Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/1532915
A L L I M AG E S C O U R T E S Y O F I S A I A T H E SHOP TALK, NEWS & HAPPENINGS AROUND THE KOI PONDS courtyard chronicles The quintessential Neapolitan menswear brand known for its tailoring expertise introduces a stunning sartorial women's collection—and its first stop is Bal Harbour Shops. BY DEBORAH FRANK It was Chief Executive Officer Gianluca Isaia's idea to produce a women's collection. "His goal was to create a women's line that would complement the aesthetic of the men's," explains James Shay, the brand's president, "to keep them connected in a way where the men's might be a cool version of traditional clothing and the women's is that same level of quality, while exerting an independence that allows for further development." The idea was always percolating in the background, since the 1970s in fact, when Isaia had a nearly $20-million women's business in Germany. According to Shay, "Whenever we talked about having a women's collection, Gianluca would joke, 'I think it's better to stay in men's; we had this big business, and then one day, women decided not to wear suits, and it went to zero.'" At the time, Isaia just made tailored clothing, not the expansive ready-to- wear pieces they now offer, and "the whim of a woman's style arc is so much faster than a man's," says Shay. "If I find something in the men's line that really hits the mark, I can keep it in the collection for a long time, but in women's, we really just need to continue to deliver it, sell it, let it go, and bring in the next thing." ISAIA WOMEN! A coral-printed floor-length silk top has high side slits to show off the linen shorts underneath.