We first fell for New York-based designer Tim Hamilton at his presentation last February during New York fashion week. We’ve been trying to pin him down since then, and somewhere in between visiting his factories in Japan and Italy, moving his home, selling-out his first UNIQLO collection, and getting nominated for a CFDA award for the second time in his two-year career, he squeezed us in. Personally, I think he’s destined to dress every East Village boy from here to Tokyo.

Weston: I understand the Tim Hamilton story starts in Iowa. How did that twist your early opinions about style?

Tim: I don’t want to sound cynical about my midwest roots, but if anything it made want to stand out in style, so I separated from anything that had any Iowa-style connection. I hated growing up in Iowa as child. As a kid I was always looking at fashion publications for guidance about what was going on in London or New York. I was rebellious in my own way with everything midwest.

W: So did Iowa have any influence on your style at all?

T: Iowa? No. I think to a degree my father influenced me my first few seasons. We battled constantly growing up, but I definitely appreciated his style. He was very much a blue-collar World War II vet kind of guy, but he definitely had this sort of chic-ness about him - the way he wore his workwear with sport coats and he made it sort of refined. I just hoped I could dress like that when I got older. But Iowa itself, no. If anything maybe it made my personality a little more laid back.

Also, I’m half-Lebanese, and we were constantly around my cousins, and my mother was well travelled and deep into things outside of the box. She was always reading these amazing novels, and she would make us read them out loud. She taught ballroom dancing and she was big into the the Hollywood starlets and things like that.

We grew up really poor so there was always this thing of not looking poor. We’d get pretty amazing hand-me-downs from our cousins, and with our last dollar we could buy a certain label and mix it up or go thrift store shopping. We really wanted to make an effort to look good - my whole family. We didn’t necessarily want to fit in, but we wanted to step out in style. I think that early on, how I put myself together, really defined how I looked at style.

W: Halston was from Iowa - did you feel like he was looking over your shoulder? Did you feel the debauchery of his Studio 54 days luring you to New York?

T: Before my time! Dif gen, thank you! [laughs]. Of course I knew he was from Des Moines and I do have a fascination with the ’70s in New York. I wished I was old enough to have been in New York in the ’70s and ’80s. I think one season I’ll do a tribute to that era. When the time is right.

W: Tell us about the infamous Iowa farmboys. Any adventures?

T: Ha. No I wish I could make something up. I couldn’t wait to depart from Iowa and no dalliance was left behind!

W: So you got the hell out.

T: Yeah, I used to call all these famous photographers when I was in Iowa - Steven Meisel, Herb Ritts, Francesco Scavulo, Bruce Weber - everyone told me at the time South Beach was the place to be, and that I should come for a few months. So I had saved up $500, and finally left in ‘91.

I stayed in Miami for a year and traveled around Europe doing the 21-year-old backpack thing. Finally made my way to New York and got a job in sales at RRL. They thought I fit the image - that look. It was great to get a job, but my goal was to study acting.

I was working with the corporate office at Ralph to do the looks of the store - work the whole Ralph image - but I always tried to push things by the way I dressed. After a year they told me “you should work in design, you should work in design”, so they gave me an internship, hired me three months later, and payed for classes at Parsons. They sent me to Japan, Paris, London, constant travelling to LA and Seattle, buying vintage, and building big concepts. It was kind of crazy to think you could get paid for something like that, so I gave up the acting thing.

W: So you started at Ralph Lauren, which is really not sexy, but you’re clothes are. You’re obviously not trying to do Ralph Lauren, but what are you doing that makes your take on ‘American’ clothes so much sexier? What are you doing that they’re not?

T: Good point. I don’t know. At my first few jobs, I felt at the time there was no one doing menswear in New York that was taking attention away from Europe. I felt like all the designers would attempt to do different things but it all kind of ended up as this ‘American wardrobe’. Everyone was doing their version of it.

I design for my vision now. I guess I’m at the point where I feel that if you are designing in in the US the press tends to trap you as American designer. I’m very proud to be in New York but I don’t like to be categorized as an Americana style brand. I feel I need to make some extreme risks and take on some risky themes to break that title. It’s always 100% me and my evolution. Editors always say American style is more casual and relaxed and it’s so boring to keep hearing that. I wanted to be true to my vision and if comes off as sexy then fine I’ll take that.

W: It definitely comes off as sexy. Super sexy tight pants, sequins, fur, patent leather tuxedo shoes - kinda glammy, non-traditional territory for a preppy look. Explain yourself Mr. Hamilton.

T: I never called myself preppy! The press may have in the beginning because editors need to label you. I came from strong preppy Americana workplaces which I never molded myself into. I just worked there. I think this season I went further into taking risks with the line. I wanted it to be a more conceptual and capture more mood. I added tailoring and that was more evening. It may seem like it’s not in the ‘traditional’ box but you can look at each piece and know they are just reinterpretations of classic pieces.

W: Your last collection was so bright and light and pop. Maybe some residual Miami influence? But this season I described as “ivy league preppy gone bad seed - or maybe trade”. All the better - it got super sexy, and a little trashy - in a really good way of course.

