Andrew Rosen

Jessica Harris (0:06)

I'm Jessica Harris, this is From Scratch. My guest is Andrew Rosen, co-founder of Theory, a contemporary clothing company, initially for young professional women. Andrew launched Theory in 1997 with his partner, Eli Tahari, using Lycra as a breakthrough stretch fabric that they incorporated into the company's clothes. Andrew is considered one of the pioneers in the American fashion industry, investing in and mentoring other fashion companies, such as Alice and Olivia and Rag & Bone, among others. Welcome.

Andrew Rosen (0:40)

Thank you. A lot of other companies too, but a pioneer, I don't know. Maybe we could say that about my grandfather or my father.

Jessica Harris (0:49)

Which is exactly where I want to start. Your grandfather was Arthur, and he came from Russia. And he started the Pearton Dress Company in 1910, which basically launched your whole family's lives into the fashion world. He was known, he was a good garment cutter. What exactly is a garment cutter?

Andrew Rosen (1:10)

My grandfather started in the cutting room. The cutting room is the place where fabrics are laid out, and the pattern pieces of the dresses are laid on top, and he cut out the patterns, cut out the pieces. Today, it's all done by machinery, but back then, it was done by hand, and the precision of how it was done, and the speed in which it was done, like anything else, there are those that are more skilled than others.

Jessica Harris (1:36)

The company he founded in 1910 in Waltham, Massachusetts was called the Puritan Dress Company. I kept thinking as I was learning about you that I'd love to see some of his dresses, and what goes around comes around, and while it might have been out of style for the last 100 years, there might be a re-emergence of a Puritan dress. I mean, there's this bohemian aesthetic.

Andrew Rosen (1:59)

You know, I'm not very nostalgic in that way, and so my father never kept any, or I never kept her. You know, I think that maybe my attitude is more always looking to the future instead of dwelling on the past. I don't know whether I ever saw any of the clothes, but he was making and selling at retail dresses for $2.99, $3.99. That's $2.99, $3.99. That's, you know, it was a very different time and a very different era. But as I look back and see clothes in the 1900s and early and mid 1900s, they're very inspiring.

Jessica Harris (2:41)

So your father, Carl, took over the business from Arthur or worked together with his father. And I feel like the company, Puritan Dress Company, which became Puritan Fashions, kind of was an innovator.

It had mini skirts in the 1960s, even cocktail dresses before then, the Gloria Swanson. Can you speak to that, like that forward leaning posture?

Andrew Rosen (3:05)

You know, my dad was always sort of very innovative in terms of what he did and how he did it. He was very flamboyant and he was the first one. He used to buy designs from the famous French designers and bring them back and recreate them here.

He did a deal with Gloria Swanson. He did a deal with Chris Everett to make tennis clothes. And ultimately, the big deal he did in designer jeans with Calvin Klein in the mid 1970s. So my father was always sort of innovating things and trying to evolve and change the way people dressed and looked at fashion. That was always about my early life. I remember him doing a deal with the Beatles and we'd have all these Beatle t-shirts and Beatle hats and everything back in the 1960s.

Jessica Harris (3:58)

And you mentioned that he was innovative and constantly evolving. It seems like he was like that in his personal life too. Can you speak to his kind of personality outside of work?

Andrew Rosen (4:09)

He was a lot flashier than I was. Fancy cars, maybe even a little fancier dressed. I'm a little more low key.

But he just was larger than life and, you know, a character that sort of we rarely see today. And I think maybe it went with the times. And he was an incredible person and a great father to me and such a great friend to so many people. And my dad has passed away 35 years now, but there would be frequently people come up to me and say, Oh, I remember your dad or your dad did this or, you know, it's really nice to have that memory and that legacy even though I lost my dad when I was relatively young.

Jessica Harris (4:52)

In your 20s, yeah.