Woman to Woman

For New York–based designer Ulla Johnson, there’s no feminine without the feminist

- Lynn Yaeger

A friend of mine, a jewelry historian, is often called upon to give talks or chair panels. When a gig comes up at the last minute and she has, like most of us, nothing to wear, she hustles down to a certain shop on Bleecker Street and picks up what she calls “an Ulla.”

She is not alone in her reliance on a dress from Ulla Johnson, whose designs—at once vaguely frilly but not ridiculous, pretty but not sticky, bohemian but never unkempt— more and more reflect how women want to look today. No longer bound by the arcane rules of appropriateness (nor forced to troop around in “basics”), they—okay, we—are free to don a puff sleeve and, nevertheless, be taken seriously.

Johnson, 49, is among a cadre of female designers who are answering that age-old question: What do women want? We are thinking here of people like Catherine Holstein at Khaite, Nili Lotan, sisters Nicky and Simone of the eponymous Zimmermann— women who, like Johnson, launched their highly successful businesses with little industry fanfare. These designers owe their popularity not to the din of social media or the relentless shilling of so-called influencers, but to the clothes themselves.

“I really care about every detail— where the pockets go, where the zipper is; I put scuba pulls on the zips so you don’t have to ask someone to help you,” Johnson explains. “I firmly believe women dress for themselves—they want to look amazing for themselves. If you wear something that makes you feel you can be truly seen for who you are? Well, then—my work is done.”