Lulu Frost
comments, reblogs & likes
Ryan DeBonville
It’s hardly rare for designers to hold down odd jobs to pursue their fashion goals, but Ryan DeBonville’s current gig takes the cake. “In 2009, I quit my men’s personal shopper job at J.Crew so I could work at my friend’s tanning salon and knit more,” chuckles the San Francisco native. “I was so embarrassed to tell J.Crew.”
But the time had come to focus more on his work—Ryan had been perfecting his craft for 25 years. “My Grandma used to pick me up from pre-school, and there wasn’t anything to play with other than my mom’s old dolls,” Ryan explains. “She tried to teach me to knit a few times. But that didn’t work out too well, so I made up a way.” This eventually led to his first apparel creation: an oversized sweater inspired by one of his mother’s Neiman Marcus pieces from the eighties.
Ryan’s current collection of infinity scarves and beanies is more timeless but just as thoughtful. “It is an amazing amount of work. About 100 to 200 hours goes into the design and development of each piece,” he notes. “I’d love to start doing sweaters and bags…and to start using knitting machines!” —jessie pascoe
comments, reblogs & likes
Of a Kind
This might just be the least boring cardigan in the history of cardigans. And we have Creatures of the Wind (via J.Crew) to thank. —erica
comments, reblogs & likes
Filtered: That’s a Wrap
It’s barely been scarf weather in NYC (well, until today), but yesterday I busted out our Symmetry Goods edition—and shocked myself with how much I liked it with a faux fur jacket from Thomas Sires. I mean, who knew. The rest of the get-up: J.Crew baseball tee, Vince pants, Thomas IV bag (for Of a Kind), and Gap boots that are as comfy as sneakers. —erica
comments, reblogs & likes
A Very Baggu Friendship
These two have been a team since the toddler days.
It started with two: Emily Sugihara and her mom, Joan, hatched the idea behind Baggu in 2007, made a prototype, and put off worrying about the overall look and feel of their line-to-be. When it came to doing all that branding stuff, they enlisted the help of Emily’s childhood friend, Ellen van der Laan, who, armed with a graphic-design degree from RISD, became the third musketeer and has been shaping the line’s aesthetic ever since. Here, Emily and Ellen take us back to the first day they met and the American Girl doll-loving crafts club they ran—all with the kind of humor that comes with knowing someone since before she can tie her shoes. —jiayi ying
Seven-year-old Ellen (left) with Emily and her pet bunny Velveteen.
Ellen: “We’ve known each other since we were three. We are both from San Diego and met at this cooperative nursery school at UCSD where half the students were kids of international visiting faculty, and the other half were kids from the community.”
Emily: “My parents and I just moved back from Japan at that time. I’m a quarter Japanese and born in Tennessee, so I’m not international by any means. But I have a Japanese last name—so my parents didn’t really say what was going on, and I got in with the international group.”
Ellen: “That picture is from around second grade. I got a bunny for my seventh birthday and named him Velveteen.”
Sewing away at their American Girl extravaganza.
Emily: “In third grade, one of our moms organized a sewing-based crafts club. I remember really being into tiny, OCD stitches—my mom would be watching me and going, ‘Smaller! Smaller!’”
Ellen: “I think half of mine were half-finished. I was into getting distracted. For our holiday craft, we made clothes for our American Girl dolls—”
Emily: “—while wearing matching clothes.”
Ellen: “We were very into dressing like fancy period activists.”
Emily: “And we had relatives weird enough to buy us matching outfits with our dolls. But my mom was really gung-ho about helping me make stuff—she taught me how to sew in kindergarten. We sewed this quilt that I designed for nap time—it had pastel flower pebbles everywhere. I think Ellen and I were both raised to value making things as a great thing to do, and a great way to spend your time.”
In their Brooklyn-based office today.
Emily: “After college I got a job designing for J.Crew.”
Ellen: “I worked at Laird+Partners—this ad agency that had mostly fashion clients. When Baggu started, I was at MAC Cosmetics, designing windows and in-store graphics and doing lookbook and product photography. I designed the Baggu logo for Emily in trade for this coat she had that I wanted. Still have the coat.”
Emily: “It’s a good coat. I still have the logo. The first creative disagreement we had was on whether the logo should be uppercase or lowercase. Ellen thought it looked more expensive in uppercase. She was right.”
comments, reblogs & likes
Next Level: Men’s Chambray Shirts
If you’re a dude between the ages of 20 and 40, there’s a good chance that you own this J.Crew number. And you should! It’s useful! But now that it’s part of the guy uniform, you have to, you know, expand your denim shirt horizons. These are four ways to go, depending on how adventurous you’re feeling. —erica
LEVEL I: Go dark. Yes, it feels like a small change, but this simple Our Legacy shirt somehow makes a big statement.
LEVEL II: Thanks to two little tweaks—yellow buttons and a pullover cut—this YMC take feel surprisingly unexpected.
LEVEL III: STRIPES. The plum ones ones on this Wood Wood shirt are straight-up rad—like the color of spilled Merlot.
LEVEL IV: To really shake things up, get rid of some of the chambray altogether, opting for this boxy Cheap Monday button-down with loud flannel sleeves.
We do these roundups weekly! Do a deep-dive into the archives.
