Pegleg: 151 Pieces

Harry McNally: My name is Harry McNally and I'm one of the founders of Pegleg NYC, along with Nick Poe, and Bobby Waltzer who unfortunately are not here at the moment, so I will be doing this interview by myself. Also, our good friend Scott Williams is very involved. He has been there since the beginning with us. 

Frank151: What's the history of Pegleg?
HM: Pegleg was founded in Spring of 2005 when the three of us had just basically finished high school. We had some ideas for prints and graphics that at the time we thought were original and interesting—things that we would actually like to wear ourselves. So we got the ideas together, made some samples at home ourselves, and decided to have some real items silkscreened at a silkscreening facility. That was the birth of the whole thing. Union in New York was the first store that we showed anything to, and that picked up the line. That for us was a real turning point because Union really helped leverage our situation in terms of having other stores be open to carrying the brand, because Union has really been looked at through the years as being ahead of the game and always cutting-edge.


F151: What were some of the early challenges?
HM: Since we started this idea of Pegleg and trying to make it a clothing company, our entire time developing this brand has been plagued with challenges and problems and feeling like we have no idea what we're doing. So really the entire time, since we first started, we never had any formal instruction on how to do anything, so every single thing has been like, “How do you do that?” We've had to figure everything out, which at times can be very frustrating for sure, but we've been persistent and we try to give it our best. When we don't know how something works, we try to look at it logically and figure it out, how we could do this, and that applies to everything. You have to be committed to it. And that's what we're trying to do.
F151: What year was that?
HM: Union picked up our first collection in Spring of 2005 and it was six t-shirts.

F151: What is Pegleg's mission?
HM: I don't know if we really have a mission, but I think we strive to make things we like and that we feel are relevant and to some degree original and do our own take on things that we find to be classic.

F151: Could you define the three different roles that you and your partners play within the company?
HM: Being a young, startup business, Bobby, Nick, and I have really had to do everything for ourselves from the get go. All three of us overlap in every area, really. For all of us, design and the creative process is our favorite part of the job, and everything else can often seem like a huge burden. But, we have fun with what we do and we're lucky to work with our friends and people we like. So I think we all contribute in every way because we've gone from packing and shipping ourselves to growing into working with shipping facilities. So, we've all three had a hand in every single aspect of the brand's development.

F151: Where can New York's influence be seen in Pegleg?
HM: I think New York, along with other cities in the world, and everything in general really, has influenced our ideas and the designs we've come up with. Because the three of us have grown up in New York City and all three of us downtown, that definitely lends itself to all three of our personal identities. That comes through in the brand in some way but it's not something that we calculate or try to project. It happens naturally. I think it's hard to imagine us doing this anywhere else in the world. New York City is a major part of our lives.

F151: You've recently done some collaborations with G-Shock and Opening Ceremony. What was that like? Any future collaborations planned?
HM: Recently we've started doing some collaborative projects with other brands. We've done a couple watch designs with G-Shock that have gone over quite well. We're really proud of. We've been working with Opening Ceremony and designing small capsule lines exclusively for their stores, that won't be available anywhere else. And that's really great also because it gives us the opportunity to go on tangents of sorts and make things that only people at Opening Ceremony would appreciate and probably would not be appealing to most mainstream people, and that to us is priceless, that we get to indulge in our fantasies in that way.

F151: Any future collaborations in the works that you can talk about?
HM: In May 2010, we'll be releasing a private label for Urban Outfitters called Flat Black by Pegleg NYC, which is a women’s only line and it's very girly. Lots of dresses and skits and various tops. It's going to be really great for us and I think open us up to a whole new audience. It's going to be available at a different price point, a more affordable price point from the usual Pegleg line. I think it's going to be really exciting and we're very happy to launch this new project.

