Milli Point Two is all about family. Founded by Croatian-born co-founders Tomo Trcak and Anthea Bebek, the LA-based brand focuses on traditional Italian manufacturing blended with outlandish silhouettes and often collaborates with artists on graphics.
"Very often we say that Milli Point Two represents the clothes that the '90s youth would imagine future jet-setters would wear," Bebek tells PAPER. "It’s the clothes we never got to wear ourselves, so we waited for an opportunity to finally be able to make them. The accumulation of fantasies and ideas led to Milli Point Two. It’s our wildest dreams and the deepest unexplored parts of our imaginations, presented through the workings of needle and thread."
The brand's latest collection, "Day Two: Star-Studded Misfire," takes inspiration from both '90s high school dramas set in Los Angeles, as well as their Balkan culture. Of the 35 pieces, standouts include the Oddesso blazer, an oversized structured blazer with exaggerated shoulders that vaguely resembles a '90s finance power suit, and the Umpire/Jayrunner set, the brand's take on a retro tennis uniform.
True to Milli Point Two's emphasis on family, the accompanying campaign was made by fellow Croatians, shot in locations that belonged to childhood friends, to support the local creative scene. "I wanted this raw, authentic moment to have its own spotlight, the atmosphere of friendship shining through, the deed of doing something just for your love towards somebody," says Trcak. The brand also released a mini campaign for the same collection starring Lil Yachty in New York.
Below, Trcak and Bebek talk to PAPER all about Milli Point Two.
What was the inspiration behind your latest collection?
Tomo Trcak: It was a stressful period for the whole team as the brand was going through rapid advancements on the back of equally rapid change, and at times, it seemed that the only thing still pushing us forward was hope. I mention this because the collection relies on one side on the bases of hope, representing ourselves constantly battling with all sorts of challenges both personal and professional, and on the other novelty, reflecting the brand’s (and the team’s) sense of being the “new kids on the block,” trying hard to preserve our initial flame.
The new collection's name is “Day Two: Star-Studded Misfire.” It represents a celebration of explosive novelty, a champion-in-the-making narrative, where the constant mishaps tend to take us away from the triumph. Through this, we set to refresh our assortment with brand new silhouettes, materials and stylistic ventures. We took everything we had and sent it a few ladders upwards. We updated our cuts, introduced new visions of existing fabrics, along with venturing into formalwear and suiting.
Anthea Bebek: “Day Two: Star-Studded Misfire” is a brilliant gem that was fired off into the unknown blackness of the universe to trail-blaze a path forward. The name symbolizes the path of great uncertainty, change and peril, where a spark of hope and a relentless approach go a long way.
We’re constantly being inspired by the freshness of LA, with a nostalgic nod to our home country. We play on the two’s interaction and made a collection that fuses all the interesting parts of Balkan culture with characteristic '90s Western stereotypes, such as high school dramas, sitcoms, athlete culture, etc.
How does this collection reflect the ethos of your brand?
Tomo: The brand relies on ideas of constant improvement, unbreakable devotion and a close-tight community. "Day Two" reflects this mindset. The devotion stays with us for good. It’s the undying efforts of each one of our team members, the ups and downs that we share, with this bright hope pulling us back again and again.
Lastly, we developed the meaning of The Clique even further, approaching the new visual narrative of the collection through a “TV series” lens, giving fictional names to our team, treating them as the main characters of the Milli Point Two story, which they really are.
Anthea: Milli Point Two is and always will be about a strong urge to take the hardest possible route, to surprise those who put the most doubt in you and that takes great commitment, willpower and a profound love for the act of creating.
The collection reflects this urge as we ventured into parts of fashion design we were previously unbeknownst, infusing them with our own interpretational twist. We never expected to be making epauleted, oversized suits with one of Croatia’s oldest tailors, or that we would be tapping into uniform designs and underwear. We chose everything that looks logical, but that we’re still unfamiliar with, and tinkered with it. That is the deepest core of our ethos: curiosity and people to share it with on its path to realization.
In what ways have your personal experiences outside of fashion shaped your creative process or business decisions?
Tomo: Doing sports at a high level at any point in life, but especially early on, shapes you in ways I think that other experiences can’t. It creates a very deep sense of discipline and familiarizes you with constant pressure and pain, be it physical or mental. Still, that striving made me who I am today. It taught me ways of understanding the tools I need to have to achieve a higher purpose.
I also had demanding parents who simultaneously pushed me hard at school, and later in life for business success, which in turn has enabled me to go on and launch Milli Point Two. The amount of work experience, years in business and a multitude of failures along the way — with my accumulated life experiences in raising a large, loving family throughout work — has made up the main driving factors for Milli Point Two.
