Swaim Hutson—The Man Behind the Late Aughts Label Obedient Sons & Daughters—Is Back in the Suit Business
Swaim Hutson—The Man Behind the Late Aughts Label Obedient Sons & Daughters—Is Back in the Suit Business
The Academy New York, Fall 2019
Photo: Courtesy of The Academy New YorkDesigners Swaim and Christina Hutson carved a niche for themselves in the late aughts with a little collection of sharply cut pantsuits they called Obedient Sons & Daughters. Their subversively conservative tailoring resonated enough to nab the husband-wife duo a place in the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund competition alongside fashion babies like Alexander Wang and Jason Wu. But then, as now, it was hard to transition out of the start-up phase. A gray suit jacket naively embroidered with snippets of poetry circa Fall 2008 lingers in the memory for the way it mixed tradition with a wayward streak. Still, as charmed as New York was by the Hutsons, the Obedient Sons & Daughters label was short-lived.
In the 10 years since Obedient’s last collection, the Hutsons parted ways personally and professionally. Swaim worked behind the scenes at a number of New York brands, and he also created a popular Instagram account posting movie stills, art, interiors, poetry, and song lyrics that he dubbed The Academy New York. He definitely has a way with names. A side project built on a whim, The Academy became so successful so fast—gaining 12,000 to 15,000 new followers a month at one point—that Hutson trademarked it. “I had an audience, but I didn’t have anything to sell them,” he recalls. Around 2015, in the early days of fashion merch, he started producing tees and hoodies branded with the TANY logo and other graphics. He’d announce his flash sales on Instagram, go to bed, and wake up with 50 orders. It was enough to keep him busy in his off hours, and to land a couple of Japanese retailers.
Now, with streetwear on the wane, Hutson is getting back into the tailoring business; he’s produced a capsule collection of pantsuits, camp shirts and pajama tops, and pleated trousers for Fall under The Academy New York name. “It was something I wanted to do this from the outset of this brand,” Hutson says. “I knew I was working back to doing this.” There’s a direct line connecting Obedient Sons & Daughters to The Academy. A 2019 white button-down scribbled with marker doodles is a descendant of that iconic embroidered 2008 suit jacket, and the general vibe is still Boy Scout-gone-just-a-little-bit-bad. Shown in monochrome, the camp shirt and pleated pants combination is an especially cool look. The modifications Hutson has made for the late 2010s include a looser suit-jacket fit and unisex sizing.
“There is nothing I love more than getting my ideas out and that’s what I’ve really missed the most,” he says of this career reboot. “I definitely don’t want to just make clothes for clothes sake, there’s enough of that already. I aspire to put clothes out that others will also want to wear for the next decade, or so.” If that’s an old school concept, he plans to execute it in a modern way: on Instagram—where else?
