If you’re not yet familiar with Kirk Millar, here is your chance to get acquainted. Millar and business partner and creative counterpart Sam Linder have garnered a following since launching Linder in 2016.
The brand has evolved since Millar met Linder in 2012 and the two decided to join forces. Linder started as a small multi-brand retail boutique in SoHo and is now also an independent clothing line.
Linder recently adopted a new business strategy, with the designers splitting their responsibilities between menswear and womenswear. Millar oversees men’s.
Ahead of the upcoming New York Fashion Week: Men’s presentation, Millar shares his creative influences, his vision for Linder’s future, and what makes the brand an emerging American label to watch.
Can you tell us about your background and why you decided to pursue a career in fashion?
I am originally from a rural town in Arizona where I’m third generation to the area. My great-great-grandparents moved there in the early 1900s to pursue a new life. I grew up mostly outdoors under the hot sun, creating fantasy scenarios in the wilderness with my sister, cousins or friends. Up until high school, fashion was not a world I really had a concept of. When I bought my first Vogue at the grocery store at 16, I was captivated. It was so clear that fashion had grabbed my attention, and I would never be able to shake it. Through a variety of different creative pursuits in my early 20s, I finally accepted my fate as a designer and I cannot imagine doing anything else.
How would you describe your brand and fashion philosophy?
The brand is moving more and more toward designing wearable items. Perhaps at times still challenging, I find it disappointing when you can’t picture someone happy in your clothing. The brand has a lot of iteration on the classics: denim, shirting, tees, etc. You really can’t say a T-shirt and jeans are not what nearly everyone is wearing, and to alienate that common vernacular seems out of touch. Additionally, true creative process and expression through clothing guides both Sam and me. It’s not only aesthetic –it’s cultural, personal, and hopefully meaningful.
What sets your brand apart? What do you hope it brings to fashion?
My menswear reflects a certain narrative, and is almost lyrical in its intent and message. I’m very drawn to large sweeping scenes or narratives of living a large life. There’s a real missing emotional element to fashion that I’m working to build with Linder Menswear. I don’t really relate to irony, or the kind of cleverness so prevalent in fashion. I give a lot of myself into the work to create a kind of exterior representation of my interior world. I allow my fantasy life to really be a guiding factor, and it often pushes the results into an unknown place.
What was the inspiration behind your upcoming NYFWM show?
The inspirations include familial relations, and how one carries on the legacy of a family, especially as a gay man. The desire after coming out to find companionship, to continue life with resiliency, and to love others…it’s a variety of themes that one can see throughout the collection.
Where do you see your brand in five years? Are there any goals you hope to achieve?
In five years, I would like to be doing the same kind of work. By then, I can imagine our brand in a much more established place, with continued maturity in sensibility and communications and a more global representation. Our participation in the Woolmark Prize competition is the first of many moves to further our business along. This is the medium for Sam and I to express our creative life, and I want to see people enjoy it and wear it on a larger scale.
