Five Fits With: Shirtmaker and Uniform-Dresser Erin Reitz
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I am really happy to bring another woman to this column with Erin Reitz, who I met briefly last year through her husband, business partner, and past-subject, Brooks Reitz. They are my favorite couple to follow on the Internet. They take effortless, elegant trips both domestically and abroad, while maintaining multiple successful businesses, children, and a pretty epic home in Charleston. Erin has her own clothing brand, E.M. Reitz, and she’s making some of the nicest buttoned shirts on the market. She’s also got a grip of upcoming trunk shows and if you’re lucky enough to be in one of these towns at the right time, you should stop in and see for yourself.
This is a column focused on menswear, and most of Erin’s influences are rooted in it. She calls herself a uniform dresser, which can sound a bit boring, but she makes the case for the contrary. I really appreciate her style and her openness to list her inspirations and stories behind them publicly. Authenticity is key to Erin, her brand, and her digital presence, which you will no doubt feel reading our interview. Below, we discuss how a chance encounter at a dive bar brought her to the fashion design world, why she’s ready to ditch the clothing term “boyfriend” and give women their own timeless silhouettes, and plenty of other big topics.
Fit One
Let's start with your background and work history, and how you first fell in love with fashion and clothing.
I never expected to get into fashion design. I studied business in college, and minored in sculpture. I moved to New York and lived on 1st Street and First Avenue. I thought I wanted to work for a magazine, and was spending a lot of time at a dive bar in Alphabet City, No Malice Palace. I was there one night and I was wearing a really simple tote bag that I had made. I was in the bathroom, and a girl approached me, said she liked my bag, and we hit it off. We started talking and I found out she was the head designer at Nanette Lepore. We just got drunk together that night, and she asked me to be her intern. So, I showed up in the Garment District the next morning, hungover, and knocked on the studio's door. I walked in and I met Nanette, and the team was draping around a dress form with their pattern maker, and I saw business and sculpture combined, and these women working together. I fell in love with it and decided that's what I was going to do.
Fit Two
What sort of parallels do you see between women's wear and men's wear? Does your brand toe that line?
The lines are delightfully blurred. My long love of androgynous style is now not only widely accepted, but highly encouraged and celebrated. Menswear has stayed so consistent throughout history. The foundation of the perfect men’s shirt, blazer, and trouser are firmly established. But a lot of women’s brands are still trying to figure out how to make those classics feel right for a woman. I often feel the mark is missed and it’s just better to borrow a man’s shirt, but I want one built for me and my body! So yes, this is the entire point of my line. I source my fabrics from Italian mills traditionally selling to men’s clothing. I’m working to craft a fleet of shirts that satisfy that desire for the uniform aspect of menswear that is so orderly and compelling, but built to also flatter a woman’s body and needs. I will admit though that my dream is men will start to buy my shirts. My husband has stolen two of my perfect shirts from the line. I like to call it his “girlfriend shirt.” I am over the “boyfriend” anything!
Fit Three
What gets you in the right mindset to create new garments? You don’t do collections, right?
No, I'm basically garment to garment. Honestly, it's going to sound so cliché, but travel and just going out in the world and taking pictures of things, seeing artists, reading artists’ biographies, looking at sculpture, and then just having time in my studio with my dress form, listening to good music and all those things are in my head. Then I just start to drape. Draping is definitely where all of this begins, and that's sort of that flow state for me. That's where I find my really peaceful, happy place is when I have good music on, I'm by myself, and I can just drape on the dress form. Then maybe I would've seen a woman when we were walking on the street in Copenhagen or London or New York, and she'll come to mind, and I sort of drape through that, but that's really how my process is: piece by piece.
You work for yourself, which is going to be a gift and a curse, speaking from my own experience. How do you manage your time working on the brand, and how do you spend your downtime?
Working by yourself, you do miss the sort of teamwork aspect and the social aspect of it, but you can get a lot done, which I love, because once you focus, you can knock it out. I work from home. I run this business from our house, and I try to segment my time and do it quickly. Part of the reason why I started this company is we have a toddler and I want to choose my own hours. He gets out of school at 2:30, and I've committed to picking him up every day and spending time with him. I drop my son off at school, give myself a morning workout, and then I work from 10:00 until 2:30, get as much done, and ignore the rest of my life. Then the rest of the day is with my son and my family, with a little sneaking away to check my email here and there.
Fit Four
We don't often get women's perspective in this column, let alone one married to a prior subject. What sort of advice do you have for a guy who wants to look more mature and put-together and might not know where to start?
Well, I'm very much a uniform dresser, meaning I wear very similar things and I put them together in a similar way. I have found a formula that works for me. I think if you know what kind of shirt or pant or jacket looks good on you, I would buy several. And what color palette looks good on you, I'd stick within that palette. Then you just mix them together. That's how I do it.
How have you honed your personal style over the years?
I've always worn menswear, probably because I have an older brother. I've always taken his clothes. Over the years, I've become more comfortable with the fact that I love wearing men's clothes. In the last decade, I’ve really sort of feminized that by adding elegant items like an Hermès scarf, or I love 45 RPM scarves and bringing in little pops of color through a silk sock that's a bright red or a lovely shade of purple. These days I'm focusing on the classic elements of menswear and then bringing in little feminine pops to make it my own.
Fit Five
What brands outside of your own do you still purchase pieces from, and why are you drawn to these brands?
I've been into vintage tees, but I also love vintage linen bed-shirts. That's a great source of inspiration for details like pin tucks and gussets. I only design shirts, so I do love buying from other brands for other parts of my wardrobe. I love Massimo Alba for linen blazers, P. Johnson for their linen trousers. I have solely worn Acne denim for probably 20 years. I love 45 RPM. I'm very inspired by Japanese designers and the simplicity of their silhouettes. I love anything indigo-dyed. In terms of my knitwear and T-shirts, I've solely worn Alabama Chanin for the last decade because they're beautifully made and it’s beautiful fabric.
If you had to wear one outfit for the rest of your life, what would it consist of?
Oh, that's easy. I would wear an E.M Reitz perfect shirt, a linen blazer from Massimo Alba, Acne denim, and my Belgian shoes or a comfy sneaker.
That’s the fastest and most sure anyone's ever answered that.
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