CLYQUE is a Los Angeles label for the tops and layers that sit under everything else. Lily Adel started it in 2019 because she wanted basics with a little more character, and I understand that completely.
CLYQUE Tops: A Shopper's Guide to Easy Layers
How Lily Adel started with the layer
I have a theory that the most useful thing in any closet is the thing nobody photographs, and CLYQUE is built around that idea. Lily Adel is a stylist and creative director who spent about 22 years in fashion and retail, across sales, buying, design and everything in between. She started the label in Los Angeles in 2019 because she wanted everyday basics that felt considered instead of anonymous.
The first release sold out in fifteen minutes, and she packed the orders herself (which is the kind of detail that makes me root for a brand). A female design team, a less-is-more point of view and production in Los Angeles all point the same way, and the About page tells it plainly. It begins with a stylist fixing what was missing in her own closet.
The base layer, with a point of view
The heart of the edit is the close-to-the-body layer. The Walker Bodysuit is where I would start if a tuck keeps coming undone, because it gives a simple trouser or long skirt a clean beginning. The Walker Tee and the Morgan Tee answer the same question in a more familiar shape, and the Tezza Tee in black is the dark counterpoint to all those white tops. I went deeper on a related idea in Clean Unclean: Lived-In Denim, Undone Layers and Easy Tops.
In my fashion dreams she is running out for coffee in the Walker Bodysuit under an open shirt, then keeping the Tezza Tee and jeans on for a casual dinner. The Siff Top, the Page Tank and the Kayla Tank Top are the warm-weather swaps for days when a tee feels like too much. The Anastazia Bodysuit, the Olivia Long Sleeve Tee and the Philly Long Sleeve Tee cover the cooler mornings. What I would skip: three near-identical white tops, unless each one solves a different outfit problem.
The case for a better base layer
CLYQUE comes down to one useful idea: decide what you want under everything else, then make that layer feel like yours. Adel's years on the shopping floor and in the studio give the label a practical center. I would pick the few shapes that fill a real gap, maybe the David Crop Top or the Kelly Tank Top for summer, and let the rest wait. Although I know that rule lasts until the next good white tee shows up.
