Any event that ends with cannolis is an event I want to be at. But what about a fashion brand that adapts the ethos of New Yorky classic Italian-American style and translates it for a modern audience? That’s a place I really want to be. In the main dining room at Forlini’s, Melissa Battifarano was presiding over such a scene last Thursday. Her friends were dressed up in her new collection, Tony 1923—combining her late father’s name and the year he was born—playing cards, smoking cigars, and eating subs.
Battifarano’s own name might not be familiar to shoppers just yet, but her influence is monumental. For almost seven years she was Rihanna’s right hand, making Fenty x Puma and Savage x Fenty collections, and she was also on the team that launched Tory Sport in 2015. “I’m not a new designer. I’ve done this for a long time and if I didn’t at least try to get my own line going…” she says inside the restaurant with a short pause. “Well, it was now or never.”
Her debut collection is part Tony Soprano and part Meadow Soprano, with cashmere tracksuits trimmed in leather, paisley print boxer shorts, and a black knit minidress featuring a tight hood and long sleeves with thumbholes. Technical knitwear is her area of expertise, and that LBD is engineered to hug tight at the waist and curve down the spine—no gapping or scrunching—with sporty contrast ribbing at the back. A leather crop top has a bra with wiring built in to provide support. Melissa Battifarano designed a very slinky black fishnet bodysuit to be crotchless because “one, it’s sexy but two, you have to pee!” Working in the sport and lingerie business has uniquely oriented her to her customers’ needs when it comes to both comfort and sex appeal.
Her collection isn’t just for the girls. Every piece is cut unisex, and her cast of friends-as-models proves that a reversible robe coat inspired by legendary mobster Vinny the Chin’s not-fit-for-trial gimmick (he roamed Manhattan in a bathroom, claiming insanity) looks equally good on wiseguys and hot girls. The pieces everyone is clamoring for are Battifarano’s “Italians Do It Better” tanks and hoodies, the latter double lined in chunky, rich velour. In the male-dominated streetwear landscape, where mega brands like Kith rule the market without a singular focus on womenswear, the message is especially pointed: This Italian woman is doing it better.