Reading Under the Lines

(NEW YORK) West 26th Street may have been dark and empty Wednesday night, but 12 floors above, a fashionable fête was well underway. Doo.Ri designer Doo-Ri Chung launched her latest line, Under.Ligne, at Pure Space, and fans, friends, buyers and editors came west to check it out.

Jersey dresses, leggings and layered tops in Chung's signature draped style outfitted mannequins in the room, and guests like Julie Gilhart, Robert Burke, and Meredith Melling Burke browsed the looks and chatted with the proud designer. "I love it just as equally as I do my first line," said Chung diplomatically. "It's been in the works for about a year now, we've been developing it very slowly, and finally the time has come!"

Surely the less-than favorable economy has something to do with the price points, non? With everything in the line under $1,000 ("The most expensive piece we have is a leather jacket for $995, but then we have a dress for $210 and tops for $125," she explained), the clothing is more affordable than Chung's Doo.Ri collection. "For us, we didn't intentionally start it this way, but I have to say, I feel very lucky," she said. "Timing is everything, and it ended up being the right time for it...It is a lower line, but the biggest difference is the price. The sensibility is the same, and I think the character is the same."
EMILY GYBEN