The best way I can describe it is that we’re a grouping of some, many, few, but mostly you and me, and all of them. We’re a women’s leaning clothing brand that looks at the modern wardrobe with a critical lens dismantling the histories and cultural narratives of archetypal garments. The longevity of clothing is important to us as well as creating pieces that curiously alter how we move in the world. Clothing can be additive or functional, oftentimes both, but there are even more realms to explore within that dichotomy which we are always seeking.

I’m not sure if we’ve found the midpoint or will ever, as it’s always changing, and our bodies in time and space are also continually in flux. There are many utilitarian aspects of clothing which no longer have a purpose and have become pure aesthetics, such as epaulettes or d-rings on trench coat belts. Or button-down collars, which were initially designed for polo players so the collar wouldn’t flap, and is now worn primarily by business people in sedentary postures. Those design elements are especially interesting to us and play a large role in our design process. We aim to keep moving, twisting, bending, and overlapping those lines of separation between the cerebral and physical form.

It was actually a live one-hour performance but now continues to live on in this fractionated way through film. Always fun to try to make something fleeting permanent. Of course, the relationship between dance and clothing has a long history, but we were most taken with the inherent ephemerality and performance of the two.
We collaborated with Loni Landon to choreograph a structured improv piece with seven modern dancers interacting within a set of objects designed and collected by Sarah Burns, and had Charlotte Dos Santos, who was responding musically to the gestures of the dancers. It was an intimate dialogue between all the elements, including the audience. I think the heat (AC was down!) actually played a large role in breaking down any barriers between the dancers and audience. We were all on the same level, together, sweating, engaged in the same world for a brief time.

They seem to be relevant in some ways for the industry but they’re becoming quite burdensome for all and not pushing much forward. I just don’t find traditional runways to be particularly interesting anymore. There are so many ways we haven’t explored displaying clothes and I want to see garments in new thoughtful contexts.

This being such a seminal text of fashion theory, it seemed appropriate to introduce it early on with this young brand. I mark up my books pretty instinctually, but those particular lines stuck with me as I was designing the collection. Barthes is speaking to the emergence of the unseen such as with undergarments but also ensembles which I was more attracted to – the layering of garments and how those pieces interact with one another by bringing the internal garments outward and external inward.
It also reminded me of a conversation I was having with a painter friend of mine who was talking about using tones to push and pull space when rendering a form. The combination of the two thoughts resonated and allowed me to look at the ensemble as a structural form, and I began dismantling it from there.

We source fabrics from countries that specialize in the specific qualities we're seeking and that have sustainable manufacturing processes, but I'm charmed by the idea of bringing together the hands, even in this very removed way, from different countries to create such intimate objects as clothing. Maybe I’m over-romanticizing it, but I love thinking about the embedded stories within objects. I make a lot of recordings on my phone when I’m in the factories as a way to encapsulate the conversations told and music listened to as the clothes are being stitched. Certainly, these sounds are carried inside the clothing and interact in some way with the lives of the wearer.

We were looking specifically at the power suit of the ‘80s and how women were adopting this outfit as a sort of protection to navigate a largely male-dominated business world. Essentially, showing a rejection of the traditional feminine and reinforcing the idea that mimicking the conventional man meant strength and success.
We made many pieces throughout the collection to blur the gender lines of the garment even at its most functional aspects such as how it buttons or zips (men and women’s garments do this differently) and adding interior welt pockets on the jacket which are typically only given to men. We wanted to highlight both the feminine and masculine and make pieces that would allow bodies to feel equally strong and tender in them.

Absolutely, notating an absence of flesh was curious to me. Some people have looked at it as a commentary on beauty standards, but mostly we were thinking about erasing the inherent functionality of the garment. I love the natural form of the body and wondered what it would look like to create a ‘bra’ to be seen that didn’t alter but allowed the chest to be as it is, through all the changes it might go through in life.

I think most creative work is a bit of spontaneity and accumulated thought. I work mostly out of instinct and very much enjoy the subtleties of ordinary life. Since that’s where clothes mostly reside, embedding the collection within these frames is compelling to us.

I’ve always trusted Virginia Woolf on this, “The only advice that one person can give another is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions.”

We’re currently working on a photo book collaboration with Jenna Westra. Looking forward to sharing soon!