At the Elder Statesman, Greg Chait and Bailey Hunter are busy growing their creative universe. “This season, we explored going a lot more into wovens and cut-and-sew, and expanding our materials library,” Hunter said via Zoom from Los Angeles. Their spring 2025 look book opens with a proper khaki linen coat with an asymmetrical lapel that had been dip-dyed in fuchsia. There are also wide-leg trousers and explorer jackets in Italian cotton, flirty silk separates in a bold geode print, and a classic “denim” jacket and matching pants with color-blocked cashmere inset on the side seams, except it wasn’t denim at all but a cotton canvas woven through a special technique that gave it a kind of marled denim effect.
The collection was inspired by crystals but also the whole world of characters around them. “All the people who would go to the gem show: geologists, gem collectors, dealers, and people who use them for spiritual practices and healing,” Hunter explained. From these colorful natural formations emerged a vibrant palette that was grounded by khakis and browns and earth tones borrowed from “the geologist sector,” as Chait called it. Terra-cotta-hued knits with an intarsia “crystal” pattern in shades of blue, yellow, and white and a long knit dress with an abstract geological map pattern in shades of orange, gray, and mustard stood out for their unexpected color combinations. But the designers also leaned into bold colors with striped dresses and separates, and another dress in black with a neon shell pattern. Elsewhere, it was their attention to detail that shone brightest. Buttons were traded for small geodes, rocks, or sea glass on coats and cardigans, and one cashmere sweater had a small amethyst “encased in a little crocheted hammock” near the collar. “We were talking about potentially using different crystals and then writing on the tag what the property of each crystal is,” Hunter added. Talk about retail therapy.
