This New York designer hopes to revive American fashion tradition

As cliché as it sounds, Erik Barshai didn’t choose fashion design, fashion design chose him.

“I was born with this strong desire,” he told Fashionista. “In fact, there is never a moment [wanting] From the moment I can form conscious thoughts, I can do any other job.

Therefore, Barshai’s career path was simple: he graduated from Pratt Institute in 2017 and subsequently worked in design at Jill Stuart, Bode, Alice + Olivia and Aliette. Then, things took a turn, or rather, stopped. Barshai fell victim to burnout.

“I looked in the mirror and thought I can’t do this anymore,” he recalled. “I felt really exhausted, like I had lost my dream.” So he ventured out on his own, hoping to find that spark again. “I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to give it another chance…without following anything that has been taught to me since I joined this industry, [but rather] Trying to find myself,” he added.

In 2020, his brand Barshai was born. But his love for fashion still waned. He said his industry experiences provided “an important reality check” and “perspective” for understanding the women’s clothing market, but they also stripped away the fashion fantasy in a way that prioritized speed and quantity over quality. It will take time to realize this dream again – the turning point came at the Barshai’s Resort 2025 show in June.

“As a designer, I long for that moment when you see all the women in the queue before you walk out,” he said. “This is the dream. It’s very tempting both personally and for you as a designer because you spend all your time [preparing] For this very brief moment, the universe looks exactly how you imagined it would. That feeling is something I miss. When I experienced this again, I was reminded how much I love this industry.

Titled “House of Barshai,” the show was an awe-inspiring introduction to the brand as it highlighted the designer’s talent for craftsmanship and thorough attention to detail. The brand’s subsequent Spring 2025 show (which Barshai and his team put together in six weeks) continued to explore this thread during New York Fashion Week, further revealing what Barshai is truly at its core: American fashion.

He has always been fascinated by the craft, and historically haute couture has not been the most “fancy” or “complex” – as he says, “the quality lies in the cut” and “the tiniest details can create something.” “Feeling valuable. ”For him, this way of thinking is at the heart of Barshai.

“I hope when people look at the work, they can see the time that went into these little details,” he said. “It also feels like I’m continuing a legacy, and [honoring] People like Norman Norell, Bill Blass or Charles James, these great designers have been forgotten by time… For me, now to say I’m It’s too early for this one to have a place in the canon, but I’m trying to interact with it as purely as I am.

As he carves out a niche in the American fashion world, Barshai also hopes to use his artistic talents to embrace body inclusivity, which, he stresses, naturally aligns with the style of haute couture.

“If the approach is to adapt to the individual woman and create a variety of styles that fit different bodies… I want the brand to continue to grow and appeal to as many different types of women as possible,” he explained.

Therefore, Barshai’s current business model is entirely customized and made-to-order. It was a strategic decision: “The best part of this process is getting to know the customer. We’re not made symmetrically. Every part of our body is a little different. As a consumer, when you know something has something, I think, perfection Fitting your body – bumps, bumps, warts and all – is really the closest thing to spiritual fashion, because it’s just a whole different world.

Nonetheless, the brand is discussing plans to expand ready-to-wear and wholesale partnerships. Retail prices are still to be determined, but some pieces are estimated to cost as much as $5,000. Barshai realizes that this puts him outside the budget of many consumers, but he believes that sacrificing “substance over quality” would compromise the “purity of quality” and “the spirit of haute couture.”

“One day in the future, it would be nice to be able to sell something. [of mine] “I could actually buy it,” he said with a laugh. “But at the same time, I’m still young and I don’t want to compromise on design and give customers less so it’s more accessible.”

When it comes to the creative process, Barshai takes a “very laborious” approach. It begins with a “brief thought” about a shape or concept that “puzzles” him. He then sketches out various iterations of the idea before fixing the fabric and draping it over the form through multiple careful edits until he arrives at the final vision.

“When I got the fabric and put it on the model to see what it would look like, there was nothing [like] The original concept was because the fabric determines the look of the final garment,” he explains. “But in that moment, before I put my hands on the fabric, it could be anything. That’s always very exciting.

Everything is produced in-house at the brand’s Lower East Side studio by Barshai and his “small and very close team of collaborators.” Fabric sourcing is also done domestically, although he ultimately “enjoys working with factories to produce fabrics” and design prints.

As Barshai looks to the future, every step he takes today is to ensure his business will still be around “ten years from now,” which “in this economy feels like the most impossible dream.” Ideally, the brand will provide customized services and Ready-to-wear, because the two “can exist in the same industry as long as they are intentionally designed,” he said.

What is another career goal for Barshay? Designing for another house.

“It’s an exciting prospect because with another person’s brand, you can go in and look at the identity of a thing in the abstract and it becomes a code or a rule. To me, it’s creation. The best space for strength – when there are rules, you get to break them, work within other people’s aesthetics, find a marriage of modernity and the past, that’s my ethos.

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