Byron Lars Talks Barbie, Hampton Designer Showcase and Inventive Fashion

From poolside swinging chairs to impeccably set dining tables, the annual Hampton Designer Showcase is known to leave no space uncovered. Jamie Drake and Alexa Hampton are honorary chairs for this year’s event in Southampton, which will feature the work of 24 leading interior designers.

But for his debut, Byron Lars upped the quota by creating custom clothes for Susan Calabria Design’s guest room. The fashion designer also used fabric from the new Soluna by Susan Calabria Design label to accent the entire effort. Calabria appreciates fine textiles, having previously worked as the design director at such esteemed companies as Schumacher and Scalamandré. The tribal textures, prints, lace and open-work fabrics were in line with Lars’ In Earnest collection, he said. Curtain fabric was reimagined as a cover-up, a tiered peasant skirt and other super-sheer creations. The apparel was made solely for the showcase, and will not be sold. But it is something “that we would consider riffing off of for sales later, because it turned out pretty great,” Lars said.

Open to the public from July 20 through Aug. 31, the Hampton Designer Showcase will benefit the Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.

Some of the collectible Barbie dolls that Lars collaborated on with Mattel years ago are also displayed in Calabria’s room. The designer said he created about 15 collectible Barbies. Visitors to the showcase won’t be able to buy those either, but Lars and In Earnest’s cofounder Sheila Gray are open to discussing renewing that deal. To sweeten the setting in Southampton, there is an assortment of chocolate bars with packaging that has Barbie-like figures wearing three-dimensional designs. Gray sells custom-wrapped chocolate bars via her Sheila Gray Collections site. “What we’re imagining in this room is a fabulous woman, who is on a Barbie level,” Lars said.

As for the new Barbie Fashionistas doll with Type 1 diabetes (which Kate Moss’ model daughter Lila created), Lars said, “That was pretty fascinating. But it seemed like something that a kid could probably imagine themselves. But hey, I love the fact they actually went for it, branded that and are including everybody at a time when ‘inclusion’ seems to be the word of the day.”

Challenging as it is “to direct this business in this crazy new reality we are in,” Lars said he recently reconnected with a factory that he worked with years ago that has returned to the U.S. He will still face tariffs though for imported fabrics. He said, “There is something exciting about making something in a nearby factory, where you can troubleshoot in real-time and not virtually.”

Looking ahead, Lars said, “I’m most intrigued by American ingenuity and that good ole can-do spirit that we’re going to have to tap into now. After all, we invented sportswear and that is the most relevant thing to have happened in the last 100 years. It’s how we all live, dress, work, think and process things. Finding out how to make really inventive and useful fashion will be the most challenging thing.”