Sophomore: 151 Pieces

Frank151: How did Sophomore start?
Chrissie Miller: I studied graphic design, so I did all graphics in the beginning. A friend of mine, Shawn Regruto, had a company called Danucht (pronounced like the new shit) and he made that shirt Models Suck* that was really popular. He did it when he was so young he didn't really know what he was doing so as a graphic designer. I thought, well, let’s do something else and so we made a bunch of shirts. We didn't even have a name yet. We made a bunch of graphics, and we were more in the streetwear category. He thought of the name Sophomore, and it grew from there.

F151: When did Madeleine come on board?
CM: Sean decided to pursue his career as a filmmaker, and he didn't want to make clothes anymore. I'm not a trained designer. I don't really know much about it, so I was looking to hire a designer. My friend Jen Brill knew Madeleine and she was like, “She's perfect, she just gets it,” and I knew straight away she was the right person.

F151: What year did Sophomore start?
CM: Sophomore started in 2002…2003.

F151: Madeleine, what year did you come on?
Madeleine Von Froomer: I came on in 2007.
F151: And that's when you guys started expanding from just t-shirts?
CM: Yeah, before Madeleine joined Sophomore, we were graphic t-shirts only.
F151: And now what are you doing?
MVF: We're still doing graphics, but we're doing more sportswear. A full sportswear collection for men and women, dresses, t-shirts, bottoms and skirts, and we're doing bustiers.


F151: What's your background, Madeleine?
MVF: I studied painting at MICA in Baltimore, and then I moved to New York and I was making sculptures. I had no money, no job, it was just after 9-11. I had a sewing machine and I started making clothes for myself. My friend had a store in Williamsburg and she said, “I'll sell these at my store,” and they sold and I thought, Maybe fashion is something I can do that's kinda art related. I didn't know anything about fashion so I got internships, and each internship turned into a job and it just kept getting bigger and bigger, and before you know it, it's like six years and I have a career in fashion.

F151: What is Sophomore's missions?
MVF: We wanted to give a basics-brand alternative to all these LA basic brands. We wanted to do something that felt more New York, felt a little more androgynous, felt a little cooler, didn't feel so girly.

F151: How would you say New York has influenced Sophomore?
CM: I grew up in New York, so it's hard for me to say it's not influencing me. I know this is going to sound weird…I don't really like other places. I just like New York. Even when I go away, I just want to come back here. It's almost to a fault that New York is inspiring to me. I wish I could go to other places and be inspired, and I do, to some degree. But I don't think on a permanent basis I could be inspired by anywhere else.
MVF: New York is so inspiring because you have so many different things piled right on top of each other. It's impossible not to see something new everyday. And there are so many different kinds of people and languages and cultures all smushed right up on top of each other. It's impossible not to be inspired by New York. People just dress better in New York. OK, Paris, they dress really well. But in America, New York.

F151: Is there anything specifically that inspires you?
CM: We're designing right now so it's something I've been thinking about. I'm really into kids. I love kids. I like high-school kids, which is part of the name. I'm always looking at younger kids to see what they're interested in, ’cause they know.
MVF: Actually, New York is not inspiring me right now [laughs]. I'm more inspired by the sun and trees and grass and flowers and a beach.
CM: Yeah, I know what you mean. For Spring, we're not really thinking of what we'd want to wear here, necessarily.
MVF: You're thinking of what you want to wear when you go away.
CM: We also just went to Joshua Tree.
MVF: And honestly, that's been really inspiring. The desert, Neil Young in the ’70s, I just want to look like him [laughs].


F151: How would you describe the Sophomore girl and the Sophomore guy?
CM: I think about every age group and eventually—maybe not right now, but someday—everyone owning something even if it's just a t-shirt or a dress. The basics are so great. I don't want to limit anyone to what we make. My dad wears Sophomore. It's become this lifestyle thing, but really the clothes are simple.
MVF: I think anyone can wear Sophomore. And I want it to be something you can mix in with whatever your style is. It's not overbearing, it's not like buying a designer label. You can mix it in with your high-end stuff, with your low-end stuff. And I want anyone to wear it, that's what we want. Sophomore's for everyone.

