That brand dissolved last year, after a 20-year run. This spring she unveiled Hope for Flowers, a sustainable clothing line based in Detroit, where she was born. Followers of her work will recognize the bright colors, the generous lines, the flow that seemingly keeps flowing even when the body is still.

But they may not know it is also an answer to two questions that had nagged Ms. Reese for years: How can you slow it down and be profitable? And how could she involve Detroit?

The Long Way Home

After Parsons, Ms. Reese went through the rise and fall of her first house, a stint at Perry Ellis and the restart of her Tracy Reese label in 1996, in New York’s garment district. She took on an investor, Omprakash Batheja , and the business peaked in 2013, when it sold $23 million in wholesale goods. But as the fashion calendar became more demanding, requiring “stuff and more stuff,” she said, she started to wonder.

“Why do we need all of that?” Ms. Reese asked.

By 2018, the business was contracting. To spur sales, Ms. Reese said, her investor suggested that she go down-market. She disagreed, and the business continued to spiral downward. They are now in court to dissolve their partnership and determine who will own the Tracy Reese name.