Inside Phipps’s Radically Optimistic American Menswear

Has your attitude towards America and Americana changed or evolved over the years?

I was a hater on Americana and American design and the culture for most of my early formative years. I discovered fashion when I was like 13, and I really was drinking the Kool-Aid that all good creativity comes from Europe, and I worked my ass off to get there, and then I found myself there in a room full of people that I had admired. I sat in this room and said, “Wait a minute, I’m from somewhere really…