The Herringbone Twill Interview

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I spend too much time on Instagram. I don’t want to, but I do it anyway, which makes me think there’s a part of me that actually does want it. The thing is that — besides all the crap — there’s too much going on there that I wouldn’t see otherwise, and wouldn’t want to miss. Honestly, it’s not an exaggeration to call it a virtual place of discovery.

At times, it reminds me of the early days of YouTube — the thrill of finding rare footage of NBA games or Nirvana concerts that never aired where I grew up, recorded by someone on a VCR and then uploaded using a dial-up connection. Or, to go further down this nostalgic route, I remember when bookstores sold pocket-size magazines listing URLs of interesting websites, encouraging you to surf the web.

I like opening the Instagram app on my phone, scrolling through my feed, and seeing what Colbo has in store, that Oliver Church has hit upon a new fabric, or that Paul Mescal is wearing custom Carter Young. It gives me the same sensation I got when first reading the opening page of The Age of Reason: the great simultaneity of the world. All these things are happening at the same time, and they’re happening right now.

What I like most, though, is this phenomenon of highly and idiosyncratically curated Instagram pages that, I suspect, are shaping taste — mine, at any rate — more than their creators could possibly be aware of. I’m not talking about some IG-friendly, ready-made aesthetic. I’m talking about selections of images that are as aesthetically pleasing as they’re aesthetically confusing: they show you something of which it’s quite difficult, or hard, or even impossible to say why it’s so appealing, or interesting, or fascinating.

When it comes to taste-making, that’s a huge strength, an existential condition really. Think about it: you’re never going to develop or deepen your taste by surrounding yourself with only that of which you know it already fits your taste.

Right now, for me that’s pages like Jake Feinberg Show, Designing Writing, Saint-Martin Bookshop, De Architects, thv4gsb, Liam Battle, and — perhaps most of all — Herringbone Twill. Over the past few years, that last page has become somewhat of an Instagram sensation. It’s got over 57k followers now and, looking only at our shared connections, these include industry taste-makers like Gauthier Borsarello, Nick Wakeman, and Daniel Brøndt. With 3.260 posts and counting, the three guys behind Herringbone Twill are prolific IG users, sharing at least four or five one-image posts every single day.

But, you may wonder, who are they? Where do they find these beautiful, funny, slightly nostalgic, and always strangely fascinating pictures? What makes all of the Herringbone Twill imagery so unmistakably Herringbone Twill? Don’t despair, I’ve got the answers directly from the source. Here’s a first-ever look behind the scenes of this IG-era taste-making phenomenon, in the form of three separate chats with its creators: Albert Johnson, Colin Shields, and Grayson Thornberry.

Albert Johnson: I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and went to the University of Cincinnati to study fashion design. That’s where I met my two friends Colin and Grayson. I always had an interest in style and fashion but really decided I wanted to pursue it in high school, after inheriting my uncle’s closet — a 1990s time capsule, full of Nike tracksuits, Guess jeans, and graphic tees. I’m currently an associate apparel designer on the graphic tees team at Hollister and I assist with the Abercrombie and Fitch archive in my free time at work.

Colin Shields: I grew up in Cincinnati, and briefly lived in Atlanta, Georgia and Columbus, Ohio. My grandfather worked in menswear for most of his life, living between New York City and Cincinnati. His father had started a menswear clothing company that owned and manufactured quite a few classic American brands from the 30s to the 90s. In the 1980s, he also started his own knitwear company using strictly Icelandic wool. Along with him, my grandmother was an interior designer with an incredible aesthetic eye, devoted to classicism with a tinge of early American. Both my parents were creatives in their own right. My mom is also an interior designer, and my dad is a chef.

In my early high school years, I started working in a menswear shop in Cincinnati. Around the same time, I also learned to sew. I was already sure that I wanted to study fashion design in college, and that’s what I did. I, too, studied at DAAP [The College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning] at the University of Cincinnati, with Albert and Grayson.

Now, I work for a menswear brand in New York called J. Mueser. I do design and product development, overseeing our ready-to-wear line.

Grayson Thornberry: I was always concerned with style and the way I presented myself, from a very young age. I recall moments as early as kindergarten, talking about the clothes I was wearing and why I liked them. In one particular case, a girl at school had commented that my shirt looked girly, but I assured her that the tight, shrunken fit made me feel cool and that’s why I liked it.

I was an active kid and chose soccer as my sport. Due to its culturally stylish appeal, I was heavily influenced by soccer players and the way they dressed and did their hair. I fell in love with soccer cleats and decided I want to design footwear from a very young age. As the others will have told you, I ended up studying fashion design at the University of Cincinnati. Following my graduation in May 2023, I moved to New York City to design sweaters and accessories for Todd Snyder.

Albert Johnson: From what I remember, in early HBT days we wanted a mood board to express our joint interests. Since we had class together and often needed to gather inspiration for projects, we figured it would be cool to start sharing some of that online.

Colin Shields: From what I recall, HBT was started as a fun and easygoing thing for myself, Albert, and Grayson to work on together. In a way, it still remains that.

Grayson Thornberry: The original idea was to create a place to share inspiration between the three of us while we were studying. We felt we had three different points of view that could co-exist, ultimately allowing us to understand new perspectives that would help us become better designers. We consistently posted on the account for years whilst in school as a common reference source. I was extremely grateful for such a curated book of imagery, and valued our zoomed-in lens of what we considered to be taste. For me at least, I can attribute a large part of my eye to the exploration we did through our page.

Albert Johnson: Not a whole lot has changed. Our styles have definitely developed more and we have grown a similar sort of curation across multiple themes. I post a bit less than I used to as my time on Instagram is bit more sporadic now. Grayson and Colin really honed in on the style of the imagery that we are known for today.