Anything Goes: Heron Preston

What was the design process like for this collection?

It always starts off with looking at our past and learning what styles really work, what styles we loved, washes, textures, fits, proportions. We have that first conversation, "what did we do before? What worked? What didn't work?" We take a lot of that information. "What can stay in the past and never really be seen again? What can be carried over as maybe a concept or a vibe or a code?" And then, "how do you then expand that and evolve that?"

That's really the newness. What's going to make this feel new? I'll take out my phone. I'll start looking at pictures. I take a lot of pictures when I travel or when I'm out in New York of style codes, how people are dressing, materials that I might notice like a fence or a tarp or how a texture or material might have changed over time because it rained, or it snowed, or there was sun, or it was dragging it along the street. I'll take a quick pic, not knowing what I'm really going to do with it. I just like how it looks and I'll compile all those images and I won't even really look at them until I sit down with my team and look at it with fresh eyes and try to interpret or unpack the meaning of these images. That gets translated into a sketch that will inform my team on a material or a wash or a trim, a metal buckle or something.

So, all this research and all this information then turns into these conversations with the teams. “How does that become a trend or some sort of statement in the collection?” So, then you have to creatively problem solve. This is a very fun moment of the process before any of the business-y teams come in and the merchandisers. Before any of that, it's this really creative stage in the process where we're just throwing everything out and then, eventually, moving into sketching the ideas and then reviewing those sketches.

Can you tell me about the influence New York has on you and your designs?

It's a big melting pot of so many different cultures, walks of life, languages, and style codes. This is something that this city really gives me that I don't necessarily get when I go to San Francisco, for example, where I was born and raised. New York has this kind of fresh style, this swagger to it. I hate to use that word but you know what I'm saying? New York has this kind of attitude when it comes to style and how people live and it's just so energetic and interesting and it's never a dull moment. I started taking the train again. I love taking the train because there's all these different walks of life and there’s this sort of magic that happens underground. I don't really get that in other cities, so all these different personalities have always really influenced me.

I have to get back to downtown, for example, if I really want to be inspired or just get excited. I found that's the cultural center of youth and people who are young at heart. I also have favorite neighborhoods I like to travel to when I just want to see something crazy on the street or see someone's style or some codes. This is a really rich, creative community in this city. I’ve lived here since 2004, so it's always just had a big influence on how I wear my clothes, how I dress, style codes. I look at figures or the people around me that I've looked up to as the teachers.

Is there a reason you chose now to debut at New York Fashion Week?

I look at fashion shows as almost a reunion. I missed seeing my friends and I know there's a lot of people in New York that don't necessarily get to go to Paris for Fashion Week which is where I used to show. So, I was like, ‘man, let's just do it now.’ There's no reason why now, I think it's just a feeling. It just got to a point where I felt maybe people hadn’t seen my face too much or seen some spike or energy from the brand, even though we're selling and even though we're in good shape, just use this as an opportunity to see my friends I haven't seen for so long.

Over the pandemic, things changed a lot. That's when we all stopped doing fashion shows. Some brands came back immediately. Some brands didn't really change, some are coming back now, some are still not. So, I guess it's really individually up to the brand on when they were feeling it. I think I just really missed my friends, I just wanted to use this as an opportunity.

It's interesting you mention the pandemic where we saw everything shift to virtual and online. Do you think in-person shows will always have a place in fashion? As a designer, do you have a preference?

Right now, I want to start to bring people back together again. I got really tired and bored of virtual, online. You start to really miss that realness, that authentic connection to a brand and real life. I see it as an event. I think there will always be events. I don't think events are really going to go anywhere. Events have been around since the beginning of time, I mean, we saw the Last Supper, right? That was an event.

Within fashion, these events are really to celebrate our product, the stuff that we're making, our family, our friends, the world that we're creating. I see brands as worlds that you invite people in to experience. So if you look at a brand as a world, you step into this world, there's all these things that you can really experience from a product to the events, to the content, it could be anything. I feel like anything goes. So, maybe the fashion show as we know it may change but the event will remain.

Were there any songs or albums you had on repeat during the design process for this one?

