Band of Outsiders

Band of Outsiders was founded in Los Angeles in 2004 by Scott Sternberg. A former Hollywood agent, Sternberg began with shirts and ties, using narrow proportions to give American prep a different character. The label developed into a wardrobe in which a schoolboy jacket or an Oxford shirt could suggest both affection for tradition and a wish to disturb it.

Its menswear combined tailored clothes with the informality of the West Coast. Shorter jackets and slim trousers changed the balance of established garments, while fabrics associated with campus dressing supplied a recognizable starting point. The result felt personal, with an interest in the awkward charm of getting dressed as much as conventional good taste.

Sternberg’s Polaroid campaigns extended that sensibility. Actors and musicians appeared in images that drew on his relationship with film and Los Angeles, giving the clothes a social world beyond the runway. A sense of humor helped keep the preppy references from becoming a uniform.

The original business ceased operations in 2015 and Sternberg departed. New owners revived the name with a spring-summer 2017 collection, followed by a London-based chapter focused on menswear. Those later collections continued to revisit casual American clothing through a different design team, making the founder’s period and the subsequent revival separate chapters in the label’s history.