Exclusive: Out Chats With Duckie Brown Duo About Their New Womenswear Collection

OUT: Hi Daniel, it's Out Magazine.
Daniel: Hi Out Magazine. Hold on, I'm going to get Steven as well. (screams away from phone:) Duckie! Pick up the phone!
Steven: (picks up the other line) Hello!
OUT: What's the lowdown on your new womenswear line Mrs. Brown?
Daniel: Oh, with the Mrs? Just like the [WWD] article says, its 17 pieces, its knitwear which is an easy way for us to enter the market and for us to see who's open to us doing womenswear. We used yarn that torques around the body. It's an easy start. It's either cotton or alpaca wool -- only one or two are cashmere so other than those pieces it retails for under $400. For spring 2012 we'll add chiffon shirts, gazar bombers, a pair of narrow trousers, a leather jacket -- that kind of stuff. We're just taking it slow.
OUT: So what brought this on?
Steven: Well, I've always done women's. I trained in men's and came to America and did women's for everybody. After 15 years of womenwear I started to do men's because....I can wear it. That's why we did men's. We can fit the samples and now we've got a huge closet of clothes. Now I want to wear women's clothes. I'm a tranny (laughs). We planned to do 10 years of men's clothing and then do women's but it just turned into 10 years of men's and now we're adding women's as well. Ever since we've started our collection women have always really liked our stuff and the girls would say: when are you going to do women's When are you going to do womens? We're a small company and to do another line is a lot--
Daniel: It's going to be small and contained. It's hard to do two full lines twice a year, and then you get into resort and pre-fall and holiday and all that. We know what it is -- it needs to evolve.
Steven: We want to keep it small and tight. That's what we do with Duckie Brown. We're not a huge corporation. Through our manufacturer we thought we'd do a capsule collection--ugh I hate that fucking word--
Daniel: --A smaller collection--
Steven: Our girlfriends were coming through and loved everything. Some people think our men's is wacky and colorful but there are some really commercial pieces. People say the men's is too feminine and the women's is too masculine. The line is basically the exact same styles [from Duckie Brown] on a smaller scale. It's the same fabrics. Rouland Mouret said to me, years ago, If you ever want to do a women's line to just scale down the men's samples--and that was a long, long time ago when he was the roommate of a friend of mine.
OUT: Do you have a customer in mind?
Steven: I think we have a certain group of women around us that is our customer--
Daniel: I think its for the women who-- (gasps)listen to me, "I think it's for...." I hate when designers talk like that. It's for anybody who wants to wear it. I think anybody can wear it. I'm not going to tell you it's for the woman who feels empowered, who has two children, who hops on her private jet and goes from Monte Carlo to South Hampton to New York to Tokyo or whatever--
Steven: There is an ideal customer I have in mind, but that's specific to me, and its very limiting. Clare Rhodes, our casting director, our friend Jen. They wear Marni and Dries and they're a bit kooky. They're not wearing a frothy dress.
Daniel: They're not the cheerleader. They are not that girl.
Steven: Kind of like a Chloe Sevigny. A party girl. Downtown.
Daniel: She's an urban creature. Like a city-dweller.
Steven: It's so weird. Because we could do a floral cigarette pant that's very uptown. I don't want to--
Daniel: --limit it.
Steven: We've got a slim trouser for certain kind of girl and a drop-crotch trouser for the other kind of girl. Are they the same girl?
Daniel: I don't know! I'm that girl! I wear low-crotched trousers and slim trousers. It depend on what kind of girl you're feeling like that day.
OUT: Who is she married to? She is a Mrs.
Daniel: Duckie Brown.
Steven: She has multiple partners.
Daniel: Male and female partners! We're not going to judge and we're not going to put anyone in a box.
Steven: Did you read the WWD article today? I don't think that I've ever seen Women's Wear Daily write 'penis' in an article. 'Penis', 'vagina' and 'fuck' all in one article!
Daniel: But you know what? That's who we are. Sometimes its been good for us, sometimes not.
Steven: Oh, we're not corporate players. We don't play the game that much.
Daniel: Something I read this week, which I really liked was that Marc Jacobs said he didn't consider himself a brand--that he didn't know what that means, and I feel that we're the same way. A lot of designers want world domination. We just want to be a part of the neighborhood. I want to make money, but there are a lot of ways to be successful. Our collaboration with Florsheim allows us some money to make beautiful things. But not everyone is going to love us, and that's OK.
Steven: I want everyone to love me...

photos courtesy of Robert Mitra/WWD