Public School

Public School was founded in New York in 2008 by Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne. Both designers grew up in the city, and their label brought its overlapping cultures into a menswear vocabulary that joined tailoring to sportswear. The name acknowledged their shared experience of New York’s public schools.

The clothes offered a different idea of the city uniform. Layered proportions and athletic references sat beside shaped jackets and coats, allowing formal and casual elements to share an outfit. A largely monochrome wardrobe gave those combinations coherence, with texture and silhouette providing the distinctions.

Public School won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2013 and the CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year award in 2014. The founders’ joint appointment at DKNY in 2015 extended their relationship with American fashion, while their own label continued to develop its independent identity.

After a hiatus, Chow and Osborne returned Public School to New York Fashion Week in 2026. The renewed collections retain the connection between tailored clothing and the street that defined the label’s first chapter. Its contribution to menswear lies in treating those wardrobes as parts of the same life, with New York providing a meeting place for different experiences and ways of dressing.