Designer John Scher and creative partner Deedo Lo launched the knitwear line Ca$hmere in the fall of 2006. Think of the cardigans, hoodies, and pullovers they’ve turned out since then as an antidote to some of menswear’s more muted tendencies—turbocharged splashes of DayGlo color; obsessive, edgy embroidery techniques; and boldly geometric, Futurism-on-speed prints and patterns (it’s no coincidence that Scher consults with a rotating cast of contemporary artists each season). With a Ca$hmere sale set to launch today on Gilt MAN, we talked to Scher about the biggest style mistake a man can make, the importance of being humorous, and the merits of…leather pants?

Your clothes have a playful, sometimes irreverent sense of humor about them—not something we see that often in menswear. Do guys take themselves too seriously when it comes to getting dressed?
I think men need to have a little bit of a laugh every day, and that’s exactly what we try to provide. We want guys to be able to loosen up. Some of life’s most boring realities are: You have to wake up, you have to brush your teeth, and you have to put something on. We try and make that an enjoyable experience, and bring a little personality to the everyday.

So was there a hole you were looking to fill in menswear, when you started the line?
I think men’s is a very basic business—it’s about a stripe, or a check, or a solid. So we felt that there was some personality missing from the market. And our customer puts the clothes together in very different sorts of ways—a guy in his twenties wears it very differently than a guy who’s going to put it with a tie, or wear it under a jacket.

So who is your customer?
I think it’s anyone who just wants to wake up with a smile, who wants to keep himself amused. It doesn’t have to be boring to wake up every day. We took things from a very graphic point of view—we took the idea of a T-shirt and translated it into knitwear. So instead of wearing a funky T-shirt, you can wear a cool sweater—it was a different category we could express ourselves in.

Why knitwear?
I looked at the market, and I felt that knitwear in itself is a very easy, basic thing. If it’s in cashmere or lightweight wool, you can wear it under a jacket; if it’s a denser-gauged knit you can wear that on its own, as your jacket. We thought it was a great untapped category, because everything was so basic and simple and, frankly, boring. We wanted to inject a little life into it.

What are the biggest style mistakes guys make on a daily basis?
They can’t step out of their box and express their own personalities. They feel trapped in that prism of skinny jeans, black jacket, gray T-shirt…

I’ve noticed several models in your lookbook images wearing leather pants. Really, is that ever okay?
I think if you’ve got style, you can pull anything off; if you believe in it, you can do it. Who is the judge of good taste? You just have to be enjoying what you’re wearing. That’s a huge part of shopping. So if you want to wear some, I don’t know, crazy pleated cape or something, then that’s up to you.

So next up from Ca$hmere: crazy pleated capes.
Exactly. [laughs] Maybe those are next to be seen on Gilt!

Ca$hmere, on sale today at noon ET on Gilt MAN.