We caught up with the brilliant and insightful John McDavid Lehman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

John McDavid, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

I believe at my core the main thing that I struggle to do differently or should I say, what separates my process from the “industry standard” is the fact that I aggressively try not to focus on the industry standard. A lot of the magic is lost when time is spent looking to your left and to your right. For me the magic lives when quality time is spent mastering that balance of studying the traditions and heritage of the past and the development of a clear vision for the future.

I don’t like to spend a lot of time looking at what my neighbors are doing in the industry, or looking at what is on trend at the present moment. These are the distractions that can dilute the magic and dim the light. This doesn’t mean that I am not fully aware of what’s moving the needle in fashion, but sometimes what’s lightening hot on a mass level doesn’t necessarily resonate with the McMarden community and that is our “brand standard”.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

About me (the short answer)…I am John McDavid Lehman, founder and creative director at McMarden and I make clothes. The added layers and flavors that make me and the brand who we are begin with the fact that I was born in Los Angeles and being native to LA colors most everything that I do. You can “see” and more importantly “feel” the city in my choice of fabrication, the cut and the color palette season after season.

Obviously, McMarden is a fashion brand but from a design point of view I consider us more of a “social club” for even though I believe that our sartorial cues are quite personal and find it most important that we dress for self, we are all part of a community and for many, fashion plays a critical role in that social narrative.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I believe the fashion industry as a whole is built upon a foundation of resilience, for season after season, collection after collection you are basically starting over again. I tend to box up whatever success, whatever joy, all of the challenges, it all gets zeroed out and that takes a certain discipline, a level of resilience not to bask in the glory and feed off yesterday’s creative momentum…obviously I tend to be a glass half empty sort of dude but I think that is the type of fuel I need to build as a designer and owner. For me the resilience stems for the “all or nothing” attitude, which keeps me inspired and motivated.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Throughout those challenging COVID years I spent a lot of time “unlearning” how I define success. I honestly think that the matrix we have developed and adhere to as creatives in a business-centric industry can be dangerous, and not just to the spirit but can jeopardize the creative process as a whole.

Personally, I approach fashion from a musical background and each collection is like going back to the studio to produce a new album…song by song…piece by piece. The goal is always to create a beautiful collection that resonates with my McMarden community, so much so that they want to not just buy into the collection, but that they want to “share” the body of work with their own community. Yes, that is the goal but sometimes collections or pieces that I might love miss the mark with the community and so I began to ask myself, “Is a song or album only great if it sells millions of units or is streamed in great number?” Of course the answer is “no” so why should fashion be any different? I had to unlearn this form of success. Success is the product. Success is the beauty of the collection. Success is the ability to create that beauty season after season.

Contact Info:

• Website: mcmarden.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/mcmarden
• Other: rbofmcd.com daveybrand.com

Image Credits
McMarden featuring John McDavid Lehman