Timo Weiland and Alan Eckstein, the design minds behind Timo Weiland, grew their business from a modest neckwear line into a full women's and men's apparel collection. The two young talents had no formal design training, yet they've already shown at New York Fashion Week where their collections were met widely with praise. Needless to say, Timo and Alan were able to make great strides early in the game.

How did Timo and Alan meet success at such a young age? What was the catalyst to their rising in rank? What's their secret to "getting ahead young?" Lookbooks sat down with the design duo to shed some light on these questions and more.

Largely, our generation has struggled in finding its career focus. How were you able to find your passion early?

Timo Weiland: I think it takes a few stabbing in other directions. It is really lucky and fortunate to have found it this early, and it’s more rare than I thought at first. The more people I talk to, the more I realize that most are clueless.

For us, we were always picking up the art magazines, fashion magazines and music. All of that came into specific gifts that we had, which maybe others don’t have that are in this realm.

What was the motivation behind starting this? Was it making a great product, or following this amazing set of skills you have, or was it turning a profit?

Alan Eckstein: You can’t do anything without passion. You eventually have to make money to sustain your business and life, so that’s definitely a focus. But it’s about creating a great product. It’s about creating a brand that’s going to be here forever. It’s a consistent, everyday maintaining of the brand.

TW: We take every step very seriously, and we are very intentional.

In your mind, what was the tipping point that brought you from one level to the next? Was it a person you met, or was it more hard work and pushing it in front of people?

TW: A little bit of both. Initially, it was our first appointment with Barney’s when they picked up our first collection. It was really, really crucial. Also our first time going to the Vogue offices. It takes time to gain traction with magazines. We’re finally now where we have friendships, and we’re being pulled for every shoot. And whether it makes it into the magazine or not, there’s still that opportunity.

You have to make progress in ways that you may not see immediate results. Eventually when you’re applying for the fashion fund from Vogue or when you’re accepted into CFDA, they’re already aligned with you. It’s an alliance that starts off small.

At the level you're at, you have more things at your fingertips and there’s obvious temptations. How do you keep your focus?

TW: I always ask myself: "Will this be worthwhile?". For example, last night I could’ve looked at it as just a party. But it wasn’t just a party. I was the guest of a Vogue editor. You can go out and party and just make it a drunken night, or you can go and have conversations you can learn from.

AE: Timo has this gift, actually, for taking advantage of every situation to the best degree. Timo goes out a lot, not socially, but professionally. He always takes in something, and it’s always beneficial.

TW: Even last night was a dinner honoring the musician Phillip Glass. Phillip was playing for a small group of people. It was enlightening and inspiring, especially because he’s my favorite living composer. That’s why a lot of people in the industry go out every night I think. There’s a lot of people and a lot of power.

It seems so hard to gain traction initially. What were some challenges starting out?

AE: It’s being taken seriously.

TW: Getting an appointment. Even setting up an initial appointment.

AE: Timo and I always had our goals. We always knew which doors we wanted to be in. We knew which editors we wanted to meet. We knew which publications we wanted to be in. So it’s always about meeting those goals and what kind of quality of product we wanted to create.

We had an idea of our girl and our guy from the beginning. The struggles were about the evolution and getting to where we wanted to be. I think we wanted so much when we first started out that we set the bar pretty high for ourselves. We’re dealing with the same struggles today, but we’re fortunate to have a start that we’re happy with.

Starting out being young, what kind of people do you think it's important to have in your corner?

TW: We received advice from a designer named Adam Lippes, who’s amazing, very successful and very knowledgeable. The CEO of the company who invested in him has also kind of been a mentor to us, the CEO of Kellwood. Michael Cohen, as well.

AE: It really should be about a group of people we want in our corner, some of which we actually have some and others who we don’t.

TW: Some of which we’ve never met before.

AE: Someone like Andrew Rosen. And then it’s also someone like Glen O’Brien, who’s seen every aspect of culture come together, whether it’s music, fashion or art. And someone who really knows the business of creation. It’s a mix of who you want to inspire you, who you want to go to business with and who you can sit back and relax with.

What advice can you give other young men and women who are grinding everyday, trying to find their place in the industry?

AE: That’s a very big question.

TW: Have your own voice. Have your own clear vision. If you don’t know what the vision is then no one else will know what it is either. Don’t be afraid to get started and give it a go. Fail. Have something go out of business. But once you have a failure under your belt, you’re that much more likely to succeed the next time around.

AE: Learn from every single step, a success or a failure. Take it all in and seek advice from other people. Be honest. Seek advice and tell them exactly what’s going on and what you want to accomplish. If you can avoid mistakes through people who’ve been there, you’ll end up saving money and time.

TW: Learn from other people’s mistakes, such as a mentor who did some catastrophic kind of thing. Listen to it and avoid it at all costs.

For more on Timo and Alan, visit TimoWeiland.com.