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Jack Miner isn’t a fan of social media’s impact on fashion. “The general movement feels like a push toward assimilation — so not what makes style or clothes interesting at all,” he says. “It’s a mass flattening, or sterilisation, in response to a social media-driven world.”
A push back against this flattening of aesthetics is in Interior’s DNA. But for Autumn/Winter 2024, Miner is doubling down. “We’ve always responded to that as a brand. But this season, we’re putting it under a microscope.” The collection contextualises the results of our current algorithmic times within — or rather, against — an earlier New York whereby individuality was prioritised and celebrated. When looking like the person you were sitting next to wasn’t the barometer of cool or success, Miner says. “What we’re looking at this season is an antidote to an Instagram-crazed world.”
Shown in an intimate, stark white space, 10 models stood clad in neutral tones of beige, navy and grey. Each was meant to embody a different club-going New York archetype of an era past, from the painter to the grunge club kid. A tan corduroy suit that trailed on the floor contrasted with a belted dark brown, all-leather ensemble. Another model’s slim-fit grey cashmere pants wrapped under black ballet flats, a sweater strewn over her arm. Three long dresses, one with a loose, rumpled high neck and another with fishnets underneath, contrasted with the more casual looks.
The aesthetics may be consistent, but this season marks a turning point for Interior. Lily Miesmer, Miner’s childhood best friend with whom he founded the brand in 2020, quietly exited late last year. When we speak ahead of New York Fashion Week, Miner has just told the team and partners. Miesmer has relocated to Paris to explore new endeavours. She left because of creative differences and the financial strain of being a young brand, she says, and will remain a silent partner. “She’ll always be my very close friend and a very close friend of the brand,” Miner says.
Now, Miner is forging ahead, his sights set on growth.
The designer credits his business savvy to his rise in the industry. Prior to founding Interior, he worked at Bode as director of finance and operations in 2019. The now-mainstay brand was in its high-growth period. “I was able to see how Emily [Adams Bode Aujla] navigated the growth and early-stage success of her brand, helping out from an operations point of view.” Miner gave notice — like kismet, he says — right before Covid hit.
Having founded his own brand Hecho prior to Interior, Miner, together with Miesner, had business know-how as well as creative edge. This, and the pair’s shared history dating back to middle school, meant they were able to bring the self-funded brand to market rapidly, Miner says. They ideated in summer 2020 and launched March of 2021.
The brand sold its first collection to Net-a-Porter, and was exclusive with the e-tailer for the first two seasons. It was a benefit to launch an as-yet-unknown brand with an industry leader, Miner says, in that it positioned Interior as “a brand worth considering” in the eyes of other potential stockists. From AW22, retailers including Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus joined Interior’s wholesale roster. This year, having established its wholesale presence, the brand is on a DTC push that kick-started with pre-fall.
A marker of Interior’s firm business footing is the brand’s recent Fashion Trust US (FTUS) ready-to-wear nomination. The organisation heavily vets emerging brands’ business plans and designs. “It’s all well and good being a wonderful designer doing wonderful pieces,” board member Tan France told Vogue Business ahead of last year’s inaugural event. “But, if you’re not a viable, scalable business — especially at a time like this when business is so incredibly difficult — we can’t help you get off the ground.”
Miner understands this well. And he has big plans for Interior. After hitting $2 million in revenues in 2023, it’s targeting $3 million for 2024. The goal is $10 million by 2030. “It’s about really digging in and figuring out what your scalable products and categories are,” Miner says.
Grappling with the algorithm
Interior has become known for its ability to take styles canon to American sportswear and subvert them somehow. “It’s about creating a product mix that feels familiar but distinct,” Miner says. “To create a novel wardrobe for our woman, across all touchpoints of her closet. It’s about bringing novelty and a sense of tension and friction to otherwise-familiar silhouettes.” Be it a utilitarian fabric in a surprising cut; deconstructing or distressing a piece not traditionally destructed; or embellishing an otherwise tried-and-true design.
This, Miner says, mirrors Interior’s target consumer: “She’s not a highly perfect woman. She doesn’t try to be the image of Instagram perfection. She’s imperfect in the ways that we’re all imperfect beings. And that’s reflected in the product.”