F151: How does the creative process work between you two?
MVF: We do it together. We go to the library, we watch movies, we go to Joshua Tree or whatever, and we talk, like “Oh, I'm thinking these colors. Yeah, what about teal?” We bring in clothes and have a powwow about how we're feeling for that season, and then I sketch lots of different ideas. Then we look at the sketches and we meet with our showroom and then we say, “We need to add this, this isn't working, let’s take out this.” Then I'll sketch until eventually we've narrowed it down to what that season is. And Chrissie designs all the graphics and the prints.

F151: What would you be doing if you weren’t in fashion?
CM: I would be making movies. I want to make movies someday. We did that lookbook video, which was so great. To me it seems a lot harder, more stress, but I definitely want to make a video one day.

F151: Talk about the lookbook video.
CM: The video that we made for Spring was a super-ambitious project. We basically did it for no money; everyone helped out. Cass Bird is a longtime friend. She does all our lookbooks and collaborates with us. She had been really interested in doing a video, ’cause she did a music video and she really liked using the red* camera. So all our friends, all the models, came out for free to Coney Island and we made a list of 20 questions about adolescence. “Have you ever been arrested? Have you ever been in a fight? What was your first kiss? How'd you lose your virginity?” Really basic questions, and I think the lesson for me was that it really came alive in the editing.

F151: What would you be doing, Madeleine?
MVF: I'd be painting. I still paint. I'd do that full time.
CM: I think that when you were talking about school, you go to art school and you think, I'm going to be an artist. You think it's going to be so easy and then you realize, That's not so easy and there's so much bullshit that comes with the art world that you need a real job where someone is going to pay you.
MVF: You move to New York, and you're like, “I'm going to be an artist!” And then you're like, “Wait a minute…I have to eat. And like no one is buying this from me right for $10,000.”
CM: Yeah, I didn't go to college thinking, I'm going to learn Photoshop. But you have to.
MVF: What is that quote? “Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans.” [laughs]


F151: Do you have advice for anyone interested in getting into fashion?
CM: I think the first thing you need is a vision or an idea. It has to be something that isn't out there. You can't say, “I want to start a denim line,” because that's ridiculous. There are a million denim lines. You have to have some sort of idea that's different and contributing to something artistic or creative that hasn't been done. And then fashion-wise, I always tell everyone, “You need a team behind you. Someone to sell it, someone to promote it.” It's all collaboration. It's like movies in that way; you can't do it on your own, sitting in your house and hoping that people are going to find you.
MVF: My advice for someone moving to New York, wanting to get into fashion, would be first of all, save up some money before you move here, and don't have really high expectations, because when you move here the first year or two will be a mess and you have no idea what you're doing. You're broke, you're not going to have the same friends like four years down the road, you're going to be like, “Who the hell was that that I was hanging out with?” So don't expect a perfect New York life when you first move here, and if you want to get into fashion, my advice would be to intern. Cause of all of my jobs, almost all of them, came from internships.
CM: You learn a lot more from that than school.
MVF: I never went to fashion school. Everyone I know who went to fashion school said, “I didn't learn anything.” You learn so much from on-the-job experience and you meet people. It's just the best way.

F151: Are there any trends for Spring / Summer 2010 that you're excited about?
CM: I'm feeling this body-conscious stuff is really out of place right now. Anything tight is looking wrong to me. In the end my best style advice would be, Go back to the ’70s, just because it's the most flattering silhouette. It's high-waisted, long legs, looser.
MVF: I'm feeling khaki, loose, men’s shorts.
CM: Khaki, yeah.
MVF: I want to be comfortable. We made this muscle t-shirt, it's so easy. I just want to be comfortable. I think “warm weather,” that's why I love spring and summer. Everything looks good. I just want to be comfortable. You don't have put on a lot. I like some color, too.

