing while utilizing AI and other technologies. Her approach is grounded in a mathematical attempt at proportions and sizing. Committed to sustainability, ESQUE/BY’s garments are designed specifically for the wearer rather than mass-produced. In this way, technology is utilized for efficiency, but it does not replace tailors, artisans, or pattern makers. Actually, human contribution is an essential part of Lee’s ideology. In addition to her feminist, new age, and sustainable approaches to her work, she is also committed to passing down the knowledge of craftsmanship and to opposing the automation of fashion.
With all this embedded into their practice, the brand launches its first ready-to-wear collection, a lineup of classic and familiar pieces: trousers, a blazer, a button-down, and a dress. The brand also reimagines the traditional three-piece suit in its menswear by introducing The Three Piece, which showcases a corset rather than the expected waistcoat.
Lee is riding full force into the fashion landscape with this initiative, remaining loyal to femme bodies, the environment, the need for humanistic design, and even the informed use of technology in a way that doesn’t threaten the human hand’s role in fashion, but strengthens it.