F151: How do you go from doing t-shirts and sweatshirts and menswear to doing something like that for Urban Outfitters?
HM: Developing the women’s line for Urban has been definitely a challenge for us, but it’s something we've been really excited about. We've taken the approach of going with our fun style prints that we are often identified with and bringing that sensibility to more classic women’s items and doing a variety of dresses, tanks, skirts, and jackets. Basic classic women’s items with the Pegleg twist on it so that's what we're going for and we're not trying to make anything that's super cutting-edge in terms of the cut or anything. It's straightforward women’s clothing with the prints that we like.

F151: Are there any trends for Spring / Summer 2010 that you're excited about?
HM: I'm so caught up in what we're doing, and I'm definitely aware of the trends and what's going on in the street, seeing everything, but I don't want to be negative about anything and I trend to not like trends. So yeah, I'll leave it at that.

F151: What does next season look like? What are you designing right now?
HM: At the moment we're developing Spring / Summer 2011. We're going to be relaunching the brand with a larger collection next spring. It's been a lot of work and there will be three deliveries. We're really excited about what we're doing. I think it's the best line to date that we've done. So right now we're in the real grind of the developmental stage for Spring / Summer 2011.

F151: What do you think you would be doing if you weren't working in fashion?
HM: It's hard to say what I'd be doing or what any of us would be doing if we hadn't started Pegleg. I don't think any of us anticipated doing this or making clothes and selling clothes. I really have no idea what we would be doing. And I feel like I have no idea what we'll be doing five years from now. We're all very engaged in this ongoing project with Pegleg but we're also all very interested in other things and I think that we'll start to see all of us branching out and doing our own thing in the next few years, in addition to this.

F151: If you had to compare yourselves to a famous trio, is there one you can think of?
HM: Maybe the Marx Brothers? Which I think they were a trio or were there 4? I'd say the Marx Brothers, yeah. Harpo, Groucho, I don't remember the third. Chico.
F151: Why?
HM: Because there's a really brotherly relationship between the three of us. It has its up and downs. There are definitely funny things that happen during our work process, and in our studio there's constant comedy of sorts. Definitely not things that I would like to have leave this office. It's very personal [laughs]. It's a family—me, Scott, Bobby, and Nick. 

F151: Do you design here together?
HM: Yes, it's a 24-hour thing. We're walking around and seeing something and thinking it looks good. I'm always taking notes. I have lots of lists going at all times. We come to the studio and meet when we have specific things to do, but overall we're all scouring on our own at the same time and then coming together to share. And sometimes we quickly shoot each other down—“No, that's not nice looking,” or, “No, that is nice looking,” and usually when we agree, we feel confident that other people will like it as well, or that we all feel comfortable sharing it.

F151: Do you travel for inspiration?
HM: I wish we did more, but to be honest, we keep it pretty local. We often use things that are at our immediate disposal, like anything from a Dixie cup at the deli to the various hardware that we have downstairs in our office, or a pattern that we see in a slab of concrete on the street. It's everywhere. Some of that can apply to what we do and some is totally irrelevant and has no place in what we do. But it's about being open to new things all the time and keeping your eyes open.

F151: Do you take a camera out?
HM: Yeah, I take a lot of pictures. I really like taking pictures. And I've reverted back to shooting film lately, which I find way more fun ’cause I like taking pictures and forgetting what was shot. And it's this really natural feeling getting the pictures back. Not judging it right afterwards. Also, when you shoot people, and they all immediately want to see the results and say, “No, delete it now. I look terrible” Now, I don't have to deal with that with people because they can't see it. And that's nice because I get to retain control of the editing process, which I like. Yes, I like taking pictures. Fantastic. I love it.  I like taking pictures when I see things I like. For the most part, it has nothing to do with Pegleg. Maybe in the future it'd be nice. I use my cellphone probably more for that for inspiration shots for Pegleg.

F151: What kind of camera do you use?
HM: I use a few different cameras. As I was saying, I shoot mostly 35mm at this point, I carry around a few different types of point and shoots. Generally Contax cameras or Kyocera cameras. I like the Canons for digital. I like shooting with anything, really. I think it doesn't even matter what camera you shoot with. The main thing is just that if you're shooting at night you need a flash and you don't need a flash in the daytime for the most part.