F151: What does next season look like?
CM: One thing we're focusing on is trying to get more basic…but more detailed with the basics. That's the goal for us. We got really ambitious, we made leather one season, we did all this crazy stuff which is great in the beginning, but in the end, I think our focus should stay on “everyone has a great t-shirt, tank top, sweatshirt, jacket.”
MVF: We have to find a way to make these basics really special. That's why you're buying it from Sophomore, because that's what really is selling for us.
CM: The graphics too have been such a phenomenon to me. I just never thought they would do as well as they do. It's so hard to make graphics. For me, that's the hardest part. It's so much easier to think of basic stuff. There's no rhyme or reason to it. They're all over the place, which is good. People say to me, “You should have a theme, all reggae-inspired graphics,” but that's one person. So I try to do different references and keep in that street culture.
MVF: The “New York” graphics. Anything to do with New York sells really well.
CM: Yeah.

F151: All over, or just in New York?
MVF: All over, like in Japan.
CM: Yeah. You just put the words “New York” on it.
MVF: Yeah, they're crazy for it.
CM: That's a good tip for someone looking to get into the fashion business. [laughs]



F151: What does the future look like for Sophomore?
MVF: Lots of money.
CM: A hot tub [laughs]. Look, owning your own business is hard. I'd like to get to the point where Sophomore is on it's own and we're more in a pattern like, “We don't have to worry. We have enough to make more and more.” But it's still stressful, like, “How are we going to afford to make all this stuff and expand?” Living the same life, without the stress.
MVF: Yeah.
CM: That would be ideal for me.

MVF: How do you create a brand around a lifestyle?
CM: I think there's an antenna that goes up where I feel like this is what's in the air for me, and I'm so inspired by the people around me. We don't use any models; we just use our friends. We try to use people who are doing something, not that just looking cool. As far as the lookbooks go, it's part me, it's part Cass Bird, and the location, and just trying to capture Sophomore, what that has come to mean, this adolescent feeling…even if you're old. This feeling, this excitement.
MVF: Yeah, where everything is new and exciting and you're running around and experiencing life for the first time.
CM: Like your first house party, like that giant house we did for our Fall lookbook. What it was like to go to your first really insane townhouse with no parents, or what it was like to go to Coney Island for the first time. When I was there, I felt like I was seeing it for the first time ’cause you're looking at it from a different perspective. That part is really fun for me.

F151: Do you see Sophomore as being set in a specific time frame? Like if someone looked back at your work, would they be able to tell what year it was?
CM: I think the goal for the look of the company and the look of the lookbooks, I try to make it as timeless as possible. You know the picture of the girls flashing, to me that looks like it could have been taken yesterday, the ’70s, or the ’80s, but to some degree, the criticism we get is that it looks “hipster.” I don't know that that's a bad thing, but I think both of us have always been a part of the alternative group in school or in life.
MVF: We're not cheerleaders.
CM: Yeah, exactly. We weren't at the cool table necessarily, but we were always looking to see what else was out there. So I guess that would be what inspires me, alternative lifestyle.

F151: Do you think the feeling you capture, the carefree nature of kids running around, is that possible outside of New York?
CM: Definitely.
MVF: I think that feeling exists within everybody. Everybody wants that. That's the appeal of Sophomore. You want to be able to buy a piece of that and feel you're 16 again. If you're in Des Moines, or New York, or LA, or wherever. Kids are kids no matter where you grow up.
CM: Sometimes I think about how Sophomore would look if I hadn't seen a lot of the movies I saw growing up. I think, postmodernism and all that stuff, it's a reflection of what I've seen and what appeals to me. It's a lot of Larry Clark movies and Foxes* and as a kid I was blown away by. It's interesting because kids now, they don't know about that stuff. Things that you take for granted, like Guns N' Roses. I have a friend who never really got into Guns N' Roses. It just wasn't in their vein. That's like vintage to them now. To me, it was like Guns N' Roses. You had to listen to Guns N' Roses growing up. [laughs]

F151: Anything else?
MVF: Buy Sophomore.

Watch the video of Chrissie and Madeleine talking about Sophomore.

www.sophomorenyc.com