T: I can one hundred percent honestly say the color was not inspired by my Miami days [laughs]. And the new collection is nothing IVY at all, but I can see how you may perceive it to be because of my Ivy sounding name and work history.

I always start with fabric in menswear. Last season was about uses of color and keeping more electric. Surely most of the pieces where based of classics, as all menswear should be, but I brought in a lot of lightweight fabrics and yarns and made the proportions really playful. It has boyish-meets-man charm to it.

I had been going to Japan and Paris and London a lot. And for some reason I was with these kids in their early 20s and I was inspired by their energy. They don’t really have the money to go out and buy expensive labels, but they’re making their looks from Top Man, or vintage. They come up with these great looks that sort of look like high-end designers. I was very motivated by color. I was in an electric mode of color, I was looking at all these books from the ’60s furniture books at that moment so I brought that into my collection.

This season has more of dark mood story of looks inspired by theater, turn of the century romance and a hint a ballet. I had this great intern who was reading a book on Nijinsky, and I was looking at the ballet images and thought about the old world theater. What’s that guy wearing and how can you put some old world romance back into a menswear collection. I didn’t want it to be too glammed up. I wanted to take active silhouettes, but tailor them. The fabrics, yarns, and leather all have movement and are super refined. You can see in the pics and in the presentation. You really want to reach out to touch the clothes and feel and caress them - and of course wear them.

W: Well speaking of caressing, it’s a little off topic but lets talk models. This year they were obscenely hot.

T: Douglas Perrett COACD casting baby! He has such a strong passion for what he does with casting and his understanding of the clothes and concept were right on.

[interlude with Douglas Perret while Tim changes his outfit]

W: You chose models from several agencies. Obviously you were looking for something specific - beyond hot and skinny, what was it?

Douglas: I work with all the agencies and weed out every board trying to find my cast. It’s like a puzzle - you take in the designer and the stylist’s direction, marinate on it, and start thinking of options and suggestions. I’m always looking for something fresh, something to make me go “oh I didn’t think of that”. I want people to walk into a show, take in the casting, and regret passing on that model. It is always an interesting, unpredictable experience which is what makes my job so fascinating.

W: Was there something specific about the vision of the collection that you were trying to capture in the model selection?

Douglas: Clients always mention references, inspiration, their muses, etc. For me that is just all fancy fashion adjectives. I know when a client wants a name model, is willing to take a risk, or wants me to go out on the street and physically search for that raw face. For Tim it was all about dandy ballerinas, but I was apprehensive to be too literal. A perfect combination of balance, great body, powerful legs and the definitive profile. We make a few compromises but I usually get my way. Then again, getting 35 models to stand for free tights and sweater vests is not that easy.

[back to Tim]

W: At your presentation you could get up close and personal with the clothes (and the models). It was up front exhibitionism combined with shameless voyeurism. I loved it. Was it just fashion or is there something more to it than that? Was as it your idea that they stare back at the photographers as they shoot?

T: I wish there were a a whole creative choreographic story behind the set up but no, there isn’t. The stage wasn’t even finished! I wanted to do a pyramid stage but we ran out of time. The models had to jump on the platform when the paint was still wet. As for the models staring at you, maybe they just fancied you. [laughs - but I KNOW he meant it]. No for real they know how to work the camera and crowd and my heart goes out to them for getting pinned and fitted and hair and makeup done, then standing on the platform in the spotlight for an hour. They were all amazing!

W: What’s your soundtrack while you’re designing?

T: Oh boy it changes so much. I’m in a million different music moods in day. Nina Simone, LCD Soundsystem, Joy Division, old Gary Numan - it’s all there. I also have DJ friend who makes me a lot dub mixes from the late ’70s and early ’80s. I’ve also been listening to Sébastien Tellier, Hercules and Love Affair for my pop fix, and Brian Eno and MGMT a lot.

W: You were nominted for a CFDA award in 2006 (which we thought you should have won). Did that early recognition give you latitude to take more risks, or force you to join the establishment?

T: It made me see that you really have to be true to who you are and not confine yourself to the political fashion business hype. Why do it if your not true to yourself. I’m not doing it for money that’s for sure. Not saying I don’t need it but you know, I’m just saying…

I got to experiment and took more risks than ever with this season. I don’t want to do the same thing every season. I don’t want to be a Ralph Lauren. No offense to the Ralph world, and it obviously works for him, but if I can survive with what I do that’s how I want to live.

W: Well you got nominated again this year so you’re doing something right. I see Obama on your wall. One of your inspirations?

T: He’s definitely up there. I would love to dress Obama, but everyone wants it for free. People gotta spend money to wear my shite! But seriously, I think we are ready for a change and he is the man to do it.

W: What are you relieved I didn’t ask you?

T: About my days in Miami! Actually I’m, fine with being asked anything. I’m pretty open and laid back most of the time.

W: What do you wish I did?

T: How hung I am.

If you want some Tim Hamilton, go to Bergdorf’s, Jeffrey, and If.

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