September 20, 2004

T-Ease

T Lab Dress

7 a.m. You’re getting dressed. Your mind reels.

Wear that impossibly chic dress? Makes me feel like a dolphin in a tuna net. Or this super-soft tee? Will look like a slob. Expense account will be rejected. But at least I’ll be able to type, gesticulate madly, and actually eat my lunch.

And then you remember your new T-Lab dress.

Thai costume designers Vatit Virashpanth and Itthi Metanee may just have done the impossible: designed an extraordinarily glamorous collection from that most humble material, T-shirt cotton. Which is not to say there’s anything casual about the clothes. T-Lab’s dramatic, vintage-inspired styles (very Cole Porter) are peppered with signature details like quilted waistlines, Asian sleeves, and simple silhouettes. These are skirts, tops, and dresses that are — and this part bears repeating — as comfortable as your favorite hoodie.

Because your 9-to-5 (ha! more like 9-to-8) is confining enough.

Available at Mira Couture, 1 East Delaware Place, at State Street (312-255-1699).