Lovenia Is in the Air

Spring is finally in the air—at least kind of—which means it's time for crocuses and crushes. But if you want to kickstart that loving feeling yourself, we suggest a delicate and demure-looking frock from Lovenia, Heidi Handler's debut collection. Now based in Pennsylvania, Handler's obsession with fashion has taken her from Winona, Minnesota to Miami (as a model) and then to Vienna, where she studied at the Angewandte Kunst Schule with Jean Charles de Castelbajac. "I remember thinking that Lagerfeld was like a god and I could never do what he did," recalls the designer, "but when Castelbajac took me in and taught me haute couture, it gave me huge confidence to just go for it!"

And so she did, launching this Spring with a limited line of light and airy dresses inspired by the jazz babies of the 1920s. "It's the Jazz Age re-imagined," says Handler, adding, "Jean Harlow and Edie Sedgwick are having tea at Tamara de Lempicka's before catching a Josephine Baker show in Paris." Her indigo, draped charmeuse dress would be a natural fit for a night like that, as would a cotton and muslin dress in oatmeal that's hemmed with tea-dyed ostrich feathers. Some looks might scream flapper, but that doesn't detract from their timeless appeal. "These are dresses that are classic," explains Handler. "I am not interested in the five-minute fashion season. I want to create long-standing, high-quality style."

For her second collection, Handler continues her use of luxe fabrics like mud-dyed French silks and cashmeres, as well as natural fabrics. "I love to use natural fibers because they feel best touching ones skin," she says. Her penchant for '20s-era fashion also permeates the Fall collection, but Handler looks to the countryside this time, imbuing her pretty pieces with a sense of rural Northeastern Americana—and we're looking forward to it.

—Meredith Fisher