Dinner with Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta

JR

Welcome to Paris! What have you been up to since you got here?
ZL

It’s really nice to have the time to just see people, as global as fashion is, no one is ever really in the same place at the same time, so it’s like summer camp, we see our friends who are stylists in London, former interns who live in Switzerland.
Laughing
ZL

That really sounds all recreational.
JR

So Paris is definitely a lot more relaxed for you guys?
ME

For us it is, but because we aren’t showing. The collection has been finished; things have been priced so the baby has grown up a little. New York fashion week for us is like a shit show of really intense work and there is never a moment to do anything!
JR

I can imagine; is there anything or anywhere that you can’t miss when you’re in town?
ZL

I had to buy stationery so I went to BHV, which I love, there is nothing like that in America! We went to the Palais de Tokyo too, which was amazing.
ME

It’s such a freaking beautiful city, you forget that it’s just so nice being here and when you are driving in from Charles de Gaulle and you are like Ohhhh yeah!
ZL

Paris goes beyond embracing culture but prioritizing it. Whether it’s a park bench or the way they serve a glass of water. Whereas in New York and LA obviously we are engaged with culture but it’s really more of a fight there.
The wine arrives
JR

It seems a lot more fast paced there, the daily grind and the working routine.
ME

Yeah, I mean even today we were sitting in this café having a down moment, sipping a glass of wine, reading magazines, in between two appointments.
ZL

We never do that in New York.
Sound of glasses clinking
ALL

Cheers, Santé

JR

Let’s go back to the beginning, you both went to Rhode Island School of Design which is where you met, was it fashion at first sight?
ZL

No. Neither of us studied fashion. It’s an amazing school but it is in this city where there is nothing really to distract you from work. There’s an IVY league school next to ours, it’s very student orientated so it really allowed us to focus. We were in different years and different departments. We saw each other a lot but we didn’t really like each other.
JR

You didn’t really like each other?!
ME

Yeah (laughing), I feel like we knew each other from afar and we were just like whatever and then we met each other through mutual friends and when that happened there was this weird kind of click moment.
ZL

Neither of us was studying fashion but we both loved fashion for very different reasons.
JR

So when was that special moment when you said to each other "lets collaborate, let’s create"?
ME

I think it’s an interesting thing about art school and the conversations people have about each other’s projects and being interested in what your peers and friends are doing. I think we were very much invested in each other’s work even though we weren’t collaborating. We moved to City after we graduated.
Zoe starts laughing
ZL

City (Still laughing)
ME

The city, New York City!
ZL

We have this joke because Mike is very New York centric, he loves it, and he started calling New York City, City, not even The City, just City, the one place that exists in the whole world. (Laughing) So we moved to City.
JR

Like the capital of the world almost.
ZL

So we moved to City!
JR

But you both come from more of a fine arts background than fashion.
ME

Yeah I studied sculpture and Zoe studied textiles.
JR

So do you think this non-fashion background actually subtly helped to enhance the direction of your work or maybe even give it a bit more substance?
ME

Not necessarily, I don’t think it’s about enhancing anything. It’s always been a process where we both design and make things and we discuss with each other and mesh ideas, but it’s not like Mike’s thing or Zoe’s thing, it comes together as a whole.
ZL

It has always worked as though we are each other’s consultants. Then by the end of the conversation neither one of our ideas is ours anymore, we don’t take ownership over anything. After moving away from each other I think that’s allowed us to trust each other more. There might be some pieces that Mike and I save for each other to say well this is happening! We develop most things together and it comes from sketching mutually. Its better, its much better now that we are not in the same place.

