When a woman wears Batsheva, she commands attention. The sense of modesty in the design is highly unexpected in this digital age where the less you seem to wear, the more likes you get.

Queens-born designer Batsheva Hay made a splash on the fashion circuit when she debuted her label in 2016 with a line of signature prairie dresses composed of high collars, low hems, and tight corsets.

“I’ve never been someone who shows off my skin because that’s just not me,” Hay commented on her conservative garments. “I think you can create a lot of beauty with fabric and draping and it doesn’t have to be some competition about who has the flattest abs.”

Hay’s collection began as a birthday present to herself. After walking away from a fast-paced legal career (yes, she was a lawyer), and retiring her wardrobe of “lame suits,” as she put it, along with it, Hay went on the hunt for clothing that she identified with. Frustrated with the commercial offerings in department stores, she enlisted a pattern maker to create the kinds of dresses she was looking for  – and the business was born. Now, Hay counts Natalie Portman, Amandla Stenberg, and Lena Dunham as fans.

The designer works out of a studio space on the Upper West Side which she shares with her husband, fashion photographer Alexei Hay, and her mother-in-law, Claudia Aronow. She welcomed me to her studio with a smile on her face – just after dropping off her two kids at school in one of her signature dresses with an eye-catching animal print.

Family is clearly an important part of her life – one that serves both as inspiration and a tool for collaboration. Her husband is on hand to shoot images whenever she gets in new product, and it’s his lifestyle as an Orthodox Jew that inspired the designer’s aesthetic modesty.

Hay’s place in the 2018 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund represents her desire to reach a greater audience.

“I think I am having a lot of fun with what I’m doing creatively, but I want to reach a lot of people,” she said. “Bridging that gap is something that I don’t know how to do, so I’m just reaching out for all of the support, and what better support to help grow than [the Fashion Fund]”.

For Hay, there is no shortage of creativity, but the insights provided by the business-savvy panel of judges prove invaluable to her long-term goals. “Trying to understand the business side of things is hard. For me, it comes really natural to just follow my instincts and make stuff that I want, but realizing that what I want to wear for myself isn’t what everyone else wants to wear gets really, is tricky,” Hay explained. “That’s where all the work comes in. Everything else doesn’t feel like work, but building a business does.”

Her unique look and quick rise reflects a perspective that is more likely to come from a female designer.

Asked why women respond so strongly to her designs, Hay said, “Everyone is different, but I do think there is something about my dresses where they go, ’Whoa, can I wear that?’ I used to love that. It seems a little out there for now, but slowly it’s going to seep in again. It reminds women my age of their childhood. It connects to warm memories.”

Hay thinks of her dresses as fun, expressive, and yes – even sexy. For her, sexy is “confidence. Someone who knows what they want, who feels good and strong and tough in their skin. That’s very appealing.”