F151: What's your favorite intersection in New York?
HM: I have a few favorite intersections in New York. I tend to like the really busy ones. So I like Canal and Broadway a lot, which a lot of other people really hate because it's so chaotic. I like 23rd Street pretty much the whole way, and 14th. Basically all the major thruways where there's a lot of tourism that clashes with locals and immigrant culture and street hustling. I like that, all that chaos on the street. So any of the kind of major, 125th, I love 125th Street. Any of the major streets in the city really appeal to me.

F151: Do you live downtown?
HM: Yeah, I've grown up and lived downtown my whole life and it's really great. It's great.

F151: Does music inspire you?
HM: Yes. I think we all like enough that we get a variety of genres that we play here when we're working. I don't even want to say what exactly we like to play, because ten years from now that might be very humiliating. But we like to play it loud.

F151: How important are lookbooks for Pegleg?
HM: In the past we've done everything for the lookbooks ourselves. The past couple of years we haven't done one ’cause we wanted to let the clothes speak for themselves. But I think they're great and important and super fun to be involved in shooting and seeing the results. And we'll probably do some in the future, but I think for the last couple of years and where we're at right now, it made the most sense for us to focus on the clothes, letting them speak for themselves. As our resources grow we'd definitely like to do some new concepts for lookbooks, and I think that's always a great thing for people to look through to get a sense of the brands identity and the kind of people who would wear it. But I think at the same time, you also can easily end up excluding people that might feel like they don't relate to the models wearing it, so it's a double-edge sword.

F151: Who wears Pegleg? Who do you design Pegleg for?
HM: We make stuff we like for ourselves. We're flattered when people like it, so we don't try to control who’s wearing it or, “It's only for this person or that person.” It makes us happy that anyone is wearing it. I get really excited personally when I see someone who looks like they wouldn't normally be wearing something like that, wearing it, or someone who’s over the age of 50, or a really young kid. And, yeah, we're just excited when people like the things we like. We hope to reach a wide, diverse audience, and there's no limit to that. We don't want to keep it to a specific person. We want to make stuff we like, put it out there, and whoever likes it is welcome to like it.

I think a lot of the stuff we've made since we started is often something that will make people say, “Oh, what is that?” It's almost a conversation starter in a weird way, which is definitely not what we intended, but it's a good way to get noticed.
 
F151: What do you see for the future of Pegleg?
HM: I think Pegleg will continue to grow and branch out with new projects that will continue to push the brand to a wider demographic of people. I think this women’s line for Urban Outfitters is going to help expose us to a much wider audience. I think we'll continue to engage in projects where we can find ways to reach new groups of people and expose them to what we're doing and they can form their own opinions on whether they like them or not, but we're just excited about putting it out there. I think just overall in the future we'll be working towards reaching more people.

F151: Would you guys ever consider doing your own runway show?
HM: Doing a runway show would be really cool. I don't think we're ready for that now, to do it properly and the way we'd like to. If we were to do a runway show we'd do things quite different from the line. It'd be more a performance or show and less about wearability. It would be like a show and we'd put together some really fun and exciting stuff, but not things you'd be wearing on the street, most likely.
 
F151: Any advice for someone starting out in fashion?
HM: Don't do it [laughs]. It's a crazy hustle and I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into when we started. I wouldn't trade it back for anything, but it's definitely a full-time commitment. Just for example, none of us went to school for fashion or had any sort of study of textiles or business for that matter. I think with anything you want to do you just have to become very engaged and study and figure out what you like, the brands that you like and how they're doing it and what they do. And once you figure out what you like, that will help give you a context for what you like and what you want to do.

F151: Are there brands you look up to?
HM: I like a lot of brands. There wouldn't be any I'd name as main influences for Pegleg, but I'm very open minded about that so I try to find things that I like in other brands as opposed to things I don't like.

We're very excited about the future overall. Thank you Frank for the opportunity for this interview. Everyone at Frank has been very supportive since we started, and we really appreciate that.

Watch Harry McNally talk about Pegleg in their downtown NY studio.

www.peglegnyc.com