Blamo!

My guest this week is Mickey Drexler.

You probably know him as the guy behind Gap Inc., J.Crew, Old Navy, and now Chairman of Alex Mill — but this conversation turned into something much bigger than retail.

Mickey thinks most modern fashion has lost its taste level. He thinks cars all look the same. He thinks corporate boards ruin creativity. He hates AI slop, overdesigned luxury, cheap packaging, bad customer service, loud gyms, and logos for the sake of logos.

We talk about why Costco might secretly be one of the best brands in America, what made Rolex such a powerful marketing company, the importance of storytelling, why details matter, and what happens when companies stop caring.

Plus:

a wild story about getting fired from Gap after a call from Steve Jobs

Mickey absolutely destroying Allbirds

thoughts on vintage cars, vintage clothes, and why “if you know, you know” still matters

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Hrishikesh Hirway — the creator and host of Song Exploder — joins me this week.

We talk about the strange identity crisis of becoming known as “the Song Exploder guy” while still trying to reconnect with himself as a musician and songwriter. We also get into collaboration, writer’s block, vintage clothing, obsessive music listening, and the making of his beautiful new record, “In the Last Hour of Light.”

Hrishikesh opens up about interviewing hundreds of artists, how Song Exploder changed the way he thinks about creativity, and why working with other people ultimately helped him fall back in love with making music. We also talk about recording live with almost no takes, working with Iron & Wine, the emotional weight of memory and grief, and the challenge of making deeply personal work in public.

This is one of my favorite kinds of conversations — two people trying to figure out what it actually means to make things for a living.

Listen to "Stray Dogs"

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Patreon Preview from Blamo!

Welcome to the first installment of Die, Workwear!’s new series on building a wardrobe without taking out a second mortgage. 

 

The premise is simple: if your closet disappeared tomorrow and you had $3,000 to rebuild it from scratch, what would you actually buy?

 

Not fantasy grails. Not “quiet luxury.” Real clothes Derek and Peter would genuinely wear themselves: sport coats, tropical wool trousers, vintage eBay overcoats, loopwheeled T-shirts, Cone Mills denim, penny loafers, and a surprising amount of discussion about sweatshirts.

 

Along the way, Peter tries to justify $140 OCBDs, Derek explains the perfect vintage-straight jean fit, and both make a compelling case for buying old Ralph Lauren off eBay instead of almost anything new.

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Listen to the FULL episode on the Blamo! Patreon 

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This week on Blamo!, I’m joined by Kevin Morby.

We talk about his new record Little Wide Open, out May 15, and how ideas of home and place show up in his songwriting. From writing in different cities to figuring out what “home” actually means, Kevin gets into the rhythms behind his work.

We also talk life on the road—running, watching movies, and the routines that keep things steady—plus stage clothes, residencies, and the “most him object” he owns.

Kevin Morby's Substack

Kevin Morby.com

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Wyatt Gilmore, founder of Grant Stone, joins me to talk about how the brand came together, what he learned spending years working in factories in China and Taiwan, and why quality footwear is about far more than country-of-origin clichés.

We get into boots, loafers, suede, shell cordovan, and the realities of making shoes that feel good, age well, and actually earn their place in your closet. Plus, a tease of the upcoming Blamo! x Grant Stone collaboration.

https://www.grantstoneshoes.com

 

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