Women’s History Month –  and every month, really – provides opportunities to honor remarkable women. Just ask CFDA member Emily Smith and her team at Lafayette 148.

To mark this important month, the brand launched an exclusive collection and exhibition featuring the work of photographer and artist Martha Madigan (1950-2022). The capsule was created in collaboration with Madigan’s daughters Claire Khodara and Grace Fuller Marroquin.

Madigan was known for her experimental approach to photography and image-making via a camera-less photographic process. With nature at the core of the ethos, the resulting forms, silhouetted by light, are pure poetry. Said ethos prompted Smith to explore natural art techniques from Eco Printing to Cyanotype for botanical print motifs, for example.

“I’m so thrilled to have had this opportunity to collaborate with Grace and Claire in honoring their mother’s extraordinary life and pioneering artistic practice,” Smith said. “Martha Madigan once said of her work that it ‘reflects the passages of life, seeking not an understanding of time, but rather an experience of the sacred presence within it.’ My own guiding light while creating this collection was the thought of introducing more women to Martha’s beautiful depictions of nature, and through wearing the pieces we’ve designed using her prints, adding their own presence and their own passage of time to what is already an important and inspiring artistic legacy.”

The exclusive and limited-edition Martha Madigan x Lafayette 148 Capsule Collection features a pajama-inspired set and scarf and a semi-sheer voile kaftan featuring one of Martha’s flora-infused prints.

It marks Lafayette 148’s first true collaboration with the estate of a significant artist and 20 percent of the capsule collection’s sales will be donated to the Martha Madigan Foundation.

The brand is exhibiting  a curated selection of Martha Madigan’s works at its 59 Greene Street New York flagship now through April 13^th.

The exhibition was celebrated during a private vernissage and VIP cocktail at the flagship co-hosted by Smith and Madigan’s two daughters on Wednesday evening with guests including Wes Gordon and Paul Arnhold, Indre Rockefeller, Elizabeth Kurpis, Beanie Feldstein, Sophie Elgort, Marina Larroude, and Dee Poku.

Khodara and Fuller Marroquin added, “Our mother saw beauty in every corner, in every inch of the world. She was deeply connected to nature, and, as she would always say, nature is the greatest teacher. That’s why she worked so much with the natural world, with plants, and why she was such a pioneer in photographic arts. She made a mark, and so we feel a deep sense of devotion to continuing her legacy and spreading her love and light. To collaborate with Lafayette 148 is a beautiful expression of this.”