Inside the Closet of Beloved Designer and Vintage Collector Batsheva Hay

Batsheva Hay’s closet is overflowing with museum-worthy pieces, each with a story to tell—walking inside feels like a step closer to her heart and life journey. Follow the trail of old photographs lining her walls, and you’ll find the very dresses Hay donned in them—in near perfect condition, at that. And just one peek inside her closet reveals so much about the inspiration behind her eponymous label. In her words, “I often go back to what my mother used to dress me in as foundational ideas for how I dress today.”

To the Marie Kondos of the world, it might seem as though Hay simply has too much clothing, but her cherished items carry with them the story of her family’s history, each stitch carrying the weight of generational love passed down over time. For us, everything she pulled certainly sparked joy. When Hay revealed a darling quilted dress she wore as a child, she explained that her grandmother hand-sewed it and, despite wearing it well into her 20s, she can’t yet pass it down to her daughter—this one is hers to keep forever.

Weaving in and out of her treasures felt like an adventure we didn’t want to end. As we dug deeper, finding Miu Miu platform heels that nearly brought us to tears and a bounty of #oldceline, it seemed that the allotted time for this shoot simply wasn’t enough—we could stay there forever, and still, it wouldn’t be enough. Statements like “This Rodarte cardigan was given to me by the Mulleavy sisters in a trade after I designed custom Batsheva dresses for them” and “Aurora made these custom Brother Vellies mules for me during a CFDA challenge” are normalized. Hay lives and breathes fashion, and she can’t help it—it’s in her DNA.

Check out some of Hay’s gems below.