On repeat? Not really. I just play whatever. I'm feeling a lot of house music, I have some top favorite radio stations. I listen to BBC 1Xtra. I always love being a bit surprised on what I might hear on the radio because then that gives me more ideas on what I should download and start to search for on Spotify so I can build playlists. Discovering new music for me is listening to the radio. I'll listen to Radio Nova from Paris, BBC 1Xtra from London, Worldwide FM from London and all those radio stations will always feature DJs that I love. And so, I'll play that in the background all day. And then, if I hear a song I'll Shazam it. I got the artist and the song and then that opens me up into that whole entire world as well. So, I'll be putting on radios all day. But it's more of alternative world music, it's not like Hot 97. Those stations, you'll always get dope house or dance or some sort of African music or reggae, so that's just been the vibes for this collection.

The show invitations are a reflection of your Less Environmentally Destructive philosophy. How do you feel about the current frequency of seasons and the opinion that designers should only show when they feel they have something important to say or they feel inspired?

It feels really, really forced and I don't like it. I have partners and there's a business that I have to respect as well but I'm on this pursuit of less is more and I'm hoping to get there one day. How much more do we need? I was studying Eileen Fisher, who's one of the most radical designers when it comes to Less Environmentally Destructive practices. Her and Patagonia, I've always identified as those brands that really take this stuff seriously. She never changes her styles. She drops the same thing every year for 30 years now and she's got this huge complex in upstate New York that her company built from selling people the same thing every year. Why do I always have to change then? I don't really get it. I wear the same thing all the time. I barely will change my clothes. On a daily basis, I'll be at my house in sweatpants.

Me too. All day, every day.

All day, every day. I'll notice sometimes when I'll do my laundry, I won't even have that much because I was wearing the same sweats all week. So I would love to get there one day with my brand where I drop something when I feel it. This is something I've always respected of musicians like Rihanna. When's her album going to come out? But she's still relevant, relatable, and she's doing the Super Bowl.

But when they do drop you know that it's organic and it's inspired.

Inspired, it's organic.

Not just making a hit because they can.

Exactly. So, I've always thought about how rappers or rock stars or these pop stars that just have this luxury of time and space. I used to go on a trip and get inspired or take two years off. Isn't that what Kendrick did?

Yeah.

So, I would love to do that. I think Jerry Lorenzo has managed to figure it out for Fear of God. He still has this schedule but it's not every fashion week.

Because he does seasons similar to Kanye with Yeezy, right? Where it's like Season 1, Season 2.

Yeah, but they define when that's going to come out. They don't follow the calendar. So, I would love to get there one day. It's a work in progress.

Can you speak on the design process with Zellerfeld for your 3D printed sneaker?

When I started thinking about the capabilities that 3D printing could provide, you can do anything. You don't have to follow the rules of conventional sneaker making. Anything you design, you can print it so that really changed the game for me. I didn't fully understand the technology or the capabilities at first. I was like, ‘oh, let's print the Air Force 1,’ but over time I thought let's push it, so I started researching bird feet, Heron birds, and thought, what if we did bird shoes? I was just getting a little wacky with it. I was like, 'Let's just go a little crazy. Let's just push it. We can print anything.' And so, that's where the scales of the sneaker and design come from. That gets 3D rendered and modeled and then you see that for the first time and then you can really start to shape stuff. There was some Gravity Sketch. Have you heard of Gravity Sketch?

No.

It's like goggles. It's a virtual reality sketch and you have these two toggles in your hand and if you look in, there's a big screen and you can take a shoe and start to mold it and shape it. It's really fast. So, they were using Gravity sketch to design the sneakers and then once we get to a good space, we print. The whole fit comes from taking a scan of your feet. It's not like, "Hey, I'm a size 11." We look at how your foot is shaped, and that data is sent to the printer.

That's crazy.

And then we do wear tests. "So how does it fit? Does it rub in the back of the heel? Does it rub your toes? It needs more room here." The program then learns to take your specs and then give you a little bit of room around your feet.

In the right places.

