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Descendant of Thieves is a New York City based menswear brand founded by creative duo Dres Ladro and Matteo Maniatty in 2009. The brand is known for it’s razor sharp slim fits, distinct engineering, and unexpected ‘quiet’ details, lending a unique yet approachable angle to men’s fashion. Each garment is designed from the inside out and marked with a distinctive blazing yellow label.

The Name
The name Descendant of Thieves is inspired by designer Dres Ladro. The word “Ladro” translated from Italian, means thief.

Inside Out Design Philosophy
Dres Ladro’s philosophy is that of reverse engineering— to create from the inside out, paying relentless attention to intricacies of the interior first. Each garment’s interior is lined with hidden messages, trimmings, and labels that list the number of units manufactured per style. The intention of this approach is to build an item more intrinsic and designed for someone who is effortlessly stylish. Fabrics used in the collections come from all corners of the globe, ranging from Japanese brushed and printed cottons, to American developed stretch fabrics.

Wear Someone’s Else’s Brand
The brand admits that it is not interested in designing for the masses. The intention is that “the few styles in circulation go to the true individuals, the independent thinkers, those who are the needle and not the haystack. If this is not you, wear someone else’s brand.” Each season the brand predetermines a limited number of units to be made per style, with an average circulating around 320 units. Each individual garment lists the number of units made per style as well as the date the garment was made. Due to these limited production runs, Descendant of Thieves is manufactured in small-scale sample rooms rather than conventional high output production lines.

The Logo
The logo is a dot that represents the acronym for Descendant of Thieves (D.O.T).

However, the logo in itself is a double entendre. After experimenting with multiple mediums to create the exact style of the dot, Dres eventually settled in ink. He was inspired by Hermann Rorschach’s physiological Inkblot test (described in Rorschach’s Psychodiagnostik book published in 1921). The final logo is an inkblot resembling a genealogy tree, inspired by the idea of being a descendant of thieves.

The Designer
Operating under a pen name, designer Dres Ladro [là-dro] insists on maintaining a lofty measure of anonymity to conceal his true identity. Like a pseudonymous author who hides between the lines of his book, Dres Ladro finds solace between the seams of his creations and prefers to keep a low personal profile.

Dres Ladro designs, constructs, and wears only his own creations, as to never shadow anyone else’s style. This line of thinking has carried into the brand and is the reason all items produced are limited editions.

Dres’s interest in apparel can be traced back to his childhood. As a young boy he would sneak into his father’s closet and steal his shirts. He would de-seam and reengineer the entire garment, tailoring it to his fit. He experimented with what he called “quiet” details, including discreet pockets, hidden messages and elastic top button tabs, which now lend to the distinct identity of the brand. Once Dres’ father discovered his son’s mischief with great disapproval he lashed out, calling him “Ladro” [Thief in Italian]. The vilified nickname stuck. To this day, his creative process descends from these younger years.

As an artist, Dres prefers to work through the quiet hours of the night in a forced state of insomnia. By playing with the delusional effects of sleep deprivation, Dres pushes himself to create garments that are not only novel in design, but are architecturally sound. Although initially reluctant, Dres was convinced to develop Descendant of Thieves based on the blueprints of his uniquely engineered designs.