Dinner with Matthew Adams Dolan

I met the designer and his incredibly well-behaved tote bag-contained puppy, Maisie at their regular spot, The Paris Cafe, the kind of historical establishment whose past patrons included the likes of Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill — something I learned later from the longtime bartender, Eamon. After about four and a half hours, lots of cocktails and myriad conversations with all types of South Street Seaport locals, I realized why this was Dolan’s go-to to get away from the stresses of the day.
PS

How was your day?
MAD

Stressful, as always. I was at the factory. I went to buy fabric. I cut out patterns for my seamstresses. It was a busy day.
PS

Better now that you have a drink in your hand?
MAD

Yes, of course. Eamon, may I please get the salmon, medium please? And instead of the whipped potatoes, could I have some vegetables?
PS

Can I have the salmon as well? Thank you.
MAD

Thank you. And another wine too please.
PS

I’d love to start from your background. Could you tell me a little bit about your family?
MAD

My mom is from New Jersey and my dad is from Long Island. They met at college at Ohio State University. My dad is an agronomist. He grew up looking after golf-course lawns and now has a landscaping business, my mom originally was a pharmacist and now she’s a narcotics investigator. She worked as a pharmacist in the States. After moving to Australia, at one point she had to call up the health department to report something — I think she just saw something out of the ordinary — and eventually got a job there. Now she’s the head investigator. It’s quite a crazy job. She deals only with health professionals, doctors, vets, nurses, that kind of thing, not storming the streets in the public sector. And then in the night is working for hours making quilts. I love that.
Laughs
PS

You traveled around quite a bit when you were younger.
MAD

I went to high school in Japan, in the south.
PS

What brought that about?
MAD

I don’t know. Looking back, it was so crazy. I’m glad to have done it, but it was a crazy thing to do at 15 years old, to go to this tiny little town and be the only non-Japanese person in the school, being barely able to speak Japanese when I arrived.

You look at American craft, there’s such an enduring history of it. […] It’s not about extravagance, it’s more about quilting and using scraps, out of necessity.

PS

What were you like as a kid?
MAD

I was really quiet and quite nerdy. I was always reading everything. When I was in Japan, I was obsessed with animals. I wanted to work in a zoo. I had this crazy set of scientific encyclopedias all about animals. My parents were always very supportive of us and what we wanted to do. Growing up, my mom always sewed her own clothes; she’s always been really crafty.
PS

Did she sew yours as well?
MAD

No she didn’t really sew for me, but she used to make these elaborately smocked and embroidered dresses for my sister when we were younger. We always had a sewing room in the house. Now that I’ve moved out, I think they’ve put a giant quilting machine in my room. You definitely appreciate that tradition, growing up with it and being surrounded by it always.
PS

Of making things yourself?
MAD

Yeah and I think that’s very American. You look at American craft, there’s such an enduring history of it. In a lot of ways I think it’s a lot more general and humble than Europe. It’s not about extravagance, it’s more about quilting and using scraps, out of necessity. It’s something that’s been around in the US and it speaks to how the country started with pioneers and rag rugs, and before that of course the rich history of the textiles of the Indigenous Peoples. As a fashion designer, I’ve always been interested in the whole tradition of couture and construction. But I also think it’s interesting to look at the way American people dress. Theirs is a really interesting evolution. In the US, it was very much about female designers affording women to be able to dress themselves and also be able to make their own clothes for an evolving way of life. As an American designer, people have a way of looking at what American fashion is and has been. It definitely has changed a lot, but I think in some way there has always been this idea of democracy and aspiration, which is very different from what fashion in Europe has been about. I’ve always been interested in that evolution.
PS

What do you think of streetwear? I always wonder what would have happened to fashion had it not been for the graphic t-shirt.
MAD

I think it goes back to the ’50s; that’s when all of the sudden you had this new cultural phenomenon of the teenager. By creating this idea of a new social bracket it really opened up a whole new market. For the first time, they weren’t seen as children. And I think that this idea street culture can go back to that. It’s the era where people of all ages really started wearing jeans as a new type of casual uniform and in a lot of ways was a turning point in the way that Americans, and the rest of the world began to dress. Personally, I am not hugely into graphic tee’s or sneaker culture, but at the same time, I think that anything that is opening up an interest in fashion, in design, these kinds of conversations, it is ultimately going to benefit the market and how design is going to develop.
PS

What do you do when you’re not focusing on your brand?
MAD

That is very rare. I don’t have a big team. I’m non-stop on the go and very much still sewing into the early hours of the morning.
PS

What’s your team consist of?
MAD

I have two business partners, a person working in production and some freelance seamstresses.

When we started the company, we had a big focus on American made denim, and clothes made in the USA, I was really drawn to the heritage of these mills that had made the first Levi’s and that kind of legacy.