In the right places from the feedback of the wear test. So then they learn, "Oh, give a little bit more room around the pinky toe," or, "Give it a little bit more comfortable room around the heel," or, "Do extra printing in the outsole that feels a bit more firm than the upper that's a bit more soft," because it's all one material. It's all one print. But then, you can play with density of where you have more structure and more flexibility. It's crazy.

How do you feel this collection compares to previous seasons?

They keep growing. We keep learning more about the brand and evolving. They just keep getting better.

It feels like the line between streetwear and high fashion continues to become more blurred. What do you think the positives, and perhaps negatives, are of that?

I don't know if it's a negative or a positive, but I feel like it's just clothes. This collection is untitled, but I guess another title is ‘Anything Goes’ because it's not necessarily for a specific occasion like going to a black tie, or going to a party, or going to the office. This is no occasion but life. There's no specific occasion and that becomes fashion to me. I've always said the face of fashion is all of us, not just a specific crew of people that will go to Fashion Week and be in all the photos and look cool.

Fashion for me is everybody. My mom and dad, they're here. They love fashion but they're not into fashion. There are all these different pockets of people that will have different perspectives or their meaning of fashion may be different. I always have been a fan of really blurring the lines and making clothes that feel great, are comfortable, have utility and feel a little bit more elevated than your everyday normal. It's taking what we have grown to learn then doing a little twist on it with detailing or a change of a material or a proportion or a fit. I call it instant language like, "I know that. That's a bomber jacket. I get that. But wait a minute, did he change this?" So, there's these little tweaks and changes in these everyday familiar styles. That's the sweet spot that I think I've found where you just really explore the nuance or something that you might find unique and then amplify that across the collection, so it becomes a bit of more of a story.

What is your greatest achievement so far?

Keeping the lights on. Shit's hard, man. It's a lot of work behind the scenes and not every designer gets to make it this far. Not every designer even gets to make it so just the fact that I'm doing it. This is something I was thinking as well, what is good and what is bad? I've seen shit that I think is terrible but then I've seen people celebrating that or I'll see things that I think is amazing and people won't fuck with it. What is good and what is bad? Fuck that. You're doing you and you're happy? I feel like that's the biggest fucking achievement ever.  And so, I'm just happy I'm still doing it.

Is there anything you've learned about yourself through the design process for this collection?

That I know what I want. I love to work. I just love to work, and I don't like for people to get in the way of that flow. I know that creativity gives me my air. It's like my fresh air and I notice when people get in the way and tell me, “No" or "we don't have enough budget for that" or "let's push that until next season." I'm like, 'I got to work now. I want to work.' I've noticed that's really what gets me up in the morning. It's exciting. I get to work and see my ideas come to life. That's it. That's very simple but it's not as simple when you have the business and all this stuff. That was the invitation that I did. I'm not sure if you saw the video but I walked around New York City. That was the one little piece that I could really control to myself that made me feel like the 18 year old Heron.

What do you think the future holds for Heron Preston?

Just continuing to make hits and get smarter with how we design clothes, sell clothes. I really want to push this focused essential. When I started at Calvin Klein, I was focusing in on what is truly essential within this circus of fashion. What is the dopest of the dopest and how do we narrow in on that, always do that and then continue to provide the streets with really dope, comfortable clothes? Again, no occasion but life. It's practical. It works. It's instant. It's not circus fashion that only a very few can wear. I'm trying to make something that everybody around the world can really integrate into their closet. One piece. If it's not a sneaker, it'll be a necklace. If it's not a necklace, at least a T-shirt or a hoodie. If it's not that, then another one of my pieces.

I'm trying to find that sweet spot where you feel like you're buying into this really interesting world. Definitely working towards to be remembered for something. I always look at the brands that have been around for a long time like Louis Vuitton. Close your eyes and think about the brand, you see trunks and bags. Calvin Klein, if you close your eyes and think about the brand, it's underwear. Close your eyes and think about Heron Preston. What's that one thing? I'm not sure if we've really gotten there yet but that's what I'm looking to really develop, is more icons within, and that becomes the money maker, right? We sell those all day, that really opens up freedom and focus to just go and collect invitations off the street for a whole year because we have this engine that's already running because we have our trunk or we have our underwear that people just come back for every day or every year, every season so that's what I'm trying to really work towards.