San Francisco Street - Meet Houman

Images by Vanguard - San Francisco

Meeting new, innovate men is always a huge inspiration for me. This week, Houman was visiting from New York. I had the pleasure of meeting him at the Harput’s Market afterparty for the Arts of Fashion week. Luckily we hit it off and spent the entire next afternoon loitering in bus stops and hitting up nearly every thrift store between the Mission and SoMa. This naturally resulted in me producing two very heavy bags (but happily spending under $40). Houman was even so friendly to assist me in dragging a dresser down the block. Thank god.

What I find particularly motivating about Houman’s style is that every detail has been thought out and altered in some way. Whereas I usually recommend layering edgy pieces among a foundation of basics (with the intent of finding a way to balance strong expression and at least a little social acceptability), Houman goes all out – just f***ing owning it, no questions asked. The key here seems to be to question everything for every garment. Not only is the fit of each item pushed, but the details too. Notice the off-white blouse. Designed, to be skewed at the bottom, it also features shoulder pads, unusual buttons and collar, while also being a fabric not traditionally used in menswear. This idea of questioning everything is used throughout, allowing no single piece to beacon towards the ordinary: the fit of the pants are altered, the shoes are ridiculously amazing, his jacket creates unique proportions, and even the wrap he wears over the jacket maintains a dramatic sense.

One thing I found particularly interesting while shopping with Houman was when he made a brief statement about how he avoids studying trend and prefers developing his own personal style outside of it. This is something I think a lot about. Many people try to avoid trend, but trend has such implications in both fashion and culture - whether you are an underground avant-guardian or a mainstream mall shopper - that I wonder if it is truly possible for anyone to move themselves outside of it. It does remind me, however, of Walter Van Beirendonck who commonly states that his priority is developing his own artistic style, and how that means sometimes being in style and sometimes being out of style. Granted, I think Houman was talking about smaller trend specifics while Van Beirendonck was looking at the larger picture, but I wanted somewhere to bring this topic up.

Meeting guys like Houman reminds me that pushing your fashion expression is a job that is never finished: everyone keeps growing, maturing, and changing and suddenly there is a new style bar to reach…it also reminds me that I have a lot of shopping to do.