For their third— and largest yet—collection of contemporary menswear, Distilled founders Matty Merrill, '00 (below left), and Sep Kamvar, PhD '04, drew inspiration from some unlikely sources: NASA, mathletes and the Internet. “It's very tech-inspired in terms of our process, the details that we put into the clothes and the overall look,” says Merrill, whose first design experience was creating his Tree costume.
Distilled's garments incorporate ingenious solutions to modern problems, like a jacket with a loop to pass headphones through while keeping gadgets tucked safely inside, or a shirt with two rows of buttons to transition seamlessly from casual Friday to Saturday night fever. “A lot of people are calling it 'geek chic,'” Kamvar says. “I think partly it's because you design to who you are to some extent.” The spring line hits stores in early 2008; pocket protectors sold separately.