Anthea: Since I was a kid, fashion was always part of my life and home. I grew up with parents who liked dressing up, going abroad to Italy to buy clothes. Even today, my dad likes to dress well and appreciates my opinions on his style and the clothes he buys. I’ve found my anchor in all the artists and athletes that I loved watching: the way they put together their outfits, how they were thinking (and occasionally talking) about clothes. All of it was, and still is, important to me.
Over time, the accumulation of pictures, scenes and frames became ideas, which later shaped me into the person I am today. My personal life and relationship with Tomo are the foundation of how we approach design and business decisions. There is always a bit of my family and my friends in all that I create.
What was the concept behind your latest campaign?
Tomo: An idea sparked that we should make an offbeat, trashy, but in its own ways charming, TV series about The Clique, where alien space debris suddenly hits the Earth and within that debris, the main character duo find the MPT clothes.
The duo, one residing in LA and the other in Croatia, stepped into contact using the newfound alien comms and began forming teams to research the mysterious clothes they stumbled upon. This is the backstory in short, and the campaign we shot in Croatia at our hometown of Samobor further follows The Clique while they attend a special night school, where they would learn how to use Milli Point Two clothing for good. It’s a whimsy stereotypical '90s high school drama mixed with environments and sentiments from '90s Balkan, with its architecture and props. It’s a weird, wild ride that propels the viewer into a woozy world, where the only visual constants are the garments themselves.
Anthea: Creating a systemic view on things sometimes, in my opinion, makes them even wilder. I like to put our collections into certain outlines, not in a design or manufactural sense, related to storytelling. It is easier to spark interest when enveloping the collection in a singular concept, so this time we used a comically stereotypical '90s TV series format.
Prior to the "Day Two" launch, we released a series of short videos showcasing The Clique’s own members, through an irreverent '90s sitcom/high school drama setting, with the classic intro scenes, music and awkward smiles we witness time and time again. The Clique’s characters are featured through their curious misadventures while attending a special night school to educate themselves on using the alien-made clothing of Milli Point Two in the right ways. We wanted it to be a bit quirky, self-ironic, but cool in a sense.
Who were some of your early fashion icons or designers that influenced you?
Tomo: During my salad days, I was very big on hip-hop in general, and despite leaning more into the west coast scene, it was art all the way. I was captivated by the entire scene, from the music lyrics, street style and the powerful references. Nas, Pac, Biggie ... "To live and die in LA" was the anthem. LA itself was such a surreal dream then, something on the edge of not even existing in this reality. Since we were raised heavily around sports, especially me being an accomplished athlete in the past, many of the iconic '90s American sports maestros were also big inspirations for MPT: Jordan, Tyson, Ali, Iverson, Ivanisevic. You wished you were at least half a percent like them.
Anthea: The biggest inspirations came from popular American TV series, sports and popular music. I was obsessed with Sade, Celine Dion, the Jacksons and legendary female groups such as TLC, All Saints and Destiny’s Child. For us living in Croatia, we didn’t have any references or stars even close to these artists. For us, these artists were like gods. I also looked up to the '90s supermodels, they were so empowering at the time, as a matter of fact, they still are! It was like nothing you’ve ever seen before. They had it all: the looks, the personalities, the enigmatic auras, style. They were like palpable, living superheroes.
How does this collection fit into the larger trajectory of your brand’s evolution?
Tomo: "Day One" began the story and introduced most of our core pieces and values. "Day Two: Star-Studded Misfire," sets the tone for the future, defining conceptual points such as developing collections focused on main color pairs, constantly testing the limits of textile production, while further developing our love letters to the '90s pulpy, unforgettable, yet deeply nostalgic sentiments. This collection taught us how to properly develop things, operative as well as concept-wise, and serves as a kicker for what is to come.
Anthea: This is a step into our adolescence of sorts; it’s an inflection point for the brand. This is the inaugural sequel collection, one following an explosive start and with it, representing a big burden on our shoulders. With "Day Two" we have defined what the core of Milli Point Two is and what we want from the brand going forwards.
What’s next for you after this collection?
Tomo: Well, the next collection, of course! We’re already heavy in the works of developing the next line. But overall, we’re taking a brief respite from the extremely busy year, and will debrief with the team, collect our losses and celebrate our wins, while contemplating the things we have learned in this turbulent past period. We ourselves are curious about what's in store for next year, but one thing I know for sure is that there will be some nice clothes to take home.
Anthea: You always think you’re going to be smarter for the next thing and crush it without breaking to much sweat, but it’s always just a bag of surprises, and a set of completely new challenges to tackle. What’s next for MPT? First, a mental and physical reset, and then a resumption of work on the next collection to bring more novelty and (hopefully) more hope. We are on a long path of developing our passions and visions, further beyond anything we believed was possible. After all, that's really the only path forward for Milli Point Two now.
Photos courtesy of Milli Point Two
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