JR

Personally, when I look at your collections, I cannot really place them. I wouldn’t be able to say that they were from New York or LA, or Paris or London.
ME

That’s a nice thing to hear. I think we live in these cities but I’ve never thought of what we do as New York based or LA based. Inevitably your surroundings influence you in ways and you pick up on things in certain manners. I feel like we do what we do and we are not in a bubble at all. It’s not about it being in New York or LA it’s just that we happen to live in those cities.
JR

There isn’t a label that can define who should wear your clothing in a way.
ME

No we never wanted to position our clothing or describe it like this is the type girl you are or this is the type of guy you are. It’s always been something that we enjoy and are curious about. We love the expressions and ideas that go into making clothing. Clothes are so much about being activated by the wearer and the individual, having that sense of individual.
JR

In Paris there are a lot of foundations out to help young designers, was this similar for you?
ZL

There aren’t in LA and not so much New York. It’s nothing to do with the government. It’s completely private. Things like Milk Made, they are amazingly supportive. They have corporate sponsors and their own media outlet. So they are engaged in the fashion industry but in a very different way.
ME

That’s the really cool thing about Paris and the culture of arts, they really respect and nourish the arts and want them to flourish.
JR

It’s innate within its soul.
ME

Yeah and you really feel that when you come here.
ZL

That’s not to say that it is an infertile ground in New York or LA though.
JR

You’re an independent brand right?
ZL

Yeah completely and that’s so important to us. It’s probably down to studying fine arts. Maybe we didn’t know it but there was a reason at the time for us not wanting to engage with the fine art market. We didn’t feel optimistic abut getting grants to realize our ideas as incredibly young people in a city where very talented established artists still have a hard time funding their work. In a way, for us fashion was the lesser of two evils in terms of an arena to showcase ideas and be able to fund it.

ME

(laughing) I don’t know if it’s a lesser of two evils…
ZL

No but in terms of no one is going to help you.
ML

It’s a different structure.
ZL

It’s a different structure but I also think that a lot of European people I know will have a list of places and people that could help. That kind of thing just doesn’t happen in America. In terms of lesser of evils, I mean that fashion is much more honest in terms of commodities and commodification of ideas in America.
ME

I think we also relate to clothing, especially now that fashion has become so accessible for everybody. It’s becoming more of a pop cultural commodity. We all look at clothing and have a feeling that there is a way we could potentially have it.
ZL

It’s a lower ceiling for aspiration.
JR

It’s more utilitarian.
ZL

Yeah there’s functionality to it.
JR

You’ve only shown in New York, would you ever consider showing in Europe?
ME

Yeah, we are starting to toy around with the idea. We always like to challenge ourselves and take on new adventures and we are starting to consider it. Hopefully it will happen at one point.
ZL

Yeah, but not in a way that it’s strategic, it’s more that it would be a fun challenge.
JR

So let’s talk about your recent show in New York, how did it go?
ZL

It was in Long Island City, which isn’t even in Manhattan; it’s in Queens, not even Brooklyn, so hard to get to and at 9:30 at night during a snow storm.
JR

I heard the weather was awful but that you still managed to get the crème de le crème of fashion there, which says something really positive about you’re doing.
ME

Yeah, I was joking around that day when it was snowing.
ZL

We’ve always had this joke from our first show that at least Mike’s dad and this one really good friend of ours will be there and we will put on the show for them.
JR

And they will be clapping at the end!
ZL

Yeah exactly. When we told everyone where the show was and that we weren’t going to change it as the week carried forward, with the weather forecast.
ME

Also given the fact that it was in MoMA PS1, it wasn’t like we decided to do it in a confusing warehouse.

JR

It’s nice that you guys always have each other to fall back on.
BOTH

I cannot imagine what it would be like without each other!
JR

Did you take a break after the show?
ZL

We usually don’t talk to each other the day after, we usually cry, its’ pretty dark, it’s like post- mortem depression.
JR

Wow, that’s quite intense.
ME

You just build up so much adrenaline that when you have that release, you’re like what did I just do?
ZL

Adrenaline doesn’t come from nowhere; it exhausts resources from other places in your body. We do these things and we don’t even get to see them. The feeling of looking back on them and then there’s all this other stuff that we didn’t deal with in the three weeks leading up to the show.
JR

Daily life, chores, bills, laundry…
ME

For real. There is a period where everything just stops and you are just working then the show ends and its like holy shit, how have I neglected this much stuff?!
The food arrives and we start sharing the various little dishes
JR

So I would love to talk about your fashion films with Alexa Karlonski, I watched Smile, which was very entertaining…
ZL

