How Millinsky Went From Making Dad-Hats to Designing Merch for the Rolling Stones

On episode 50 of The HBR Show we sit down with Millinksy. Readers may not be familiar with Daillance’s name (or his fashion-world pseudonym), but his products are instantly recognizable: dad-caps emblazoned with photogenic phrases: ALMOST FAMOUS, NO PICTURES, and the ubiquitous I CAME TO BREAK HEARTS. The brand started three years ago, when Alex was a senior in high school in Paris. “The idea came out of my interest in streetwear and my desire to not just go to college, but to also have a project on the side. I decided that I wanted to put out a product that would be successful, but would also be very simple.” Taking inspiration from other Instagram-forward brands like Anti-Social Social Club, Millinsky cites a “very distinct theme that people can relate to, and I thought that the dad-caps were good because they weren’t that fashionable when I started, but it was starting to be fashionable.” Millinsky also explains how the hats practically marketed themselves. ”You can go to a party and put a cap on someone, like a celebrity for example, they can wear it for one minute, take a picture and it’s done.” Caps were also easy on the production side: one-size-fits-all, and simple embroidery. “It was an easy way to start off as a brand, I didn’t need much funds to do it when I was in senior year of high school.” But the brand well and truly took off when Millinsky got the hats into colette. “When you’re French, colette is the Mecca of fashion,” Alex explains, using the present ten