Marc Kalman’s Definition of Boyish

After more than a decade as a behind the scene influence, creative director Marc Kalman, who has previously embarked on a creative partnership with Travis Scott in 2012, shaping his brand identity and image, is now launching his own brand Still Kelley.

The 39-piece debut collection is titled Boyish and consists of a range of technical outerwear, elevated workwear, American-made denim and graphic tees. The collection exclusively launched on SSENSE.COM. Ahead of the release, Paige Silveria talked to Kalman about his background, the definition of boyish, and a day in his life.

PAIGE SILVERIA: Tell me about starting your brand, Still Kelly.

MARC KALMAN: I started this thing a really long time ago and I made my first collection like two and a half years ago… You know, it took me a while to be comfortable calling myself a designer or an artist. At this point, I finally feel confident in saying it. But I always wanted to make clothes. Even in my early memories, I can remember being interested in this. I think it’s my mother’s fault because I was kind of raised in a mall.

PS: I miss malls!

MK: We were always at the mall. And this may have subconsciously shaped me.

PS: And you went to school for fashion?

MK: Yeah, I studied design and business. I didn’t necessarily grow up in a creative household. I just knew that I needed a job, so business was always the safe way to go. When I told my dad I wanted to go to school for fashion, he gave me a crazy look, but they were supportive and we just ran it up. It gave me this whole creative backbone energy.

PS: What’d you do after school?

MK: When I finished, I moved to New York, and I started getting jobs at places such as Vogue Japan and China and the New York Times. We were styling and everybody always had something to say about the way I was dressed. Even back when I was growing up, somebody always had something to say.

PS: I’ve heard from big designers and other figures in fashion that people were always impressed by the way they styled themselves when they were growing up. It was almost like others could see it before they did … So, how’d you end up with such insane jobs?

MK: I had an internship at Conde Nast. And I was the only guy in there and everybody was like, “Why is this guy in here?” Then after a while they were like, “Okay maybe he’s kind of into this.” So, they set me up to assist the men’s fashion director or something at T Magazine, where I was surrounded by clothes and really talented people and got to be on set. Little by little I began figuring things out. Because it’s not just the making of the clothes for me. It’s also the image around them. It’s almost like the world, right?

PS: Yeah, for sure.

MK: I’m really obsessed with that outcome image—flooding myself with images and being inspired by them and creating and making clothes. I’m really passionate about the entirety from start to finish for each product, the entire output of things people see, and the story that you tell. The muses and characters that you find along the way to help you execute this vision that you really imagined and made up in your head.

PS: Can you describe the vision behind the world you created with this first campaign?

MK: I kind of fell in love with the vibe or energy of the word “boyish.” It’s something that I feel that I inject into this brand naturally. So that’s why I named the first collection Boyish. And I also really fell in love with Winter [Vandenbrink]‘s work. He made this amazing book that really inspired me. I wanted to shoot the campaign with him, so I just hit him up kind of cold, because we didn’t know each other. But he’s the sweetest guy in the world. So we got Ned [Sims], who’s like—well they don’t get more boyish than him—and we got Lux [Gillespie] who’s a rockstar. There are all these correlations, designing the first collection with this energy, then the photographer and these two like beautiful boys—everything just came through, that energy, in the campaign. Things came together organically the way that we’d planned.

PS: How would you define the word boyish?

MK: I think it’s about how you carry yourself. My friends always say, “Oh yeah, Kelly’s 26.” I’m obviously not, I’m actually 36, but I think it’s just the energy. It’s a certain kind of charisma and charm. So, it stuck; I fell in love with the word. It’s genderfluid-ish too, tomboyish energy, a little ambiguous. You do what you want with it. And I think everybody tried to play me for keeping things enigmatic and I kind of trolled for a long time because I wasn’t ready to put stuff out. I was just patient with it, you know?

PS: I think things happen when they’re supposed to.

MK: When we finished putting this whole thing together, it got this incredible injection of new life. I think when we make stuff, we make it for ourselves and just hope other people are into it. When we sent the baby face t-shirt to people, I didn’t know if they’d be into it or not. It’s kind of funny, I’m doing this real IRL kind of trolling like, “You’re all wearing my baby face on your shirts.”

PS: How does your mom feel about that?

MK: I mean it was actually made for her. I don’t know if I told her that enough. She’s just like, “That’s my baby,” you know? She’s really excited. It was cute to see her reaction. It’s always for them, right?

PS: What does your day-to-day in New York look like?

MK: Most days I’m in the studio working on my second collection. All day. The ideas don’t stop. It feels good to even be making new graphics and new identities.

PS: Did you study graphics or did you just learn that as you went along?

MK: I just kind of picked it up and had these opportunities around me that allowed me to figure it out and flex these new muscles. Or I’ll reach out to people who want to work together and help me build this community—new friendships, which is my favorite part about it. When I first started, it wasn’t only about making these relationships and being creative together, but also about giving people across the globe opportunities to contribute to these projects. And together, we’d watch those things come to life.

PS: I love that. I do that too with my art shows, collaborate with creatives around the world. It’s super fun. Where are you having everything produced? What does that look like?

MK: We’re a bit scattered, some things are made in Portugal, others in Italy, China, or LA. We have the best product development team. Little by little, we worked to find the best factories for each specific garment or fabric. We were really specific with the mills, and I just turned into a sponge figuring those things out. It’s obviously this huge world to crack. It’s exciting to have conversations and learn about all these little things you never thought about before.

Maybe it sounds silly, but I love the chore of it, the whole process. You have this idea, which looks really good on paper. It comes back the first time and it’s not really it. So, there’s the process of getting it to where it needs to be. And seeing it on people takes on a life of its own.

PS: Thank you for sending all these images in addition to the official lookbook. I love this one video with the music.

MK: That is kind of the first thing that I’m going to put out, which is also pretty sentimental to me. The sound is by this amazing musician named SEES00000. He’s on tour with MK. GEE right now. My boy just put us in touch, and he started sending me these amazing loops and ideas. I pulled something from one of his albums and it was the energy that we needed. I think even with that, it organically brought all of my worlds together: from making the clothes to the photography and the music. In this industry, we always try to find ways to merge these worlds, and I think that’s what’s cool about it, you know?