Matthew: Color without a doubt. But beyond that, our perspective is just really different from what was already out there. When people see the product, they immediately get a sense for who the Orley guy is. The point of view is very clear, and there isn't anything else like it in the designer market. We take classic silhouettes that guys are comfortable wearing, and give them a twist through color or texture.
Alex: Our focus on knitwear is really unique. It's a difficult product category, so most brands don't want to do knitwear, or it's the last category they develop. But for us, there's something really special about knits. They're tactile, visceral...You can touch and interact with them in a way that you can't with other products. There's a real emotion that comes from knits, and it's really the core of our brand - our DNA. The difficulty only makes it more fun to tackle.
Alex: The brand is not really designed around an imaginary character, it's designed around me and Matthew. So my home is reflection of who I am, in the same way the clothes are a reflection of who I am. It's all one story.
Alex: Textiles are a big inspiration. My girlfriend grew up in Istanbul, and we've been spending a lot of time there recently. Every time we go, I tend to come back with more stuff that I didn't know I was missing. My little hobby of collecting is slowly becoming a hoarding problem. But we actually used some of the fabrics I brought back in our Spring '14 lookbook. We used one of them as a backdrop and another as a rug, and now they're both in my home.
Matthew: Sam and I work extremely collaboratively, both at home and at work. But the fact is, she's way more handy than I am. Sam is a builder. She was born with a tool set and knows how to use it. I mean, she built our bed, our dressers, the bookshelves - even the backgammon set. We have a lot of shared tastes, and everything here is a reflection of that, but if it needs to be built, she's the one doing it, haha!
Samantha: We also painted the dining room, the bathroom, the windowsills, the fireplaces - all of those little things that create more of a home. Obviously, we really love color, so we wanted to make the place seem more colorful and cheerful, but it also makes the space feel more comfortable, more personal.
Matthew: Interesting question...If you work with your spouse, it's not always easy to delineate work life from personal. But we really make an effort to keep the two separate. We actually don't bring computers home, and have no technology in the bedroom at all - no phones, no iPads, no TV. I'm a huge tech guy, but we've really tried to minimize it at home as much as possible. Instead, we end up playing a lot of backgammon, playing music, we cook and try to enjoy each other's company outside of work.
