How can clothes feel like an expression of the wearer, and how can a retailer make those clothes easier to find? Wildfang’s early interviews offer a useful starting point for thinking about both questions.
A place for a shared attitude
In a February 2013 interview with COOL HUNTING, co-founders Emma McIlroy and Julia Parsley described their plans for Wildfang. They wanted editorial content to sit alongside the clothing selection, giving visitors reasons to return beyond making a purchase.
Parsley presented tomboy style as an enduring attitude. Both founders connected it to earlier generations, including their grandmothers. They also identified Portland, where they had met while working at Nike, as important to the brand’s beginnings. These were their stated influences at the time.
Fit as part of the selection
A separate interview in Curve’s April 2013 issue made the practical problem clearer. Creative director Taralyn Thuot discussed the effort and expense involved in finding clothes and having them altered. The appeal of menswear did not guarantee that a particular garment would fit its intended wearer.
The team described trying pieces on themselves as part of buying the assortment. Their different body types and preferences informed those decisions. This was an account of their selection process, rather than a promise that every item would suit every customer.
Reading the clothes on your own terms
A useful way to approach this history today is to separate an aesthetic preference from the fit of an individual piece. A roomy shirt can still need the right sleeve length; a jacket’s shoulder and hem can change how its volume feels. Those are choices for the wearer, rather than a single formula for dressing androgynously.
For another historical approach to selection and fit, read about VEER NYC’s retail curation and clothing design.
Archive note
This newly written historical account revisits the subject of Grandpa Style’s earlier “The Wildfang Girl” page. It draws on the linked interviews and does not reproduce the original feature or its photography. The comments above describe the brand’s early period, not its current range. Explore more people and projects in the Grandpa Style archive.