It’s hard to know what to expect when meeting Katie Holmes in a hotel suite for a glimpse of her latest collection for Holmes & Yang, the label she launched last fall with her longtime stylist Jeanne Yang. A phalanx of security? Yep (I was escorted upstairs by a strong silent type). But otherwise Holmes’ approach to fashion, and her business in it, turns out to be decidedly low-key. “[I understand] more what goes into making a piece, creating something, and I think about that with the clothes I look at and want to buy,” said Holmes, herself looking relaxed in a wool sweater, heels, and cuffed jeans; while we talked, her daughter Suri wandered in wearing one of the collection’s adorable crepe de chine dresses (she will make a great editor one day: she sat on the couch between us, whispering occasionally in her mother’s ear and watching the model and my notebook). Holmes and Yang produce the line, which includes those mini-me party dresses, via seamstresses and artisans in New York, which accounts for the sticker shock on a few of their pieces (like the nearly $3,700—and quite sexy—suede biker jacket). But don’t whip out your checkbook just yet—their collection, which is a pared-down, lovely lineup of shirtdresses, skirts, and tops in cream and black and dusty rose, is only available at Maxfield in LA.

“We’re taking it slow, [because] we really want to learn the business,” Holmes explained, adding, “we’re really concerned with what flatters: the pants are high-waisted,”—she pointed to a lean pair of white trousers— “and we’re inspired by our friends, who are real women, they have real bodies.” Yang leapt up and pulled a colorblocked jumpsuit off a hanger; pale pink front, black back, which Yang explained was Holmes’s idea. “I never liked nude on the behind,” she said, wrinkling her nose, “it just never worked.” As Suri carefully removed her fuchsia ballet flats, looked at them, and slipped them back onto her feet (again: like a fashion editor!), Holmes, who just wrapped a film in Australia, laughed about her multitasking ways (she and Yang email each other ideas about fabric and sketches by way of collaboration). “I’ve always enjoyed fashion,” she said. “It’s another creative outlet, and I like to be busy.”

THANKS TO LUCIECA FOR THE INFO

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