This season’s subversions include a fabric that looks like traditional pinstripes from far away, but up close, they’re actually dashed, broken and incomplete lines. The “crescendo” of the collection is a constructed chiffon gown that unravels with an “unfinished, wild hem that pools in little tatters”, Miner says. “All of that is taking things that are familiar and fucking them up a little bit.”
In recent weeks, one particular pre-fall 2024 Interior piece has managed to hack Instagram’s algorithm: the deep U-necked, oat-coloured Bruno sweater. Influencers like Charlotte Groeneveld (@thefashionguitar) and Emma Rose Thatcher (@emmarosestyle) have posted sporting the piece. It’s sold out on sites from Ssense to Saks. Interior’s own site has a waitlist.
The irony that a sweater that embodies the very premise of the brand (fucked-up classics that go against the grain) has gone viral is not lost on Miner. “It distils the aesthetic proposition of the brand perfectly — and it’s hacked the algorithm. It’s selling out everywhere,” he says. “God bless the Bruno sweater.”
The Bruno will reappear for AW24 in a couple of new colours; and in a nod to its scalability. Capitalising on hit products is strategic, and makes room for Interior’s more niche designs. “It’s all in the balance: the Bruno facilitates the gown; and the gown facilitates the Bruno.”
Miner frames the popular sweater as a gateway to the brand. “You need to give your customer a real point of entry, so that they feel well oriented. If you have a piece that people really come to love, they’re more willing to explore what else you might be carrying from a product perspective. So it’s about figuring out those scalable styles, fabrics and product categories.”
The strategy is clicking. In the last three months, Net-a-Porter has seen searches for the brand increase by 115 per cent, says market director Libby Page. “The brand’s knitwear has been key for us this season, with Interior’s Bruno cashmere sweater being a sell-out,” she says. “We love their take on wardrobe essentials with a fashion point of view, perfectly showcased by the Bruno’s exaggerated neckline.”
On schedule
This malleable mindset is reflected in Interior’s approach to New York Fashion Week, where it returned to the schedule on 13 February, after releasing its SS24 collection digitally. “We’ve tested different formats, and that’s not to say one is better than the other,” Miner says. “It’s whatever works for a brand at whatever place you’re at.”
At launch, Interior showed by appointment. AW22, it held a presentation. For SS23, the brand was awarded $50,000 to offset production costs as part of IMG’s New York Fashion Week Small Business Grant, so they put on a runway show. The following season, they didn’t have the financing to pull it off again, taking the season off. AW23 involved more experimentation: the brand released film and video content of the collection, and decked the studio out (as they did again last season) to align with the storytelling.
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“It felt like the right time to do an in-person activation again. Community and in-person connection [are] so important for any brand across both press and sales.” Interior has seen more growth in wholesale distribution in the past year, so it felt like the right time to level up, Miner says.
Miner knows the importance of getting in front of the right people — it’s because of this that he thinks of Interior’s FTUS nomination as (almost) as big a win as an actual win would be. “I was with Emily [Adams Bode Aujla] in the booth when she did the LVMH Prize,” Miner says. “The win is the exposure to the people who are advising and the quote-unquote experts or judges. The people who have that acumen. I’m psyched because we’ll get so much invaluable feedback.” A cash injection, he says, would be the icing on the cake. (FTUS winners receive between $100,000 and $200,000, depending on their business size and annual turnover.)
AW24 also marks the first time Miner is presenting Interior clothes from a more singular perspective — it’s the first collection with him alone at the helm. “It was wonderful,” Miner says of the shift in design process. Interior’s product developer Lucy Parr worked with Miner at Bode; and with Interior’s salesperson Mary Mitchell at Khaite, so there was a tight-knit support network, Miner says. “It was a very seamless transition.”
Now, Miner is looking forward, one season at a time. “It’s about figuring out the recipe, of what works, and how to scale from there with your partners.”
Key takeaway: Following co-founder Lily Miesmer’s exit, Jack Miner is forging ahead at the helm of New York brand Interior, which he founded with Miesmer in 2020 after a stint at Bode. Miner balances the business savvy that’s earnt the brand a Fashion Trust US nomination with a penchant for subversion, to craft garments that are appealing to consumers while going against the grain of that which dominates our Instagram feeds. Having established a strong wholesale presence, Interior is eyeing big DTC growth in the coming seasons. This is bolstered by a flexibility that runs through from the brand’s approach to fashion week, to Miner’s design process.
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