“I didn’t vote for him”
“Healthcare > billionaires”
“Tits up”
“I am an immigrant”
“Love Trumps hate”
“Abortion is healthcare”
These are the kinds of messages that luxury sweater brand Lingua Franca sells to a certain upper-class, mostly female, millennial demographic, for north of a few hundred dollars, plus shipping and handling. The cashmere sweaters are especially popular among a certain type of Manhattanite or Angeleno. Oprah Winfrey has worn one. So has Tom Hanks, Tina Fey, Meryl Streep, and Martha Stewart.
If these taglines don’t work for you, Lingua Franca, based in New York and with stores in the West Village, Montauk, and Northern California, will let you customize your sweater to say whatever you would like. “The options are limitless,” the company writes on its website.
That is exactly what Alison Himel, 60, who lives in Toronto, tried to do a few months ago. She placed a $446.27 order for a navy crewneck sweater with the words “Proud Zionist” embroidered on the front in hand-stitched, light blue letters.
But she never received her order. When she asked about it, the customer service team at Lingua Franca first told her the color she ordered was out of stock, and then blamed the mishap on technical issues.
