Bruce and Glen Proctor are the twin designers behind BruceGlen, and they hold a permanent place in my technicolor heart. I have worked with them for a year now, and this September we partnered for New York Fashion Week. For their 41st birthday on September 30th, they launched The Birthday Suit, a capsule of menswear sharply tailored in their signature colors and bold prints. I am so happy to welcome Bruce back to DomaChroma Magazine! Follow them on Instagram @bruceglentwins, and see all of their collections at bruceglen.com.
DomaChroma: What did it mean to launch The Birthday Suit on your birthday?
Bruce Proctor: We really wanted to do something that felt a little more sophisticated. You know, we’ve turned 41, and we’ve been into suiting a lot more, even with the women’s collection and more tailored stuff. So we wanted to create something we could wear, and to have one or a few of those forever styles that we could do in a bunch of colors, a bunch of prints, a bunch of patterns as we move forward. So you’ll see the cropped blazer that we’re doing in a bunch of different iterations as we continue developing the men’s side of things.
DC: How does the cummerbund accessorize differently than a belt, and why bring it back now?
BG: You know what, the cummerbund is a really cool thing to just hide a little bit of belly. It’s an extra pop of color that we can throw on. It brings another dimension of color blocking to the outfit. In the future we’ll do those in prints as well and mix it all up. I think it’s a really fun way to add color, and also to give you a little more of a waist if one needs that or wants that. Which we need, and want, as well.
DC: How do you decide which colors share a blazer?
BG: Glen has a really good eye for color. For us, it started with the fabrics. The color story didn’t come first. It came from the fabrics. Dyeing fabric is a lot, with dye lots and minimums and all those sorts of things. So we went to the store and we swatched, and swatched, and swatched. Then we got back to the studio and put together the things that looked really good, and decided what looked best together. Glen is really, really good at that. Even though I design the silhouettes and have some idea of color, he always has a great sense of color.
DC: Why are you loving tailoring right now?
BG: It just feels right at this time in our lives. We’re a little older, so we’ve been drawn to things that feel more sophisticated and more grown-up. It’s still the same colors, prints and patterns, just in more grown-up silhouettes. We’re usually in sweats and lounge sets, and there’s nothing wrong with that! We also lost a little weight, so it feels good to wear things that are more tailored and fitted to the body.
DC: Is this a colorful homage to the tuxedo?
BG: I guess you could say that! We often have to go places where we have to dress up, where it calls for black tie, and I don’t want to wear black tie in the traditional sense. So we wanted to do something that could fit in that realm too. A wedding, a black tie event, where you don’t have to be boring but you’re still acceptable for the dress code or the environment.
DC: What did this past year teach you about celebrating yourselves?
BG: I would say it wasn’t just this past year, it’s been the past five years that we’ve been learning to put ourselves first. Our assistant says, “You guys are really good at saying no.” Like, “I don’t want to do that,” even if it’s just, “I don’t want to do that right now, I’d rather do this.”
So it’s small things, like deciding what I want to cut in the studio instead of what has to be cut first. Sometimes I want to do something that just feels better, more creative, or just feels good to me. Even small decisions like that have become more and more important to us as we get older.
This year we’ve been dealing with a lot of stress, the stress of running a business and owning a business. So it was very important for us to put ourselves first and celebrate ourselves, so to speak. Taking time to rest, taking time to hike, taking time to have slow mornings. That was really important for us.
