Chrissie Miller of Sophomore

Chrissie Miller is obsessed with the 70’s. With her raspy voice and chic demeanor, its hard not to imagine her backstage at a Rolling Stones concert circa 1976, swaying to music, smoking cigarettes, and telling the guys they had a great show.
Decades later, she recreates her very real downtown reputation palling around with the likes of The Virgins, Bijou Phillips, Terry Richardson, and Jen Brill. She also designs for her uber- successful line, Sophomore. We called Chrissie on a breezy afternoon to get her to open up about her very first heartbreak, groupies, and her fashion pet peeves.
PHOTOGRAPHED BY: SHANNA FISHER / INTERVIEW BY: KOKO NTUEN
LG: What inspires you?
Chrissie Miller: We don’t look at anything current, especially here. We barely look at magazines or anything. I mean once in a while Style. com, but its more just like a feeling we get, you know, like this is going to be really big. Being in New York, you know, walking around and seeing what’s out there, you just get an inkling.

LG: Your clothes have a very original type of vibe to them, everything is simple and sleek but you don’t see any other designers doing anything like Sophomore. It’s very Dazed and Confused.

CM: We grew up going to Benetton, ESPRIT, even The Gap. It doesn’t seem like there is anything like that now. Everything is so LA—pink, Juicy Couture, studded, or American Apparel, which is not my thing. There seemed like there was a hole in fashion.
LG: Well, you guys filled in perfectly.
CM: Well, thank you.
LG: What was your style like in high school?

CM: I wore exactly the same things I wear now: jeans, shirts, t-shirts. I’ve just never been a fan of dressing up, which is why I like basics and stuff. I’m just SO obsessed with vintage. Its just way more exciting for me to find something that no one else has than to go buy the expensive bag that everyone has.

LG: What are three of your faves in your closet?

CM: This perfectly worn in Levis jacket, umm…I’m not really as much of a clothes person as you would think.

LG: So the last time you went shop- ping, what did you buy?

CM: I just bought a pair of Chloe wooden cloggy-wedges kind of thing.

LG: AH! So lucky, That sounds so adorable.

CM: Yeah, I was really excited, and when I get home I realized that I had these shoes in this folder on my computer of clothes and shoes and stuff I wanted, and I  have them, they were super old like from when Phoebe Philo was there, I just couldn’t believe I wanted them for so long and then I got them.
LG: Congratulations!
CM: (laughs) Thank you.

LG: Your line has expanded quite a bit from the beginning of Sophomore to now, and so have your look book films. Do you have any plans to expand them further?

CM: Yeah, when we did it, it was kind of unusual, and now it’s the standard. I want to think of something outside the box again. A lot of people look at the films and are like, “You can’t even see the films,” but for us, it’s lifestyle and what we think is cool. As much as we are vintage inspired, we want to do things that you have never seen and that just feel right for the moment. I mean, I love film. I studied film and definitely want to keep doing it, it’s just gotta be something really different.
(article continues inside magazine)
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