Did you watch the other ones?
JR

I really liked Pigeon Art + Fashion, with Jane Seymour and I love that Bon Iver’s Skinny Love is the backing track.
ZL

That’s cool!
JR

How did that all evolve?
ME

A good friend of ours, Emily Segal, told us she had a really good filmmaker friend who had just finished some serious documentary work and was working more in fashion now. She had just done behind the scenes stuff for V magazine so she thought we should meet. We met and we just hit it off.
ZL

During that meeting we came up with twelve different ideas for one collection. There are ways that fashion companies work with directors and for us, it’s like Alexa and I take care of each other’s dogs. We are such good friends and she knows us. Our projects are very different from anything else she makes. We are constantly experimenting together on what is the best way for us to contextualize the collection.

We never wanted to position our clothing.
It’s always been something that we enjoy and are curious about. We love the expressions and ideas that go into making clothing. Clothes are so much about being activated by the wearer and the individual, having that sense of individual.

JR

The film Smile light-heartedly mocks the standard fashion campaign, was that intentional?
ME

It’s not mean-spirited against anything. It was more that we thought what it would be like to consider those ideas, the idea that here we are all in this vista, this reality that you could never actually be welcome in. What would it be like, this deranged play with ideas about a photo shoot and a family dynamic. It was part of our show opening in the spring at the Hammersmith Museum in LA, so they let us shoot at this amazing architect’s home in LA.
ZL

It’s not like we were trying to make fun of the smoking mirrors behind a happy diverse group of people sitting around. In reality no one feels that way, whenever you’re in the situation when there are supermodels, babies, old men, and you are reasonably happy and you look fabulous, rarely does life look that way.
JR

Your brand as a whole comes across as very approachable. This was furthered by the casting on the runway, again, was this intentional?
ME

It came naturally for us. We have always worked in a way where we have cast a diverse range of people. It wasn’t a calculated thing, it just happened. It’s interesting at times to see how people respond to it because we never planned it in that manner. I think it stemmed from the idea, about clothing and how people carry it.
JR

Some of the models are very well known in their field, it looks like you have a pretty creative group of friends.
ZL

A lot of them do happen to be artists or musicians or people involved in creative fields because they are good at what they do and good at being themselves. They have a kind of general confidence regardless of body type or age. It’s not about them being the generic it girl.
JR

I heard that you never go into a collection with a specific concept either, so how do you go about making FW16?
ME

It’s very intuitive. It’s always been a very intuitive way of working; however we are feeling at the time. How that feeling has responded and grown from the prior season.
ZL

Who knows, maybe there will be a season where we don’t want to make anything (laughing)!
JR

Naked models; no clothes is the new uniform.
Laughing

JR

You guys were just featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 List too, that must have felt quite good?
ME

It’s cool yeah. It’s an honor. It’s funny, it is really nice for people to recognize the work you are doing and be excited about it. It’s an honor at the end of the day if someone puts time into thinking about what you’re doing and thinking about it in a smart manner. We’ve been really lucky that the people interested in our work are people who really take the time to think about what we are doing and think about fashion in a larger context. It’s a really nice feeling.
JR

I get the impression that you guys don’t have a strategy, that nothing is ever precisely planned out.
ZL

Well, you know, we are Americans; in November Donald Trump could be our president. There are realities we might not be excited about. We talk about next year but we could be living in different countries.
Zoe and Mike both start laughing
ZL

It is like we have entered a system that is moving so fast, we have to roll with the punches. The production facilities, a shitty article, a garment we messed up or a model dropping out, it’s all part of why we are in this game and why we are playing so hard.
ME

I think there are inevitably certain degrees of strategic planning but it’s not the core of our universe. We react to the present; everything in our structure is organic. The strategy is part of this organic process. It’s basically about what feels right for us in the moment and making exciting new challenges.
JR

Exactly, keeping oneself challenged and motivated is important. But besides creating, what do you like to do?
ZL

I go surfing.
ME

I like to be with the people I love, go to parties, go to their openings. I try to go to yoga, which I really should during all the madness but never find the time.
Laughing
ZL

I have a really special dog!