Interior Hopes You Feel Something When You Look at Its Clothes
vogue– Some brands exist to solve a problem. Your bag is cluttered? Try one with a built-in organizer! Don’t have time to stand in front of your closet pondering what to wear to work every day? Here, a capsule wardrobe made with working moms in mind. Others are designed to make you feel something: pleasure, excitement, nostalgia. Interior, a new label founded by Jack Miner and Lily Miesmer, fits squarely into the latter category. Consider the Valencia Dress, a knotted silk gown with a plunging V in the back. It looks like a firework. Bring on the celebration!
Miner and Miesmer met in eighth grade math class, and bonded over a shared love of design. Miner formerly was the director of operations at Bode and the designer of his own line Hecho, while Miesmer worked for start-ups and direct-to-consumer brands. Last summer, they decided to create something together, and Interior was born. Miner, who Miesmer describes as “the heart and soul of the brand,” brings the vision and storytelling, while Miesmer brings her deep knowledge of what women want to wear and product design.
“We never set out to make a modular wardrobe,” Miner says. “We never wanted a wardrobe that could be pieced together innocuously or anonymously, where everything goes seamlessly with everything else. That’s not to say that you couldn’t wear our assortment interchangeably with everything else, but it’s going to communicate a much more emotional point of view than a brand that’s making beautiful, luxe basics.”
That said, their approach to fashion is still tethered to a sense of functionality. For instance, the black cashmere tunic and the gray green puffer coat. The latter is rendered in a matte technical fabric that, according to the website, straddles the line between eveningwear and sportswear. Like Marni’s fur-trimmed and paint-splattered puffers on their fall runway, and Chloé’s patchwork puffers, this iteration pushes the boundaries of what a utilitarian coat can be. I’d compliment someone who was wearing that coat on the subway. “The Interior woman is someone who is into fashion, but I think we have a little something for everybody,” Miesmer says. “[The puffer and the knits] make it accessible for someone who wants to build a really clever, clean, beautiful wardrobe.”
Miesmer was particularly interested in getting the fabrications exactly right. The cotton poplin, for instance, took several tries before she found one that was appropriately matte and thick. Most of Interior’s textiles come from Japan and Italy, and they also worked closely with an Indian factory to render some of the special pieces, like the silk knotted dress.
Most of the collection has a whimsical twist. The Interior take on work pants are wide-leg trousers where one leg is white and the other is cream, and its suit jacket is asymmetrical. The classically cut overcoat is rendered in such a wide wale corduroy that Miesmer says when you run your hand against the grain, it almost looks like fur. But where the collection really shines is in the special pieces like a patchwork quilted opera coat in a rainbow of patterns, the champagne-color, hand-embroidered silk shirt inspired by a rug Miner found in Maine, and, of course, the firework-like evening gown. These are clothes that let you dream about occasions that warrant them—a candlelit dinner party that lasts until 3 a.m., maybe, or a black-tie event with a live band. Since this first collection is available for pre-order now and will ship in September, there’s hope that you could wear them to an in-person event. A re-emergence treat, if you will.
