Collegiate Times

Sitting in an airport in DC around 8 p.m. yesterday after a series of airplane delays, Dan Agnew, the creative director and designer of the company Kid Dangerous, took a few minutes to talk on the phone about the company shared among him and five others.

CT: Where does the name Kid Dangerous come from?

Dan Agnew: There's really no specific answer. That name just kind of popped up in the brainstorming session and we thought it sounded kind of good and catchy and we just went with it.

CT: How would you describe what you do as grime couture personally as a designer?

DA: Essentially, what we're striving for is garments that have the quality of construction and attention to detail that would be consistent with higher end couture lines, but at the same time, casual stuff that you're encouraged to go out and mess up. Our unofficial slogan has always been "We work hard to craft quality garments for you to throw up and bleed on." Just that's just kind of our business philosophy. If we see someone getting arrested in a Kid Dangerous T-shirt than that's definitely a win for us."

CT: I've heard that some of your shirts have profanity on it, does that kind of lend to your idea of grime couture?

DA: Yeah, I mean just on the whole we have a very loose definition of decorum, if you will. I've especially never been one to attitude-check and none of the guys that I work with are that way, either. We're all very much the same way, we're very unapologetic for who we are and we just kind of embrace it and we just went with it.

CT: You guys started up your account two years ago and now have major accounts with institutions like Nordstrom and others. How did you get to that point in just two years?

DA: We launched of June of 2007, so yeah, in June it'll be two years (that) it will have been officially on the shelves. But before that, there was a good 18 months of just learning, just mistakes made, wrong roads taking, we pretty much learned how to do everything wrong twice and then the third time get it right. So we did a lot of learning by making mistakes, thankfully none to costly as to bankrupt the company. We took, at that point, a very small first collection and through a connection of friends. It was our first meeting and they actually immediately picked up almost the entire line. ... It was just kind of a snowball effect from there.

CT: The 'LA Don't Heart You' shirts, is that kind of like your own spin on 'I Heart NY?'

DA: Oh, yeah, they're everywhere, 'I Love NY,' 'I love LA' and I was looking at it one day and I said to myself, well you could very easily rearrange this. They look very much the same it has the iconic look to it but the message is completely different. And it's got sort of that irreverent attitude that I felt fit very well with our brand image. It's funny because at that time we had artists laying out all kinds of very, very complicated and intricate artwork and that was possibly the easiest piece that we did and it was the single-most successful shirt that we ever made.

CT: 'VT Don't Heart You,' what was your purpose in doing that?

DA: It's just because I'm so happy or come down and just be a part of everything down here and I figure that'd be a nice way to provide kids at VT with an alternative shirt to wear to a football game.

CT: What are you looking forward to the most when you arrive?

DA: The fashion show, absolutely. I've just heard so much about it and I think it's going to be absolutely amazing. I've been continually amazed by Bramble (FMDS president) the entire time we've worked together and to see this whole product that she and all the girls from the fashion society have put together. I'm very, very excited to see how it goes and very honored in fact to be sitting up front to watch and help judge. I think it's going to be absolutely great. I'm also very much looking forward to seeing these creations that VT has made. I'm sure there's going to be so much varying different and creative stuff. I'm very excited."