Style station

For almost a year now, Michelle Lobsinger has been quietly staking out the local fashion frontier in her Birmingham boutique Michelle Rachelle; introducing indie lines commonly carried in the Soho boutiques she fell in love with while interning for designer Cynthia Rose in New York City. And paying clients are starting to take notice.

Lobsinger, 24, who studied fashion design at the Art Institute of Seattle, sees the field through the eyes of a designer. "There’s a difference between fashion and style. And that’s what my store focuses on — how you wear your clothes, not what you have."

Ya-Ya, Lauren Moffat, Woo, Steven Alan and Botkier are the store’s high-end staples, which ultimately allow her some creativity in carrying edgier, more obscure fashions. Take the complicated, sculptural pieces by Lauren Felton, a Brooklyn designer whose silk and jersey shirts can be reconfigured and worn in different ways. Two other little known lines are Society of Professional Dress (think 80’s appeal and raw seams, like a belted one-piece romper) and Mille K, one of Copenhagen’s rising star designers.

The selection of embellished tanks, tailored knickers, gauzy guachos and hand-picked vintage brooches make good on Lobsinger’s mission of inspiring individuality. And that’s something you can’t steal, no matter how badly you want it.

 

Michelle Rachelle, 310 E. Maple, Birmingham; 248-593-9904.

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