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" Alex Mill is designed by two men named Alex, but neither of their last names is Mill. It&amp;#039;s the brainchild of Alex Drexler and designer Alex Casertano. And while Drexler&amp;#039;s father\u2014Millard, or Mickey\u2014may be known in the industry as the man who shaped Gap, and later J. Crew, the rag trade wasn&amp;#039;t pushed upon him while growing up. Drexler studied law and worked in advertising and garment production before he became obsessed with the idea of creating the perfect button-up shirt. This fixation spread to T-shirts and jeans and in fall 2013, he launched his label which proposes the essentials items of the modern man&amp;#039;s uniform. Funnily enough, though, Drexler&amp;#039;s brand does have a father-son connection\u2014it not only offers core wardorbe pieces for men, there are also junior-sized options for the younger members of the family. We caught up with Drexler, who was preparing to unroll his spring/summer 2014 collection, on where Alex Mill started, and where it&amp;#039;s allgoing (hint: even he doesn&amp;#039;t know yet).  Esquire.com: Tell us a little about how you got to where you are now with the label.Alex Drexler: For the last number of years I worked in production and I always liked being in a factory and making things. That was my interest. I worked in garment production. I&amp;#039;d always been really interested in shirts, so the initial idea was to make the perfect shirt or the perfect T-shirt with the right fabric and the right fit and all the right details. Because even though there are a lot of shirts out there, it can be hard to find a good one\u2014a &amp;quot;perfect&amp;quot; one. From there, it sort of evolved into the man&amp;#039;s uniform. We thought, What does every guy wear? Well, it&amp;#039;s jeans, a shirt, and a T-shirt. So that&amp;#039;s what the line&amp;#039;s based on: the modern man&amp;#039;s uniform.  Then there&amp;#039;s this father/son element. Boys like to dress like men a lot of the tmes but most kid&amp;#039;s clothing is really skateboard-ish or rock-and-roll whereas ours are just shrunken down versions of the men&amp;#039;s clothes.  ESQ: What is the perfect shirt, then?AD: Well, even though there are a ton of shirts out there, it&amp;#039;s still hard to find the right one. And if the shirt is $400 or $500, then are you gonna buy it? For me it&amp;#039;s about the fabric and the wash. The fit, and those little details, like the buttons. Our fabrics aren&amp;#039;t stock fabrics, we custom develop ours. I think that&amp;#039;s a huge part of a man&amp;#039;s shirt. Because no matter how well it fits, if it&amp;#039;s not nice fabric you won&amp;#039;t want to wear it. And it&amp;#039;s not just shirts for us. It&amp;#039;s T-shirts. It&amp;#039;s jeans\u2014we sell this perfectly faded denim. It&amp;#039;s different elements that make up the core of a man&amp;#039;s wardrobe. And it&amp;#039;s not that it has to be so perfect in a thought-out sort of way. I&amp;#039;d like it if our customers\u2014whether they&amp;#039;re 20 or 75\u2014don&amp;#039;t have to put too much thought into it, it just feels right and it&amp;#039;s a great shirt.  ESQ: So you come from a retail and fashion family\u2014were you always planning to be in this business?AD: I actually went to law school. I always wanted to be in the FBI or something along those lines. I didn&amp;#039;t necessarily set out to do this. I had jobs in print production and advertising. I love product and making things so it all sort of just fell into place. My father just wanted me to do what I wanted, but it is in my blood, I guess, to like clothing [laughs]. But I worked in production, which is all about getting things made correctly, shipping them on time, getting them from point A to point B. I worked for Andrew Rosen [founder of Theory] and you learn how to work out all these logistical challenges, which is a huge part of the business.   ESQ: So are you advocating uniform dressing, as opposed to following trends?AD: That&amp;#039;s an interesting question. Our items are \u2026 they&amp;#039;re staples. Cool staples. But I&amp;#039;m like everyone else, I evolve and I find myself liking different things at different times. I think it&amp;#039;s about these key, critical items but that doesn&amp;#039;t mean it can&amp;#039;t evolve or change. We&amp;#039;re working on our fall/winter 2014 collection now and there&amp;#039;ll be a bomber jacket in it. We&amp;#039;re introducing new things. And for spring we&amp;#039;re introducing chinos. I mean, chinos\u2014they can be to baggy, there&amp;#039;s a whole host of things you might not like about them. But I think that if you can get the right one, though, it&amp;#039;ll just become part of your uniform.  ESQ: So if the company is run by two guys named Alex but neither of your last name&amp;#039;s are Mill, where did the Mill come from?AD: The &amp;#039;Mill&amp;#039; stands for quality. Like a mill quality goods, we aim to produce quality products.  ESQ: Are you a believer in the five-year plan? Do you have one?AD: Honestly, my plan is to take it one day at a time [laughs]. I know your not supposed to say that, or maybe you&amp;#039;ve heard it before but that&amp;#039;s really what it is. Each season there&amp;#039;s so much to deal with, it helps to just focus on the day-to-day like quality and, ultimately making the customer happy because that&amp;#039;s what we&amp;#039;re here to do. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/style/mens-fashion/a26944/alex-mill-interview-2014/>