Scott has always been chatty but this week he seems to be taking a double shot of coffee. I love these 'behind the brand' chats
LOS ANGELES, United States — What made a 20-something junior agent at CAA, with no background in clothing design, think he could just up and create a fashion company and make it a viable business?
“Good question,” says Scott Sternberg, who in 2004 did just that, ditching his desk job to launch the LA-based Band of Outsiders with a limited collection of shirts and ties. Four years in, Sternberg won the CFDA Swarovski award for emerging menswear designer; last year he shared the top award with Italo Zucchelli of Calvin Klein. This September the hip brand, found at dozens stores around the world, will debut its fourth imprint, the entry-level womenswear line, girl.
Viable indeed. A runaway success, more like it.
“It was very clear that I was much more of an entrepreneur than someone who services clients,” Sternberg says now of his time as a Hollywood agent. “I was thinking, what would be a company be if I started it—is it a product or a service? Just sort of soul-searching in my late twenties to see what I wanted to do with my life. I was working with a few entrepreneurs, one of whom started J. Crew, and she encouraged me to consider [fashion] as something to do because the way I approach the creative process is similar to the way a clothing designer would. In a short period of time it became clear that the apparel business is incredibly entrepreneurial—the barriers to entry are really low, probably even more so now. All these stores and magazines are desperate for new, great things. If you have something honest and interesting and personal and cool and relevant and well-made, you can at least get started.”
The first step, Sternberg says, was honing the vision. “It was about being specific. I had such limited resources and such limited knowledge of how to make clothes. So I made what felt right and felt like something I would want—which were shirts and ties at the time—that I could make at the level that I would find that the price and the product would align. It’s a wonderful industry for an entrepreneur who is creative and can make things.”
As interest began to grow and those magazines came calling, Sternberg says he resisted the pressure to act outside of his comfort zone. “It was really about being small and pure and not doing anything if I wasn’t sure what the next step was. From a product perspective, I can make these shirts and ties really well. I have access to the factories and materials that feel right to me and I can get it at a price where there is a market for it. All those steps are set in stone. In terms of business model, there’s rules and margins, and all of that is trial-and-error to some extent, but keeping things small and doing everything myself for so long meant no overhead so I was able to always profitable and never take on outside investors even to this day.”
So, beginning to feel grounded, secure in his new enterprise, the young designer allowed himself to experiment. “There’s a product delivery cycle that’s set,” he said. “You’re gonna deliver Spring at a certain time, you’re gonna deliver Fall at a certain time. You’re going to show at these times—you fall into the groove of that. That structure is liberating. It’s challenging and it never stops but it allows you to fail because there is always another season.”
Spreading his wings with this newfound freedom, Sternberg went on an expedition to Scotland, researched plaid, created a collection informed by his adventure, and picked up the prestigious CFDA hardware for his troubles.
On the marketing side, however, he needed no such incubation period. From the very inception of the brand Sternberg’s deft imaging of the company with the geek-chic Americana of a Hollywood insider has been a sensation, and correlation between that image and the success of the business cannot be overstated, even if it is difficult to quantify.
“Brand image is intrinsically tied to the product,” he says, explaining. “Because it’s your clothes and clothes are about self-image. It’s not just the shirt and the buttons and the fabric. At the end of the day I think, for the loyalty factor, people are entertained by the brand and feel a connection to it. I hope they are coming back because their shirt fits really well and they wear it every other day.”
And Band marches on. The growing business is moving headquarters, and Sternberg has his eye on expansion. “As a creative person, how can you not,” he says. But, as he points out, returning again and again to his touchstone of purity, the new developments are not overreaching.
“The focus now is how to expand—not to rule the world or make tons of money—but to make a bigger business, a more sustainable business. You’re looking at scale. I do a lot of work here, create a lot of product and you want to sell it more places, because it makes it sort of worth it and more interesting. You test: does this have legs? I don’t want to be the Gap or even Ralph Lauren. Women’s was a market that was obviously enticing.”
But that line, Boy., which he launched in 2007, was not a reinvention of the wheel, dropping instead out of his clear concept for the line as a perfectly ripe fruit falls off the tree—when it is ready. “I just had a notion of doing a really focused collection offering everything that women loved about my menswear but couldn’t articulate to women. Meaning, really well-made jackets and shirts. But at this point it is a full designer-, whatever-, collection. I thought there was something there that I could offer,” he says.
And you agree. So crystalline is Sternberg’s vision and his business acumen one imagines that if he were to design a car or a building, not only would he likely pull it off, but it would be immediately recognisable as an entity in the Band brand.
Chris Wallace is an editor and writer based in New York. His work has appeared in Dossier Journal, i-D, Interview and T.
Above : taken from BoF
Below : taken from Letter to Jane
TIM MOORE — I once wrote a piece about Band of Outsiders where I said your love for film and it’s application to fashion is akin to how the directors of the French New Wave likened film to great literature. Was I in the ballpark or way off?
SCOTT STERNBERG — Sure, that sounds about right. Those guys were looking for something deeper and more human in film than the studio crap that was out there at the time; I’m looking for something more honest and human in fashion and the imagery that surrounds it.
TIM MOORE — One thing that annoyed me working with anyone in the film industry is the level at which everything is so closed, and there so many pointless steps to get anything accomplished as opposed to what I’ve noticed about fashion which seems to be such the opposite and much more open and inviting. I have to imagine that must have been an enormous feeling of freedom when Band of Outsiders started take off.
