Rachel Comey is an American independent fashion designer based in New York City. She is the founder of Rachel Comey, a clothing, shoes, and accessories brand known for its "intellectual, arts-and-crafts aesthetic."[1]
Comey was born outside of Hartford, Connecticut.[2] In 1994, she graduated from the University of Vermont,[3] where she focused on Asian studies, printmaking, and sculpture.[3]
After college, Comey worked at an art gallery in Vermont and designed a line of novelty underwear.[3][4] In 1997, she moved to New York, where she worked as a freelance production assistant and later as a design consultant at Theory.[5] During that time she began making costumes for her then-boyfriend Eugene Hutz's band, Gogol Bordello.[5] In 2001, after her designs caught the eye of a stylist friend, Comey was commissioned to make two hand-painted shirts for musician David Bowie.[6] She charged him $100 per shirt.[6] Soon after, Comey was fired from Theory for performing outside work.[7][5]
In September 2001, Comey presented her first menswear collection.[8] In 2004, Comey expanded her brand to include womenswear.[5][9] Of her Spring-Summer 2004 ready-to-wear collection, Vogue published, "The overall mood was pure summer, and the collection full of confident, easy clothes for cool customers with discerning eyes."[9]
Comey's first official fashion show took place in September 2001, days before 9/11, near her studio in Tribeca.[8] The ad-hoc, menswear-only show was held on the street and featured models including Waris Ahluwalia and Devendra Banhart.[8]
To present her Spring-Summer 2014 ready-to-wear collection, Comey hosted a sit-down dinner at Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Brooklyn[13] featuring a performance by Justin Vivian Bond.[8] Thus began a series of untraditional presentations taking place at venues including Hauser Wirth & Schimmel in Los Angeles, CA.[14] To celebrate the brand's fifteenth anniversary in 2016, Comey presented her Spring-Summer 2017 ready-to-wear collection on the sidewalk of Crosby Street in New York City,[15] a nod to her first-ever fashion show in 2001.[8]
In addition to choosing unconventional venues, Comey is also known for casting unconventional models in her fashion shows.[16] For her Spring-Summer 2016 ready-to-wear show, Comey included "artists, eccentrics, dancers, and businesswomen" in addition to professional models.[16]
