Sea NY Paris Fashion Weeek

As I chatted with Sea NY co-founder Sean Monahan, an almost forgotten term from high school social studies came back to me: Melting pot.

We were talking about a dress’s handmade fabric beads that come from India, a print that comes from Liberty London, and a blouse’s weighty, gorgeous lace—which he gets in Italy. And he talking about how he and his partner Monica Paolini exist almost entirely outside of the Fashion Week schedule; they don’t have runway shows. Instead, they concentrate on what their customers in Korea, Australia and Vancouver B.C. want in their lives. They make feather-weight tops for the girls Down Under, and ruffled hoodies for girls in the Northwest.

All images by Jessa Carter

And he told me all this with a soft but unmistakable New York accent—perfect, because the City has always been America’s symbol of multiculturalism. There in the heart of Paris, watching buyers Joyce Lin and Laura Janney select cool chunky knits and sweet tie-waist dresses, Sea NY felt like a very real and very cool mix of traditions, crafts, communities and commonalities. It felt like one of contemporary fashion’s prettiest melting pots.

On the other hand, the line is a local gem. Sean and Monica are lifelong best friends from a small town in upstate New York; he started the line sort of randomly, and tells me it only really started to work with Monica joined in. She’s trained in fashion. He isn’t.

It’s no wonder we respond so well to the pieces—the tailored shirting with embellished flair, the neo-Annie Hall trousers, and the girly eyelet smocks. They feel connected to so many different parts of this world, and to our individual lives.

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—Laura Cassidy

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