Located on the fourth floor of a rickety Chinatown building next to an SAT prep center is a small, undecorated office filled with a colorful rack of shirts alongside a pile of vintage Karl Lagerfeld-era Chanel handbags. The space belongs to former Vogue editor and Neverworns founder Liana Satenstein, and it’s the de facto home of her latest project Oksana Worns.
Satenstein spent her years at Vogue writing about all things vintage—dashing off missives about everything from must-have pieces from Tom Ford’s Gucci to Nicolas Ghesquière’s legendary Balenciaga era. She’s since taken her quippy voice and humor to Instagram and launched Neverworns—which started off as a closet-cleaning venture during her days at Vogue and has since expanded to hosting closet clean-out sales for notable New York characters (e.g., Chloë Sevigny) and QVC-like live sales streamed on her Instagram and Substack.
Now she’s taking that entrepreneurial mindset and thinking bigger, bolder, and more physical: Satenstein is creating the perfect long-sleeve essential. “I’ve struggled in my life to find things that I like, and a lot of the best pieces have been vintage,” she says. “I rarely buy new—and if I do, you’ll hear all about it.”
The idea for her top was loosely based on an old vintage shirt that Satenstein accidentally threw into the dryer and ruined. “I was depressed because I really fucked up a precious shirt that I always wore,” she says. Satenstein’s attempt to replace the treasured grail is a cotton iteration that features a similar neckline to the vintage one, but with a clasp that can be done and undone from a traditional keyhole to a sexy almost V-neck.
The name of the brand comes from Satenstein’s Ukrainian heritage. During her senior year of high school, she went back to her grandmother’s home country where she met multiple people with the name Oksana. A traditional Ukrainian name for women, it means to be welcoming and hospitable, which Satenstein also hopes serves as her brand’s ethos. “I’ve met so many Oksanas in my life, and they are always just so incredible,” she says. “Whenever I need to get down to business and just do it, I just say I am Oksana and I’ll stop quivering.”
Shot by photographer Mayan Toledano in New York and Paris, the launch campaign, features IYKYK industry figures from stylist Éline Hoyois to publicist Ibtissame Bellehouane. Loosely inspired by Satenstein’s obsession with all things erotic and film-centric, the creative direction for the brand and subsequent campaign was developed with her favorite movie Unfaithful in mind. “There’s this scene where Diane Lane comes to meet Olivier Martinez at a cafe in SoHo. He slips his hand underneath her pants and she squirms, and you can see how the shirt just rides her body,” she says. She hopes that the Oksana shirt will give that same sensual feeling to those who wear it.
Oksana, which officially launches on October 14, will be available in typical Satenstein fashion through a live sale hosted on her social media channels; for a select group of industry insiders, there will also be a live event. For everybody else, a website will officially launch that evening, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled on Satenstein’s socials for the link. The shirt will be available in two colorways: the classic “Midnight at Brighton Beach” black as well as an “Engorged” orange. “It’s a juicy young color, and I love how the orange looks with the color brown,” says Satenstein. (The colors come at a good time, just before the cooler months kick off.)
With Satenstein’s ability to sell out products—whether new or old—and with new pieces in the works, this latest venture will be one to watch.
