Alex Carleton

Who is Alex Carleton?

Alex Carleton is an American clothing and home-goods designer based in Portland, Maine. He is the founder of Rogues Gallery and is the creative director of an L.L. Bean capsule brand, L.L. Bean Signature. His work is strongly identified with incorporating New England and maritime culture into contemporary style trends.

Carleton grew up on Cape Cod and attended the Cambridge School in Weston, MA as well as Sarah Lawrence College.

After working for a short time in a Boston furniture repair shop, Carleton began his design career in New York at Polo Ralph Lauren where he was a senior designer. He did design and branding for Abercrombie & Fitch. He moved to Maine in 1999.

Carleton started Rogues Gallery in 2003 as a side project while he was working for L.L. Bean. Rogues Gallery's T-shirts pioneered the trend toward highly designed graphic T-shirts and were quickly noted in the pages of Vogue and eventually on a number of celebrity clients. Rogues Gallery store and website has since been closed.

Carleton was nominated for GQ designer of the year in 2009. That same year he began working on developing the new L.L. Bean Signature line.