How K8 Hardy Got Jenna Lyons to Wear a Dress

When Jenna Lyons and brand-new wifey Cass Bird called up K8 Hardy from beneath the sheets, it was nothing the New York-based, Texan artist hadn’t seen before. “I’ve been put on this earth to share time with you,” Bird, a photographer, joked about their ongoing artist-muse relationship, stretching all the way back to 1997. Their most recent collab honors Hardy’s current obsession with women’s workwear: in her new collection of reimagined house dresses and “K8” printed tights, Hardy and Lyons posed for Bird’s lens and then caught up on Zoom about fabric TikToks, power lesbians, and showing their underpants.

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K8 HARDY: Hi.

JENNA LYONS: Cass is recovering.

HARDY: Good, Cass. I was hoping you’d be on the call. Are y’all in Austin?

LYONS: We are in Austin. How are you feeling?

HARDY: I’m exhausted. I don’t think I’ve ever hustled this hard.

LYONS: Really? What’s going on? I actually don’t know how hard you’re hustling. Please share. 

HARDY: It’s so hard to make a dress, Jenna. Jesus.

LYONS: I know. I will say that I was walking down the street the other day and who do I see on the side of a giant mailbox? Us.

HARDY: That’s so cute.

CASS BIRD: Yeah, Pati [Hertling] and I went around the city and wheat pasted a few times and I was like, “I know where we got to go.” It’s a little love letter to y’all. K8, I was trying to remember when you started being the subject that I objectified. Was it the late ’90s?

HARDY: It was ’97, I think. I remember the first time you shot me on that swing by the pond on the Smith campus. It felt really good, Cass. It was a new feeling.

BIRD: I mean, just tell me when and where.

LYONS: Wow. She doesn’t say that to anyone. 

BIRD: She’s not anyone.

HARDY: Yeah. But dealing with the factory was crazy, and the tech packs and measuring.

LYONS: Have you ever done that before?

HARDY: No.

LYONS: I’m impressed that you just took the leap of faith, because it’s so hard. I think everyone underestimates the amount of detail that goes into clothing. You have to pick the zipper, but how long is the zipper? What color is the zipper? What color is the zipper tape? What does the stitching look like? It’s a lot.

HARDY: It was crazy. I mean, Andrew Harmon was awesome. 

LYONS: Oh, Andy. I love him.

HARDY: He kind of took the house dress and made it elevated. 

LYONS: How many are you making?

HARDY: I made 200. They’re on my site now, but I haven’t announced it. I don’t want to wear people out. 

LYONS: No pun intended.

HARDY: It’s a different kind of hustle. I’m not used to asking for things in this very direct way. I know that’s kind of weird, but—

LYONS: No, it’s not. I totally understand. [Dog enters the frame] This is Papa.

HARDY: Who’s that?

LYONS: This is our friend’s dog who’s basically guarding us in the bed. It’s very sweet. Are you going to make anything else or is the house dress the pièce de résistance?

HARDY: I have another color on pre-order in case it pops off, but I want to do it in a few different patterns. I feel like the cut is nice and classic. I’d love to do it in a chintz.

LYONS: Oh, I love chintz. Or a toile. 

HARDY: Toile’s not very now, is it?

LYONS: Because chintz is? I don’t think toile’s ever been now.

HARDY: No, it had a moment like 20 years ago. I somehow had a jacket in toile.

LYONS: At the same time as chintz. What about a gingham or a seersucker? Well, that’s too summery. You could do a little tweed one, but you’d have to line it and change the color. I could think of a million other ways. You could do a tailored suiting one in a beautiful tropical wool and make it feel like you could actually wear it to work.

HARDY: I love suiting.

LYONS: There you go. House dress into day dress.

 

HARDY: That’s a really good idea. Get that riri zipper.

LYONS: Oh, look at you.

HARDY: You told me about that zipper and I remembered. I had the YKK and you were like—

LYONS: Time to turn it up a notch. You could also do a gorgeous denim one. Then as it washes down, it’ll look chic. Sorry, all I want to do is just think about—

BIRD: I think you guys continue like this, and then I’ll continue to document the house dress.

LYONS: It’s the new wrap dress.

HARDY: Yeah. I’m a little obsessed with house dresses. Men’s workwear is so popular. Everyone wants to emulate Dickies or Carhartt. But where’s women’s workwear? Also, there’s not even really a manufacturer of the house dress the way there is for men’s workwear. It’s a very homemade thing. A lot of the ones I’ve collected are so homemade and weird.

LYONS: Yeah. But that’s inherently connected to women’s role in the workplace. It’s fun to look at the difference between Japanese workwear and American workwear and the way they’re constructed. They didn’t use scaffolding the way we did. So all of their pants had these huge drop crotches so that they can lift their legs and climb, whereas a lot of our stuff was made for construction and heavier things. I think workwear is great, but other than when the war was happening, Rosie the Riveter and that whole vibe, finding post-war jumpsuits that women wore is hard.

HARDY: Do you think that they made women’s jumpsuits or that the women wore men’s jumpsuits?

LYONS: I don’t know enough about that era. They looked like they were made for women. 

HARDY: I mean, women could all alter their clothes back then anyways.

LYONS: Yes. The only thing is that it’s really hard to make an armhole smaller. You can make a waist smaller, but you can’t make an armhole smaller because the hole is cut. You can’t raise the crotch either. Once that’s scooped out, it’s over. And these definitely looked more tailored, so there might be something there. That could be your next wave.

HARDY: Yeah. I love a onesie. Sometimes I wear a dress and people are like, “Oh, wow. You really got dressed.” And I’m like, “Why shouldn’t I just put on one item of clothing? It’s easier.”

LYONS: That’s why people like dresses and jumpsuits. 

