I always felt like I belonged to the wrong time. When I was a kid, there were countless things I wanted to be when I grew up, and one of the major ones was a hippie. Before stores were selling bell bottom jeans again (and before they were re-named flare legs), I had my grandma sew a triangle of fabric into the side seam at the bottom of my straight-leg jeans to create a bell bottom. And she even surprised and delighted me by adding a star-shaped patch of matching fabric to the leg. I remember girls at school asking me where they could buy a similar pair because flare legs were just about to be in fashion, and how smug I felt telling them that they couldn’t buy a similar pair. Mine were one of a kind. About a year later, all the stores were selling flare leg jeans, but I’d had them first because I’d known already at 8 years old my favorite rule of fashion—what’s old will always be new again. That’s the inspiration for the Mod Balls print in the first House of Caswell collection.

My favorite genre of books is the fashion brand founding story. I’ve listened to every book Audible has to offer in this genre, from high fashion brands like Chanel and McQueen, pop cultural sensations like Dapper Dan and Juicy Couture, streetwear like The Hundreds and Eckō, and sportswear like Vans and Nike. This is by no means an exhaustive list, because Audible has tons of books like these to fill my earbuds with a fashion-centered story and a cautionary tale about growing too quickly or the perils of taking the company public. I have learned something useful from every one of these founding stories, and learned a ton about fashion history over the past 100+ years as well, much of which I plan to reference in House of Caswell collections.