At the core it’s about people: how they all come together at the right place and right time. I’m here to hear from Jake how he got here?

About 15 years ago I was sitting around my apartment, late-night drinking, and I’d say to my friends “I tell you what, guys, I’m going to start a tailoring business” and there’d be a few laughs. Now it’s been over 13 years of real business.

What I really like about a proper menswear store, and particularly yours, is that there’s always an atmosphere. You step off the street and there’s an ease, with the right people in the room. Everyone is enjoying themselves. What was it like in the early days when you first started?

I first started with a pop-up shop. I’ve always liked community, so it became a multi-brand store with a denim brand and a silversmith. Back in 2010 it was a hard time to open a business, but this gave us a special edge because we were coming at it with a DIY approach. Obviously, the economic climate created some problems but fortunately for me, the tailoring side is what took off. It can be a little difficult in a shared space. The denim side of the business was growing slowly, and the jewellery side was doing well but then they got involved in reality TV.

One of life’s many twists and turns!

Finally, I got to the point where I could open my own space. Today I have two locations here in the West Village. That little pop-up gave us a lot of pull as young fledgling designers.

What were you doing before opening the shop?

I’d finished at college studying design and I was working odd jobs. I’d done an apprenticeship, so was bartending and DJing. I’ve always been into music and loved playing all-vinyl nights — 60s rock and roll, punk, some 80s stuff, mixing it up. It was more about being a record geek than being a real technical DJ. I made a lot of friends, and it was a fun time. I still see a lot of those people as they stop by the store.

What was the apprenticeship you mentioned?

Custom stage clothing. Really wild stuff! I was working at Stella Zotis and we’d be making things for everyone from David Bowie and Debbie Harry to Bon Jovi and a whole load of others. Aesthetically, there’s not a lot in common with what I do now but in practice and ideology there’s a lot of similarity there in terms of heavily hand-crafted clothing. Really thinking not just about a person’s physique but also who they are and what the tour was about.

I understand you have a real drive for the clothing business. 

The underlying theme for me is the passion, rather than being a businessman but everything has grown very organically. This has allowed us to focus on what I really like. I go into each year saying “If I do as well as last year, I’d be happy”. There’s so much money being thrown around as investment in clothing brands, but these founders were wearing sweatpants before they started it.

This is what gets me too. Vote with your money. Go and support the people that are creating the kind of place you want to be in. We don’t need more mass produced, disposable products with no soul. We need to support people making a local culture.

Community, the people that work with me are curious and passionate. They’re people that walk through life really looking at things. I think it’s important to study your surroundings, especially when you’re travelling and not always comparing yourself to everyone back home. Approaching life with open arms. They’re the people that I really admire. They bring that to the table. It’s better to be going through life being open to the excitement.

How about you, what do you personally look for when ordering something new?

I have plenty of white and blue shirts so I’m looking at the seasonal collection — interesting colours, bolder stripes, unusual textures. These things are fun. As someone who has the basics covered, I’ll make a couple of shirts each season just because they’re particularly interesting. It makes it fun. Just trust your instincts. I like to play with tone-on-tone a lot. Then it’s the textures which create something interesting. I also buy a lot of vintage Levi’s. There’s a lot that happens to denim over 40 years but it’s hard to recreate so I bring in old denim to mix it up.

Like back in your DJing years. Stop by Jake’s shop sometime. You’ll find him and his team at 19 Christopher Street in the West Village, New York.

Photo credit: Elliot Hammer