(Image credit: Serenity Strall/BBC/Lingua Franca)
Rachel Hruska McPherson, founder of the cult brand Lingua Franca, talks about her slogan and her “luxury movement.”
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You may have found a sweater lying around. Snug and slightly fuzzy to the touch, cashmere crewnecks come in leather book cover-like shades of navy and maroon. It has a square label that says “Lingua Franca” in a looped girly font. But the real branding comes from the embroidery on her chest, which looks delicate and adorable and features claims like “I’m reading banned books” and “Let’s educate girls and change the world” I am doing
Martha Stewart – pictured with Lingua Franca founder Rachel Hruska McPherson – is a fan of the brand (Credit: Lingua Franca)
Lingua Franca was founded by Rachel Hruska McPherson, who is also the creator of Gossip Girl-themed party website Guest of a Guest. Once a “girl boss,” she now declares “girl bosses are dead,” and began embroidering sweaters in 2017 to cope with her post-natal depression. “She couldn’t sleep or eat, but she could sew,” she says. In the small but stylish beach town of Montauk, New York, a stack of sweater prototypes emblazoned with “Booyah” became a cult favorite, with celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio picking them up. But in 2018, when a sweater emblazoned with “We Miss Barack” went viral on Instagram, Hruska McPherson turned most of her business into politically-motivated cashmere. I shifted my focus. Approximately $400 (300 pounds) each.
This is called “luxury activism,” and it’s the practice of imbuing rare, status-worthy fashion items with progressive political messages. It happened in 2016, when Dior “We should all be feminists” T-shirt It champions gender equality and equal pay and cost nearly $1,000 (£748) to wear. (with Rihanna a$ap rocky Both were. ) Burberry cost $1,200 (£898) in 2018. rainbow check trench coat It benefited LGBTQ+ rights organization The Trevor Project. Gucci cost $4,300 (£3,218) in 2019 “My Body, My Choice” Blazer It hit the catwalk with Balenciaga’s $790 (£591). World Food Program T-shirt.
Lingua Franca takes this concept even further, turning the status sweater into cashmere’s unrelenting paean to progressive issues. Among its slogans are “We Are Gay,” “Dr. Fauci’s Fan Club,” and “Nine People,” a reference to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s 2015 testimony about women running the justice system. “When it becomes” etc. Sweater will donate her 10% of her sale price, approximately $38 (£28), to foundations such as: Gender equality NGO “She Should Run” and the Surfrider Foundation, which fights to reduce the amount of plastic in the ocean. (Both nonprofits have official partnerships with brands.)
The brand’s Resort 2025 series continues its slogan (Credit: Lingua Franca)
When fashion combines status spending with messages of equality and inclusion, people are understandably angry. In response to Dior’s expensive feminist T-shirt and its appearance on a runway filled with super-young, super-skinny models, journalists such as Annie Brown of Sydney’s Morning and Her Herald newspapers asked: I did.Where is the responsibility?“More than a slogan? Lingua Franca’s buttery sweaters have drawn similar skepticism, especially when…” Worn by Connie Britton It’s one of the $380 (about 28,000 yen) cashmere tops presented at the 2018 Golden Globe Awards. The top had the words “Poverty is sexism” written on it, and experts expressed astonishment. journalist kim kelly “For that price, City Harvest could have delivered 1,524 tons of food to hungry people in our city.” Los Angeles Times columnist Jonah Goldberg denounced Lingua Franca’s vague brand of feminism as “stupidity.”
Regarding X, Britton said that almost every woman in the room golden globe awards She was wearing high-end fashion that cost well over $380, but at least her top “added to the conversation” in a meaningful and immediate way. Was there a way to do that? Also A recycled T-shirt with the same message hand-embroidered on it? Of course. But it didn’t feel or look that beautiful.
Hruska McPherson believes that by wearing progressive slogans, women can turn their wardrobes into conversational spaces with family and friends, and the very wealthy with the political and economic capital to change society. He points out that it is creating a kind of grassroots movement centered on issues within the community.
changing room
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Favored by celebrities Reese WitherspoonOprah, Meryl Streep, and Jennifer Lopez have all embraced the lingua franca ethos. Hruska then looked more seriously at how she could address issues of inclusion through her business model. In 2021, she launched embroidered sweatshirts and T-shirts at low prices. She also freely admits that her racial and economic privilege is “very real.”
“Radical Chic”
All of this has made designers targets of online trolls and sophisticated cultural critics alike. In the 2020 article, the cut Describing her success, writer Marissa Meltzer branded Hruska McPherson a “resistance socialite” and drew similarities to Marie Antoinette, who played the working girl in Petit Trianon. But Meltzer also calls the business itself an exercise in “radical chic,” and she admits that an all-or-nothing approach to luxury style is irrational and, in the case of fashion, quite boring. are.
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Hruska McPherson has also diversified her income stream through an active customization business. “People want private jokes, the lyrics to their favorite songs, the names of their children,” she says. “And you know, when you make something custom, it means something to you. It doesn’t end up in a landfill. When something brings you joy, it means something to you. And I think fashion has really ignored joy as an important tenet. “If something brings you happiness, you’ll hold on to it.” Equally fun are the brand’s early ready-to-wear lines, including tweedy blazers, metallic knitted camisoles, and acid-green striped dresses that seem to channel the Bloomsbury Group’s psychedelic version of Her. is.
The Spring 2025 collection channels a “psychedelic Bloomsbury Group” look (Credit: Lingua Franca)
And she’s still learning, she says. She created the entire Lingua Franca charity fund herself and filmed the entire process for Instagram. “Then my friend said, ‘Rachel, I have to tell you something. It’s really unpleasant for you to post something like that online. You look really unhappy. Donate and get back to knitting.’ Did that make Hruska McPherson angry?” “No, I loved it!” she laughs. “And say whatever you want to me,” she says. “As long as you say what you want. If Sweater can do it, so can you.”
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