Brand History
PHIPPS INTERNATIONAL was founded by Spencer Phipps in 2018. A San Francisco native, Spencer was raised in a kaleidoscopic environment – a crossroads of naturalistic beliefs and tech innovation. Fresh out of Parsons School of Design Spencer began his career at Marc Jacobs, where he worked for seven years, before departing to Antwerp to work as the first American on Dries Van Noten’s design team.
In 2018 Spencer Phipps found himself in a peculiar position. As a Californian now living in Paris, he looked for his next adventure in design. He wrote a list outlining his ideal new house: rooted in menswear, open-minded, radically forward thinking but humorous, with environmental responsibility at its very core, leaving space for his fascination with the expansive cultural histories of sports and nature.
Spencer drew a bold conclusion: he would have to found this house himself. He started off with his first collection Origins in FW18. It brought him a revered selection of clients across the globe, including SSENSE, MatchesFashion among others. The emerging brand was selected as a finalist of the LVMH prize in 2019, and entered the Paris Fashion Week calendar in the same year. In the tumultuous year 2020, Phipps added film as a key communication medium: a trailer of an imaginary movie replaces the show for SS21 and FW21 and is bound to become a firm tradition of the house.
