What was the motivation behind the move from the film industry into fashion? Have there been any particular challenges since you made the transition?

The short answer is this: it takes about 2 people and a few days to make a great shirt. To make a great film, it takes about 100 times that. Not to mention an enormous budget, many, many months or years of development, headaches from wading through the politics of an industry steeped in silly tradition, and really, not a whole lot of fun. So, I remain a cinephile, but not one with any desire to partake in the process. Making clothes appealed to me for that hands on process, and its immediacy. And surprisingly, it’s an incredibly open industry in terms of breaking new talent – I literally walked into Barneys New York with a collection buyer. The challenges are great – it’s a hell of a lot of work to produce clothing; design is just one small part – but it’s quite fun and constantly rewarding as you get to see the product of your labour out there in the world pretty quickly.

Band of Outsiders plays a big part in the resurgence of understated quality in menswear. To me, you make clothes for men, rather than concepts that turn into clothes. What influences you in creating a collection and a particular garment?

Well said. I don’t harbor any lofty ambitions or ego around innovating the state of menswear, nor do I think good design needs to be something that hits you over the head in either concept or execution. Fashion is about timing to me, more than anything, and menswear for me is about reaching into the past to re-interpret classics in a way that feels particularly fresh and relevant for right now. There’s a ton of room for innovation within that, but not the type that would necessarily impress a fashion critic or belong on a runway. I find myself inspired by certain iconic men from the past, or now for that matter, and the way they wear clothes and carry themselves – someone like Jean Pierre-Léaud serves as constant inspiration for the Band of Outsiders guy, as one example amongst many. I am mostly inspired by memory; a hazy recollection of my personal history growing up in the Midwest – the objects and clothes around me (from Lego and Lincoln Logs, to Ralph Lauren sofas and Heller plastic plates), and the growing fantasy of what the world must look and be like outside of Dayton, Ohio. It’s not quite nostalgia, not that sweet or earnest, but something close.