Tanner Fletcher has been one of New York City’s emerging designer brands to watch for the past few seasons, with designers Tanner Richie and Fletcher Kasell making waves for their way of bringing modern touches to vintage aesthetics through their genderless designs.
The designers, who were CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalists and CFDA Emerging Designer of the Year nominees last year, have already produced several styles that have become signatures of their brand, and favorites of many celebrities. Take the Tanner Fletcher bow suit, which the designers have updated season-to-season and has been worn by the likes of Bad Bunny and Tom Daley.
With the bow suit and other pieces, Richie and Kasell take inspiration from interior design, which has been at the core of their design process and brand as a whole since they launched Tanner Fletcher at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That’s really where we start when we’re designing a collection: It’s in our own home and other interiors,” Kasell said. “We always find ourselves just bringing in little things into our house to add to our collection of interiors. We’ll always pick one up at the Chelsea Flea Market or we’ll see one on the street and add it in. Every time we’re ready to design a new collection, there’s like 100 new things in our apartment, so we look around and see what we’re interested in, what we’ve gravitated toward and that really helps to build the foundation of the collection.”
Richie and Kasell started their label in home decor, hand-making pillows, tote bags and small accessories that they sold to local Brooklyn boutiques in 2020. The designers, who met as roommates at the University of Minnesota and transferred to LIM College together, saw their small success as an opportunity to go deeper into design. They ultimately launched into apparel, with their first official ready-to-wear collection for the spring 2022 season.
Their roots in interior design stayed a core focus when expanding into apparel. The designers draw inspiration from myriad design aesthetics for their collections, ranging from Victorian era and midcentury Hollywood to the 1930s and ’40s.
Inside Tanner Fletcher’s studio.
Evelyn Freja/WWD
“We bounce all over the place,” Kasell said. “I always say that we pick and choose things from every era and we put our filter on and try to use the best things that people have totally forgotten about and that’s not in the market right now, so how do we bring it back? It’s really great and shouldn’t be ignored because every era has really hideous things as well, so we just kind of put our filter on and pick and choose it all together. I think that’s the beauty of the brand — it’s mismatched eras.”
This inspiration translates in many ways in Tanner Fletcher’s ready-to-wear pieces, namely through design details like ruffles, bows and other embellishments, as well as colors and fabrics. Kasell explained the brand’s ubiquitous bows, for instance, have been inspired by objects such as curtain pulls or vintage furniture. He also highlighted a fringe suit from one of the brand’s earliest collections, which was inspired by a lamp shade.
From Tanner Fletcher’s fall 2024 collection, the interior design inspiration came through several black structured blazers that were embellished with vintage pins found at thrift stores, as well as its continued use of bows and ruffles.
Kasell stated that each season when he is searching through vintage stores with Richie for materials and inspiration, they pick up various home decor pieces to use in their photoshoots.
This has led to the designers accumulating a large collection of vintage pieces, so they decided to launch a home decor collection on their website to sell their various candle holders, dishes, lamps, needlepoints and other small trinkets. Kasell said the collection was a quick hit with customers.
Inside Tanner Fletcher’s studio.
Evelyn Freja/WWD
“It’s fun to see our customers buying a shirt, but then also throwing in a pair of candle holders with it,” he said. “It’s exactly how we wanted our customer to act, so it’s fun to see them actually pulling through and acting the way we had imagined.”
Tanner Fletcher has plans to expand its home decor category this year. The designers are adding a large assortment of small trinkets they found during their recent trip to Paris to their website and are looking to add in larger pieces, such as side chairs or tables, to the assortment.
The larger pieces will be available only to customers in the New York City area for pick up. Kasell explained the brand has focused its home decor category mainly on smaller items for shipping reasons, but now has the capability to offer larger items at their new studio located in Chelsea.
“The main parallel is taste,” Kasell said on the similarities between fashion and home decor. “We always say wardrobe and home are more connected than you think, but I think it really has to do with the person — they’re more connected for us for obvious reasons. We look around our home and it inspires how we dress. I feel like we’re not the only ones that do that.”
As the brand continues to grow and expand — the designers just debuted their first bridal collection — Richie and Kasell are committed to staying true to their design ethos and continuing to show the links between fashion and interior design.
“Sometimes home products and wardrobe shouldn’t be as separate categories,” Kasell said. “Sometimes it’s thought of as complete opposites and I think it’s better when they’re offered within the same category. It’s more like you’re shopping an aesthetic.”