PS

Do you see yourself staying in New York in the future?
MAD

I think so. It feels like home. There’s a lot of opportunity here and support. A lot of the people that I work with are based here. It’s also about navigating towards what feels like the best way for the company to grow. Because as a small business, it’s also very difficult to manufacture here.
PS

Everything’s made in the US?
MAD

Yeah, but I’m currently in the middle of moving production to Italy. I think it’s all about growth strategy. Especially with Trump in office there have been a lot of effects on running a small business and manufacturing here, in terms of tariffs and import taxes that have made it very difficult to maintain. They have since shut down their manufacturing facilities in the States and moved elsewhere, but I’m also looking into other ways I can work with what is still made here in the future.
PS

How much do you educate yourself on stuff like this?
MAD

I try and find out as much as I can about all of those processes. Especially because as a young company I think we have more responsibility and it’s easier to make changes when your company is growing rather than when it’s established. But then on the flipside, you’re trying to compete with margins from brands who are making a million of an item. If you’re going to spend x amount of dollars on a pair of jeans, there needs to be something inherently valuable about it. If you can get it for $200 cheaper, there has to be a justification for the higher price, so that is something that I’m very conscious of and working towards.
PS

It must be very hard. And how’s life outside the brand?
MAD

Not very exciting unfortunately. I’m very consumed I guess with work. I’ve started to read a lot again, which feels really good.
PS

What are you reading?
MAD

I just reread Pride and Prejudice and Emma. After that I went through a big spree one weekend watching the BBC series while I was working. And then I watched the movie with Keira Knightley and then Bridget Jones. Very obsessive. I used to read a book a day, so I have been trying to read a lot more.
PS

Oh wow. When you were a kid?
MAD

It took me almost two hours on the bus to get to college when I lived in Sydney, Australia. There was no train where I lived so we’d just get stuck in rush-hour traffic. I mean, growing up I always read a lot too. I read everything. So many random things. Biographies, fiction, non-fiction.
PS

Reading is a nice escape.
MAD

When I’m not working, it’s nice to be able to have something that you can kind of lose yourself into, it’s kind of an escape in that way I guess. I’m always thinking so much though so start to find connections between things which should be quite removed from one another. When we started the company, we had a big focus on American made denim, and clothes made in the USA, I was really drawn to the heritage of these mills that had made the first Levi’s and that kind of legacy.
PS

How did you like school in Sydney?
MAD

I was talking to my friend the other day and we were reminiscing about this time when we were growing up. There was this moment when there was kind of a boom in the music that was happening there. That made it really fun to go out in Sydney. I grew up in the suburbs so it was exciting to go out in the city for the first time, going to galleries, going to concerts and parties. Even though I was at school for so long, I really enjoyed the course though. It’s one of the few undergraduate programs which places quite an emphasis on theory; design theory, fashion theory, fashion history, which is something that I really enjoyed. There was also a quite a strong emphasis on us working with the other departments and across disciplines, which I think is very beneficial.
Maisie, Matthew’s dog, growled a bit.
MAD

Maisie, you’re being very naughty.
PS

I’m so impressed by her at the table right now. She hasn’t even tried to eat any of your food.
MAD

At least she doesn’t beg. That is good.
PS

How old is she?
MAD

Almost two.
PS

Wow! She’s so well-behaved for a puppy.
MAD

I can tell she wants to run around.

I’ve always had dogs. Maisie is going through a naughty phase now and is getting upset if I leave her alone. I want her to be happy because she makes me happy, so I’ve had to spend a lot of time with her trying to get her OK with being alone. My side project as a dog trainer.

PS

Do you leave the neighborhood? Or are your friends coming down here to see you?
MAD

Sometimes! I work here and live here so I’m usually here. I’ve always had dogs. And living in New York for years without one, I missed having them so much. Maisie is going through a naughty phase now and is getting upset if I leave her alone. I want her to be happy because she makes me happy, so I’ve had to spend a lot of time with her trying to get her OK with being alone. My side project as a dog trainer.
PS

Do you ever feel a pressure to dress a certain way?
MAD

This is probably as dressed up as I get. I barely leave the studio. I go through phases of only putting on shoes to take her outside for her walks. I worked in retail for so long growing up and very much dislike shopping now. When you’re around clothes all day, I just really don’t care and am more concerned with comfort I guess. I do like the idea of getting dressed up though, of wearing nice clothes, it’s a bit of a fantasy.
Laughs
PS

Eamon, do you know the history of the bar?
E

The building was built in 1873 and it was called Meyer’s Hotel. This was the cafe of the hotel. And all of the way until 2004 or so this whole neighborhood was a shithole. There was prostitution; there were murders. The mafia was running the fish market. When the bridge opened in 1886 or whenever it was, Annie Oakley was on the roof to celebrate it. Teddy Roosevelt used to drink here. Errol Flynn, Buffalo Bill, lots of characters drank here. Then Hurricane Sandy hit and we had to close down for a year to repair everything.
PS

I was staying at a friend’s house in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Everywhere you looked cars were floating in the nasty canal water.
MAD

The elevator in my building has completely underwater! I was in school then and living in Brooklyn at the time. I remember, everyone in Brooklyn was having a party because it was around Halloween, and being happy to not being able to get to school in the city.
PS

The music in here is really so good. Is this Collective Soul?
MAD

It is! I know! This is the best place. It would be so good to get all of my friends here. In the intro to the interview you are going to be like, “Matthew took us to an empty bar for dinner, with an army veteran and an Irish bartender.” But that’s very me I guess.
Laughs
PS

Bars and restaurants with such a strong heritage like this are the best.
MAD

And there are a bunch of regulars here that come in often, so whenever I do come there is usually someone who I know. It’s so quiet tonight though. There’s no one here!
E

It was a long weekend. And the snow doesn’t help.
PS

Who chooses the music?
E

I do. It’s the ’90s alternative rock station on Pandora.
PS

Great choices!
MAD

This story should actually be about Eamon, the bartender from New York. All the people that come here, I’m sure he has some interesting stories from over the years. I love that there is such a variety of people that come here, it’s very New York I guess. An investment banker, someone who works at the Sanitation Department, runs a nearby restaurant, a NYPD detective. Certainly much more interesting conversation than at a fashion party.