HARDY: One thing I thought about while making this was my grandmother, who worked at the Dickies factory in Fort Worth.  She dropped out of middle school and moved to Fort Worth and worked in the Dickies factory as a teen.

LYONS: She dropped out of middle school?

HARDY: Yeah. She grew up on the res in Oklahoma.

LYONS: Wow.

HARDY: I was really thinking about her. I have Dickies on right now.

BIRD: I remember you in Dickies when I met you.

 

HARDY: And there was a huge discount Dickies store in Fort Worth. But I never asked her, “What did you do in the factory?” You know, all these questions that you never asked your grandma.

LYONS: I’m sorry. Maybe you could work that angle to get a tour of the Dickies factory and say, “My grandmother worked here,” and then maybe do a collab with Dickies.

HARDY: Yeah. I looked at their womenswear a little bit.

LYONS: The thing that’s always hard is that menswear is always cut straight, which I think is flattering, but womenswear is always overly nipped and shaped for a woman’s body. I don’t know, I want it a little bit nipped, but I don’t want it overly nipped. 

HARDY: I was really specific about the top of the house dress being cut straight and—

LYONS: Not all shaped and fitted with darts. What I really want more of is K8 tights.

HARDY: Didn’t I give you a pair at the shoot?

LYONS: Yeah. I didn’t say I didn’t get a pair. I said I’d like more.

HARDY: There’s a package at your place, I gave you black knee-highs. The tights, especially the knee-highs, were really popular at the pop-up.

LYONS: I didn’t know there were knee-highs. I feel a little bit left out.

HARDY: Yeah, I’m not a good capitalist. I’m not the best at getting the message out. 

LYONS: That’s okay. We should focus on doing it seasonally. Do one that’s warmer, and think ahead about the idea for the summer. That’s my creative direction.

HARDY: Totally. I have to find a fabulous fabric. That’s what I’m after right now.

LYONS: You could do an evening one. A lamé or something.

HARDY: I love the suiting idea. 

LYONS: I love suiting too. I have been doing all these PSAs about fabrics, and I’m literally in the middle of doing one about suiting right now. The difference between woolen and worsted.

HARDY: People love those, and I do too. I watch them two or three times. I’m like, “Okay, yeah.”

LYONS: It was Cass’s idea.

BIRD: It was my idea. All this information about fabric that I can’t even comprehend.

HARDY: It’s such a good idea. Everyone talks about it. When I show people the photos, they’re like, “I love her fabric videos.”  

LYONS: That’s so cute. Let me do the worsted versus woolen one before you start looking for fabrics so that you understand the difference.

HARDY: Yeah. I know a little bit about wool because I knit and everything, but it’s different.

LYONS: Yeah. Right now it’s 100-percent cotton, isn’t it?

HARDY: Yes, it is. 

LYONS: A yarn dye cotton. The yarns are dyed and then woven together.

HARDY: Yes, darlings. And then I have this Hertling patch on it. It’s a riff on Pati’s family’s moving company in Germany. It’s very fun, a bit phallic. There was something so perfect about the font.

LYONS: I remember you telling us this. 

 

HARDY: I think I might do a pop-up in Berlin in a moving truck.

LYONS: That’s cute. And I think that we could also do a line of accessories to go with it.

BIRD: Like a jockstrap?

LYONS: No.

HARDY: A sports bra.

BIRD: Yes, a sports bra.

LYONS: It could be cute if there was a matching underwear and bra and little bloomers and a little triangle string underwear.

HARDY: My grandmother used to make me dresses and then she would make me matching bloomers in the same fabric to go over my panties. And sometimes I blame her for my exhibitionism because when I was young, I had to show everyone my matching panties. I had to lift up my skirt all the time.

LYONS: You had to.

HARDY: The bloomers matched exactly.

LYONS: When I was at J. Crew, we used to make something called the playground short. It was a little simple short that could go on over underwear so that when kids were out on the playground, they didn’t have to worry about their skirts flying up. This could be your adult version of the playground short.

HARDY: My niece always has a little comfortable pair of shorts on under everything. You don’t have to stress.

LYONS: It could be woven, which would be cute, with a little ruffle edge.

BIRD: And a matching sports bra and bloomer.

HARDY: I love it. Well, I really appreciate y’all taking time.

BIRD: Oh, shut up, K8. I’ve been put on this earth to share time with you. And we need more photo shoots.

HARDY: Cass, your prints went live on Phillips Dropshop today.

BIRD: Oh, cool.

HARDY: There are two prints, and they’re gorgeous.

LYONS: I love this picture of Cass. Who took this picture?

BIRD: It’s a self-portrait.

LYONS: And I love this picture of you too, baby. When is this from?

BIRD: Maybe Fria took this picture.

LYONS: Wow, fancy. I definitely wasn’t her girlfriend [yet].

BIRD: What are you saying? 

LYONS: Nothing.

BIRD: You’re my—

LYONS: Nothing.

BIRD: K8.

HARDY: Yes.

BIRD: We eloped unofficially.

HARDY: Putting us on record right now.

BIRD: Well, it’s kind of like when you and your friends in first grade go out to the field and your friend marries you.

LYONS: Except there was a legal officiant.

BIRD: It was spontaneous.

HARDY: In Marfa?

BIRD: Yeah.

HARDY: I can see it. Next time y’all go to Texas, I need to come and power-lez out.

BIRD: You really do. I want you to come to El Cosmico.

LYONS: It’s actually incredible. We went to the ground breaking. They’re doing the new thing where they’re digitally printing all the homes. This company called Icon is literally printing homes out of concrete in all these amorphic shapes and they’re so beautiful. It should be ready in 2026, but we can come back next year just to hang out.

HARDY: That would be amazing.