OLIVIER ZAHM — Carly, why is your label called Puppets and Puppets? It’s an amazing name. Is it ironic?

CARLY MARK — It is. I think it’s pretty multilayered. At the surface level, it’s the name of my dog. I have a rescue Chihuahua-terrier named Puppet. So, the brand is named after him, but he is named after the antihero in the anime Ghost in the Shell, the Puppet Master, a villain who hacked the brains of half-human, half-AI characters. I also have a tattoo that says “Puppet Master.” I had the tattoo before I had the dog.

OLIVIER ZAHM — That film is amazing. It offers a new perspective on the future.

CARLY MARK — Oh, it’s amazing. Because, isn’t that what we’re moving toward? Right now, there is a separation between brain and iPhone, but at a certain point, that won’t be the case. So, the Puppet Master relates to fashion in a way.

ALEPH MOLINARI — The models are a bit like puppets. You are the puppet master who creates these puppets.

CARLY MARK — Exactly. It’s a control thing. [Laughs] I’m a control freak, at the end of the day. So, it’s a multilayered name, and on top of all of that, it’s also funny.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Because there’s a sense of humor in your fashion.

ALEPH MOLINARI — From the cookie bags to the porcelain clogs, the flowers… It’s a bit of a parody as well.

CARLY MARK — Yes, because when I started doing this, I wasn’t trained in fashion. I went to school for art. So, I don’t think from a fashion perspective. My angle is making art objects, and I’ve moved toward production and all of the standard things needed to build a brand. But my education — and the root of all this — is art-making, not typical fashion.

OLIVIER ZAHM — And it’s very New York, too, because art is connected to fashion in a way in New York, especially Downtown New York.

CARLY MARK — Yes, because here we have to be a bit scrappier. The young designers are a bit rough around the edges because we’re just trying to get things done. There’s a divide between young designers and corporate commercial brands.

OLIVIER ZAHM — A big gap.

CARLY MARK — Possibly a bigger gap than in other cities. So, it becomes more of an art practice for young designers in New York because it has to be. We just have to get it done in any way possible.

OLIVIER ZAHM — And in New York, there’s also a tradition of performance art, such as Jack Smith. There’s a real history of performances, where you need to dress up, find the costume, the looks. But also, nightlife is important. Is that something that you can relate to — this history of performance?

CARLY MARK — Yeah. I’m from Michigan, and when I was growing up in the Midwest, I was obsessed with Limelight and Party Monster and Leigh Bowery — and just seeing all of these people dressing up and creating personas to go out at night and feel freedom, liberation. As a young, creative person living in a conservative community in the Midwest, I saw these people, and nothing seemed freer to me than that. I really gravitated toward New York because of this.

OLIVIER ZAHM — And how did you have access to this? Through the Internet? This was 10 years ago?

CARLY MARK — No, it was in the 2000s. I was so hungry for culture, and I was constantly searching. I don’t even know how I came across Party Monster, but I think I somehow found Chloë Sevigny and looked into what she did. I started connecting dots. I remember going on eBay and finding a copy of Party Monster. I was just searching. In my senior year of high school, I would sneak out of the house and go downtown to concerts, and I saw M.I.A. perform. And then when I moved to New York, there was a whole scene that was going on here. Everyone is rehashing it now. Like indie sleaze, and then the Beatrice opened. I just followed the breadcrumbs.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Do you remember the first time you arrived in New York? What was it like? You were 20?

CARLY MARK — Eighteen. It was crazy.

OLIVIER ZAHM — In 2005?

CARLY MARK — No, 2006. We used to go to Salon. I was really good friends with all the LA kids who would DJ at Salon, like Matt Creedon and Austin Peters and Harley Viera-Newton. I used to go to all the parties that those people would go to, and it was such a different time. New York is so different now.

OLIVIER ZAHM — But nightlife remains a real creative resource in New York, no? It’s a place where you can meet people, where you can start collaborative projects.

CARLY MARK — Going out, you meet people, and then you end up working together. I think that’s the best way to build working relation- ships in New York.

OLIVIER ZAHM — New York, in that sense, has a collaborative energy, don’t you think?

CARLY MARK — Yes, absolutely. If you get out of the house, you meet people. I mean, that’s how we met. You just have to leave the house, and you end up working together. I don’t know what it’s like in other cities because I’ve never lived anywhere else, but that’s exactly what it’s like here.

ALEPH MOLINARI — And that’s something you also feel in the fashion world — that sense of community, where make-up artists, models, and stylists are all part of this community?

CARLY MARK — Yes, and I think each brand builds its own community. And there are different communities around each brand, and they’re all connected and overlap. But the Puppets community is very specific to me and my friend group. All of the young designers, like Vaquera or Telfar, build their community. And they all have a very specific voice because it’s the voice of the people running the brands. My community is made up of my very close friends, like Richie Shazam, Caroline Polachek, Hayden Dunham, and people whom I’ve just met and love over the years. I think there’s a lot of genuine­ ness to the com­munities around the young designers in New York. We’re so not corporate, and by being outside of the American market, we have the opport­unity to do whatever we want and interact with anyone we want. There’s a cool factor to New York that I don’t think you see necessarily in Paris.