Rachel Comey
Founded in 2001 by designer Rachel Comey, the New York-based label began with a focus on menswear before organically expanding into womenswear. Comey’s earliest collections were shaped by the city’s downtown creative scene, worn by artists and musicians who gravitated toward her thoughtful, subversive approach to tailoring. A turning point came when David Bowie wore one of her hand-painted shirts on television, offering early exposure and affirming the label’s connection to cultural icons who think outside the mainstream.
From the outset, Rachel Comey’s clothing has centred on the wearer. Rather than designing to meet the demands of rapid fashion cycles, the brand builds around daily life, considering how a piece can shape not just how someone looks but how they move through the world. This vision helped Rachel Comey gain traction among artists, architects, filmmakers, and professionals seeking a balance of design integrity and comfort.
Over the years, the brand has expanded its offering while remaining independent and close-knit. Today, Rachel Comey operates four standalone stores across the United States, including locations in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The brand is also stocked in over 100 retailers globally and maintains a growing digital presence. Despite its scale, Comey has held fast to the values that shaped her earliest collections: intimacy, curiosity, and long-form thinking. A member of the CFDA, Comey now splits her time between New York City and Upstate New York, where her connection to craft, nature, and rhythm continues to inform the brand’s design language.
Key Design Features
Design at Rachel Comey begins with a question: how can clothing support and express the complexities of daily life? This guiding principle shapes each collection. Rather than chasing trend-driven silhouettes, the studio explores how garments interact with the body, space, and emotion. The result is a collection of pieces that balance construction and softness, ease and strength.
Custom fabrics are a hallmark of the brand. Whether it’s a painterly print developed in-house or a structured cotton that softens over time, materials are chosen not just for their feel but for their ability to evolve with the wearer. Comey’s pieces often feature deliberate imperfections and subtle quirks, unexpected pocket placements, asymmetric hems, sculptural seams, that invite attention without demanding it.
Fit plays an essential role in the Rachel Comey universe. High-waisted trousers, boxy tops, and cocooned outerwear are recurring shapes, all designed to give space rather than restrict. The label takes cues from workwear, vintage textiles, and utility garments, filtering each reference through a contemporary lens. Details like oversized buttons, crinkled finishes, and hidden fastenings add visual interest while preserving the practicality needed for everyday wear.
From season to season, Rachel Comey collections communicate with one another, building on themes of identity, agency, and movement. There’s always room for humor, tenderness, and contradiction, making each piece feel grounded in real life while still offering a spark of something offbeat.
Key Products and Collections
Across its womenswear offering, Rachel Comey’s most recognisable styles remain consistent: cropped, high-waisted Coxsone Pants, wide-leg denim, and utilitarian jackets built for real-world wear. Footwear is equally distinctive, with stacked heel clogs, platform sandals, and sculpted boots appearing in smooth leathers, soft suedes, and occasionally high-gloss finishes.
The brand’s tailoring features boxy cuts and curved lines, designed to drape rather than constrict. Button-up shirts are offered in crisp cottons, soft silks, or textural jacquards, often with unexpected sleeves or pleated details. Knitwear is relaxed and slouchy, designed for layering. Outerwear leans architectural, with coats that are cut to shape the body in motion.
In each collection, accessories and footwear are treated as part of a holistic wardrobe, not as afterthoughts. Styles transition seamlessly from day to evening, from work to weekend, offering versatility without compromising visual impact.
Explore Rachel Comey’s trousers, tops, clogs, and dresses at Couverture & The Garbstore, including key silhouettes crafted for wearers who move between roles and rhythms throughout their day.
Styling and Similar Brands
Rachel Comey’s collections invite individual interpretation and are designed to layer easily with other thoughtful pieces. Her wide-leg trousers or utility skirts pair naturally with pared-back shirting from Soeur or a relaxed knit from Extreme Cashmere. For cooler days, try styling a Comey knit or tailored jacket with a technical fleece from nanamica.
On the footwear side, Comey’s sculptural clogs and sandals work well with the minimal runners from Salomon or classic silhouettes from Paraboot. The aim is not to match but to build a look that feels personal, textured, and quietly assured.
At Couverture & The Garbstore, Rachel Comey sits comfortably alongside other brands that value quality materials, unconventional detailing, and a lived-in sense of ease. Each piece can stand alone or be layered into a wardrobe of workwear, utilitywear, and modern basics.
Cultural Impact and Collaborations
Rachel Comey’s influence stretches far beyond her customer base. Worn by artists, actors, and public figures including Cindy Sherman, Michelle Obama, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Maggie Gyllenhaal, her designs have become synonymous with independent thinking and visual confidence. The brand has helped define the fashion vocabulary of the creative class, those who move between professional and personal spheres with fluency and who want their clothing to reflect that rhythm.
Rachel Comey was among the first American labels to bring clogs, wide-leg denim, and structured jumpsuits into everyday rotation, shaping not just wardrobes but a broader fashion conversation around ease, individuality, and material integrity.
Rachel Comey creates clothing to support your routine, reflect your pace, and offer something just outside the ordinary. Whether you are dressing for work, for travel, or for a moment of stillness, these are garments designed to move with you.
Explore the latest collection from Rachel Comey now at Couverture & The Garbstore, including sculptural trousers, directional footwear, soft tailoring, and contemporary wardrobe foundations.
