How I Tore the Golden Handcuffs Off and Created the Most Unique Menswear Store in the DMV
My curiosity has driven me toward a wide range of professional directions. When I was a student at St. Stephens & St. Agnes a little over a decade ago, I was sure I would be a chemist. It took a single week of Amherst College chemistry to disabuse me of this. I knew I didn’t want to go the cookie-cutter finance route that all my lacrosse teammates were going, and I was too late for that ridiculously early recruiting timeline anyway.
My interests shifted to psychology, then barely with enough semesters left to major in it, again to Economics and Industrial Organization. I loved this and eventually got a litigation consulting job that actually utilized exactly what I learned from my liberal arts degree – how many people can say that?
I settled into that firm, fat and happy, knowing that would be my career, then COVID hit. The work slowed down and career progression with it. I was spending nearly all day and night in the same room, without much to do other than browse YouTube. I stumbled upon a Japanese Shoemaker’s channel and was transfixed by the beauty of his craft. I was hooked – I had to do this for myself and began losing sleep over how I couldn’t.
Even more than the physical challenge of finding all the tools, materials, workshop space, and learning the skills, I was paralyzed by the gratitude that I had for my current job. It was not lost on me how lucky I was to have an extremely well-paying job that allowed me to work remotely at a time when so many were struggling to make ends meet under locked down conditions. Who would I be to throw that away for a frivolous pursuit like shoemaking?
At the same time, through my other interest in American history, I came across the story of James Lucey, a Northampton, Massachusetts shoemaker who became friends with a Young Calvin Coolidge while he studied at nearby Amherst College. When Coolidge eventually became president in 1923, he sent a letter to his old friend thanking him for his kindness and wisdom.
"I want you to know that if it were not for you I should not be here.” Coolidge wrote to Lucey.
This was the spark I needed. There was a lowly shoemaker having such an impact on a young man that he eventually became President. This was proof that I could find dignity in a dying craft and not just sitting behind a keyboard. I have a constant reminder of this hung up outside of the entrance to my workshop, a photo of James Lucey in his workshop gazing upon the presidential portrait of his friend with as much dignity in his eyes as in the eyes of Coolidge sitting for posterity.
James Lucey - Coolidge's shoemaker in Northampton
It was and remains a years’ long process to reach this goal of being a shoemaker. The trade is so untenable in the United States due to lack of training opportunities, tool and material suppliers, and skilled artisans, that my roadmap is more circuitous than you’d expect. In the short term, I need a way to subsidize the trade until it reaches a certain scale to have some minor efficiencies and create a broader platform to grow my brand. That’s why I’ve created Old House Provisions, a menswear store dedicated to products made by artisans, workshops, and small factories that put an inordinate amount of attention on quality in the same way I do when I make my clients’ bespoke shoes.
Conveniently, nothing like Old House Provisions exists in the D.C. area. Even throughout the world, I can only think of two or three similar examples of stores that sell both ready-to-wear offerings to a broad audience while maintaining a traditional bespoke offering to drive the heart and soul of the business.
I don’t put my label on anything except the shoes I make, choosing instead to highlight the makers and designers that create the pieces that I just curate. These brands are usually small productions specializing in one thing, often producing white labeled goods for globally recognizable “luxury” brands that then mark up the retail prices to an outrageous degree. For that reason, it’s rare to find these brands in other stores or to even have heard of them. There are even a couple for which Old House Provisions is the only U.S. based retailer. There’s a downside to this. Since people don’t seek them out, stocking brands like this don’t drive traffic as much as more recognizable, cheaper brands.
For better or worse, I’m a shoemaker, not a salesman, so I can only sell things that I actually believe are exceptional quality, and it’s just a fact that most of the good stuff these days is produced in the background by those focusing more on perfecting their product than perfecting their marketing pitch.
The other benefit of my product mix is that despite its high level of quality, it’s very tasteful and approachable stylistically. I’m not someone who basis their personality on how many accessories I can pair with a visually loud, flamboyant suit. I’m a shoemaker and entrepreneur, so I don’t have the time or desire to go through five outfits in the morning before picking one.
Like most men, I like to grab the first thing my hand touches in my closet and get on out the door. So all the pieces I have are easy to wear, whether you need to dress casually or a little more formally on any given day. The clothing at OHP is elevated but unfussy.
Americans consistently decry the lack of quality in today’s goods, but don’t actually buy well made goods when it comes time to make a purchase. You’ve likely even said this yourself about that car, appliance, furniture, etc. that seems like it was designed to fail and thrown out rather than being serviced. Planned obsolescence is frustratingly and undeniably pervasive in our modern lives. Economists say this purchasing behavior has to do with prioritizing price over quality, preference falsification, and all the rest. I think it has more to do with just how dang hard it is to find truly good stuff in a sea of trash.
Well, here’s your chance to buy quality right here in the center of Old Town and support the revival of a dying artisanal craft in the process. Come visit us at Old House Provisions at 315A Cameron Street!
SEE ALSO: Street Style: Meet Drew Altizer of Old House Provisions
