If most of what [Evan] Kinori makes costs a lot (shirts start at $285; pants at $365; and jackets at $525), it is in part because they are produced in such limited quantities… “My design ethos is basically geared toward people not buying stuff all the time,” Mr. Kinori said.

In his 20s and armed, if that is the word, with a liberal arts education with specialties in philosophy and French, he decided to enroll in the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, a local school with a heavy emphasis on the trades… Careful, deliberate, free of ostentation, handmade… [Kinori’s clothes] are cut from patterns he devises himself and sewn with French seams on single-needle machines… When he works, he thinks less about the demands of the industrial fashion machine than a desire to create durable objects.

“I love clothes, I love making clothes, I love presenting clothes,” Mr. Kinori said… “Intuition is my home place 100 percent. Building up a story and a spirit with an object is what I’m after. I don’t know that there is much more to it. That’s kind of enough.”

(Guy Trebay, “Want to Make It Big in Fashion? Think Small,” NYTimes, 8-19-10)

(c) 2020 JMN