SCOTT STERNBERG — Indeed. It’s one of the most appealing things about working with clothing. The cycle is much faster, the turn over more constant, and there’s just more levity to creative process as the stakes are much lower (a shirt costs much less than a feature film to produce). The flip side of this is the enormous amount of work and responsibility that comes with it – at any given time, I’m working on three seasons at once in some form or another, across men’s and women’s.
TIM MOORE — Now that the label has grown and made a name and image for itself, do you still feel that you have as much freedom to do whatever you want with the brand?
SCOTT STERNBERG — Sure, as long there’s an honesty that persists, I think the more people know and understand the brand, the more freedom I have to play around with it.
TIM MOORE — How big do you want the brand to grow, and into what areas of the market that you haven’t reached yet?
SCOTT STERNBERG — There’s so much I want to do creatively – so much product I’m excited to design and produce, and not all for super skinny slightly rich people. I hope to keep what we’re doing now as focused as it is, and extend the philosophy and aesthetic of the brand across different types of products and consumers.
TIM MOORE — One of the things I love about men’s fashion is there is such a strong relation to semiotics in that every piece of clothing is clearly attached to a certain style and a way of communication. You’re known for subtly mixing so many styles together that it always appears to have this great play on how we “read” into fashion. I was wondering what goes into consideration when styling a collection?
SCOTT STERNBERG — At the end of the day, I’m just trying to create something that feels modern and imminently wearable. Beyond that, though, I’m definitely interested in semiotics, heritage, history, vestigial garments and functional details that have made their way into modern uniforms. We have an entire collection of polo shirts called “This is not a polo shirt.” which is about just that.
TIM MOORE — Your designs are loved all around, but because you’re also working with the concept of American staples, you’ve been an enormous inspiration to the vintage and DIY communities. Are you much of a vintage/DIY person these days?
SCOTT STERNBERG — That’s nice to hear. I certainly love hunting for vintage clothing and find a lot of inspiration there. Reconstruction is a key element of Boy., so I find myself taking apart old menswear pieces – military jackets, tailored blazers, an old Champion sweatshirt – and re-cutting them for women.
TIM MOORE — When designing a new collection, do you look completely towards the future or is there part of you that looks back at your past work and correct things from previous collections that you weren’t pleased with?
SCOTT STERNBERG — Always looking in both directions. Our consumer is always going to want to find what they love about Band at a store – a great fitting shirt or blazer, a preppy little sweater, a beautiful necktie – and will be even more pleased if they find something new that they didn’t know we made before.
TIM MOORE — Fashion Week is coming up again soon, what can you tell us about your upcoming collection?
SCOTT STERNBERG — There’s an entirely new women’s collection called “girl.” that’s making its debut at the show. If you know anything about “Boy.”, you could probably guess where we’re going with it.
TIM MOORE — Comedians are featured a lot in your clothes. Is this more because you like to feature your friends, or because you like the tone or style they bring to the look?
SCOTT STERNBERG — I just love funny people. And think fashion campaigns are mostly hilarious anyway, even when they’re not trying to be –the self-seriousness and over stylized slickness – so instead of replicating what everyone else does, I wanted to have a little fun with them.
TIM MOORE — The image of Band of Outsiders is primarily framed by your Polaroid camera. What is it about the Polaroid that make it your weapon of choice?
SCOTT STERNBERG — They allow me work with film and get all of the aesthetic benefits of it, but with the advantage that digital photography brings of being able to see your work as you go, which is super important both to gain the trust of the subject and to build an organic narrative as we shoot.
TIM MOORE — The Polaroids themselves add to a very personal feel to Band of Outsiders. How personal is the brand to you? Are the clothes your kind of expression or do you view yourself more as a sort of editor showing us the way to great style?
SCOTT STERNBERG — Totally, utterly, deeply personal. I play in classics, so there’s a certain level of curating or editing, but each piece is very considered beyond that.
TIM MOORE — While we’re on the subject of your photography I just wanted to say that it is excellent, are their any plans for you to release a book of them? If not could you please?
SCOTT STERNBERG — Well, thanks. I’ve been thinking of different media in general, for Polaroids and other stuff we create. Not sure yet.
TIM MOORE — I’m enjoying your “intern files” posts on OC’s blog, and I thought I would turn the tables a little bit and ask you some of the questions.
What is the hardest project you’ve worked on with Band, and is there any part of your job that you could do in your sleep?
SCOTT STERNBERG — The first few Boy. collections were very challenging; coloring men’s tie fabrics is quite automatic for me at this point.
TIM MOORE — Who is the most interesting person you’ve met?
SCOTT STERNBERG — There are so many goofy characters in our world that it’s really hard to say.
TIM MOORE — What is your favorite Band piece?
SCOTT STERNBERG — Always changing, but I’m in love with the polos right now.
TIM MOORE — Besides the great cookie blog, are you into other aspects of social media? Are you a big Twitter or Facebook user?
SCOTT STERNBERG — Not really. Nicole uses Twitter just to let people know what we’re up to, what we’ve posted lately on the blogs. The cookie blog wasn’t really a marketing tactic or anything like that; I just love cookies, and enjoy writing, so thought it would be fun to do.
TIM MOORE — I’ve notice when you get mentioned by New York bloggers or press that they sometimes write “L.A. designer Scott Sternberg.” The use of the L.A. comes off a bit passive aggressive at times. Do you consider yourself part of L.A. fashion or as a bit of an anomaly?
SCOTT STERNBERG — Total anomaly. There’s no such thing as “L.A. fashion”; they call it the “garment industry” out here.
