It’s been one year since Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez moved to Paris to take on the role of creative director at the craft-focused brand Loewe, and the duo is still adjusting to their new life in the City of Lights. “I'd hardly call us Parisians,” McCollough said. “We've got a lot of work to do with our French.”

Linguistic obstacles aside, the pair has already made a big impression with their first two collections, which Hernandez sums up as “taking those codes of American sportswear—like the T-shirt, the jean, the bomber jacket—and then putting them through the filter of high craft, specifically leathercraft.” They’ve swiftly established principles for their tenure: poppy colors, trompe l’oeil fabric innovations, and sleek silhouettes that marry their American point of view to Loewe's technical capabilities. “It's been really lovely just diving into a new world,” Hernandez tells Nicole Phelps on this week’s episode of The Run-Through. “Just having this opportunity to kind of start from scratch in a way.”

McCollough and Hernandez made their names two decades ago with their line Proenza Schouler, which helped shape the downtown cool-girl uniform of the era: casual yet elevated, arty without being pretentious. They were very much a part of the fabric of New York’s fashion scene, so it was something of a shock when it was announced that they would decamp to Paris for this new adventure. Still, they’ve taken the challenge head-on, adding a jolt of American ease and fun to the brand. “We love the idea of not being shy of our roots,” Hernandez says. “That felt really important to us, to celebrate that.”

On this week’s episode, McCollough and Hernandez tell Phelps about settling into life in their adopted city and their forthcoming menswear collection—a first for the pair. “It's a bit more personal,” Hernandez said. When you're designing womenswear, obviously, we're not women, so you're projecting and fantasizing a little bit about who she is. It's a projection. And it's one layer removed as men designing menswear.”

Plus, the pair discuss the Loewe Craft Prize, now in its ninth edition. The program, run through Loewe’s non-profit arm, seeks to elevate craftspeople from various disciplines and has been an eye-opening initiative for the pair to take part in. “I think what's so beautiful about craft is that it really teaches you to slow down,” says McCollough. “It's really the art of slowing down.”

“It's just so nice to be working at a company that celebrates this kind of thing,” Hernandez agreed. “I think it's quite rare these days. So it's been very fulfilling.”