Money and the Military

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There's been a lot of buzz in recent months surrounding J.Crew's head of womenswear, Jenna Lyons, so we were pleased to get an introduction to her new-ish menswear counterpart, Frank Muytjens, via Valet. Most interesting to us was when the Dutch-born designer talked about the not-so-flattering aspects of American iconography that shaped his early view of our fair country—namely, money and the military—and how they influenced his first collections. He tells the blog: "I used dollar coins as buttons on sportcoats, and I enlarged parts of dollar bills, using them as Warhol-esque graphic prints on old army sweatshirts." Luckily, he's moved on to moccasins and fisherman sweaters since then. [Valet]