Chace Crawford’s biggest style problem of the last few years was finding a good T-shirt. Thankfully, the star of Prime Video’s superhero satire The Boys (and well-remembered for his long-running role on Gossip Girl) had a solution: Start his own brand. Launched in just more than a year’s time, American Dream Clubhouse is a comfort-driven, understated but stylish (and breathable!) line of everyday staples that work nicely at the office, in transit or on the golf course.
“I didn’t want this line to be for guys who are on Net-a-Porter every other day and overthinking their fashion choices,” Crawford tells me during a Zoom call early in June. “I wanted something for guys to look sharp but also have it be functional and made to move.”
In spite of the brand’s relatively quick launch, Crawford has heavily invested his time and energy in ADC. “I’m a realist. I knew how difficult doing something like this could be,” he says. “But I didn’t know what I didn’t know. [Laughs] This has been kind of like jumping out of the airplane and building the parachute on the way down.”
How did The Deep build a clothing brand? We asked. (And for the record, Crawford’s favorite pieces are the Legacy Short Sleeve Split Hem tee and mint-colored Momentum hoodie.)
For Crawford, Building a Fashion Brand Was New Territory
Crawford got the ball rolling on his brand quickly, partially inspired to branch out during the recent Hollywood strikes. “It’s been about a year,” he says. “That’s a pretty quick turnaround to have a fully-fledged line. I jumped into this a bit like I did acting in my teens.”
Crawford’s put in the work, including attending last year’s Magic Las Vegas, where he made some key relationships with manufacturers. “I’m not going to half-ass this,” he says. “It’s about showing up and building relationships — when you show up, people in the business are more excited to give you resources and attention. Even now, between acting, I have meetings three times a week and I’m on call all the time.”
The Brand Is Comfortable but Not “Athleisure”
“It’s a bit more sophisticated,” Crawford says. “I wanted to create an all-in-one stop for brands I grew up [wearing], like Calvin Klein or Tommy Hilfiger, where the fit was dialed in perfectly.” For the actor, that process started with tees and polos. “I just couldn’t find high-quality T-shirts,” he adds. “All the ones I was buying were pretty expensive for how quickly they deteriorated, even without drying them. So I wanted to create my own.”
The Highlight Is the Polo
Particularly, the tipped-collar Heritage Polo, a three-button design crafted from a modal-cotton-polyester-elastane blend that’s incredibly comfortable and breathable (yours truly already bought two). “After T-shirts, I wanted to move into polos,” Crawford says. “We created four separate types — solids, some with buttons, some buttonless. I’m a golfer and I really like printed golf polos, so we designed a few with our patterns as well.”
All ADC garments share a common thread: They travel well. “It’s all guys on the move,” Crawford says. “I fly a lot, so I didn’t want shirts that wrinkle easily. These have a structure to them.”
Crawford’s Worked With Some Sharp-Dressed Dudes
The best-dressed person Crawford’s ever worked with? “Jesse Usher has always been well dressed,” he says. “Ed Westbrook for sure. Any of the Brits I’ve worked with. And now, my buddy Sebastian Stan is probably the most stylized in my friend group.”
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Look cool, stay coolDressing as The Deep Can Have Its Challenges
On The Boys, Crawford plays The Deep, a loose Aquaman parody who’s both a despicable person and painfully wrong about his intellect (or lack of). “The worst you can say to me is, ‘Oh, you’re just playing yourself,’” he says. “In the end, we’re just making fun of this guy. He’s so not self-aware. I play the comedy up a bit, I think more than they thought I was going to.”
Stylish in person, Crawford is stuck on set in a rather unfashionable green aquatic outfit. “When you’re outside in the sun, it’s basically a wetsuit,” he says. “When you’re inside and in a studio and it’s air conditioned, it’s fine. Anthony Starr [who plays Homelander] has it worse. It’s like a mummy costume for him.”
His role as The Deep also makes for an interesting juxtaposition on Crawford’s Instagram (3.4 million followers), which oscillates between Crawford’s more fashionable side and his hilarious, in-character “ Deep Thoughts” from his superhero role. “Social media is such a foreign concept for me,” he says. “So my fallback is to be funny, especially since my character is always going to be in that same costume.”
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