Although James Perse grew up surrounded by high fashion pieces—his father owned a clothing boutique called Maxfield—it was actually the humble baseball hat that inspired him to design. After noticing a lack of elevated options on the market, he created his own luxe take on the classic cap for his family’s shop in the early ‘90s. Just three years later, a line of breezy James Perse T-shirts followed. By the time he released an equally easygoing women’s ready-to-wear collection in 1996, the namesake brand was firmly established as a mainstay for quality basics worth buying in multiples.
