Reginald Ferguson [00:00:00]: I'm Reg Ferguson and I'm a Fashion Consultant from New York City, born and raised. I've been helping men look fly for years and now, I wanna help you learn more about menswear, the entrepreneurs, the brands, and top fashion tips on The Fashion Geek Podcast. Reginald Ferguson [00:00:24]: Yo. This is Reg Ferguson, fashion geek number 1. I'm gonna do another episode right now straight off the dome. So I hope you enjoy it. Hope you bear with me. So I wanna talk about New York City fashion. So what does that mean? That means that this episode is gonna be highly subjective. But the good thing is it's coming from me. Reginald Ferguson [00:00:56]: And if you don't know, I'm a native New Yorker. So we are a fashion capital, which plots us on a world stage along with Italy and France. I don't think there's anybody else that comes close. It's us 3, and it's everyone else. Major designers come from here. Ralph Lauren, the Bronx. Calvin Klein, the Bronx. Donna Karan, born in Forest Hills, grew up in Woodmere, 5 towns. Reginald Ferguson [00:01:34]: Major stores are from here. Bloomingdale's, Bergdorf Goodman, Century 21. Rest in peace. Because we're a major metropolis, and especially a walking city, with the largest subway system in the world, it gives its citizenry an intimate look at each other. What are you rocking? How are you rocking it? What's your steez? We may have New York Fashion Week twice a year, but I'm here to tell you it's a battle out in these streets. Little kids have outfits that you wish you could find in your size. Drug addicts have sneakers that you don't have. With 9,000,000 people out here, you could see a whole variety of looks. Reginald Ferguson [00:02:27]: And I'm not necessarily gonna break all of them down, but I wanna give you a sample. Because in New York, here in the city, we don't just have one style. There's so many circles. The little kids, like I mentioned, skaters, artists, business people, dog walkers, the society set, vintage heads, models, sneaker heads, classic menswear, luxury, high low, streetwear. In some ways, we're monolithic. I think particularly from people viewing us from the outside, whether it's within North America or the world. But in other ways, I feel that we're highly differentiated. So I wanna talk about certain brands and items. Reginald Ferguson [00:03:20]: And, again, just a small sample, just doing it off the dome. But I wanna give you some wanna give you some nuggets in which New York City has put their stamp on. First of all, Tim's. Yep. Timberlands. Timberland owes us a great debt of gratitude, particularly in the eighties nineties when we were all sagging and bagging. New Yorkers know the boot that you need to floss, but also to protect yourself against the elements, is Timberland. And back then, rappers, that was the official footwear. Reginald Ferguson [00:04:19]: And it was just the official footwear of urban youth. And it wasn't just black and brown. It was just New York kids, and that's why Timberland will always be near and dear to my heart. Consider them the black man's Doc Martens. I didn't start rocking Tim's since childhood. That would be a falsehood. But I started rocking Tim's right after I graduated college here at NYU. And still to this day, yeah, I'm classic menswear guy, have 2 pair, The chocolate browns and these light ones that are like lace ups. Reginald Ferguson [00:05:10]: So it's like my home and away team. But we put that New England brand on the map, son. That's what New York does. Here's an interesting brand that we've put our stamp on. Vans. I know, particularly my California crew, what are we doing rocking vans? You know what we're doing? We're doing it well. But I must confess, I just never believed that brand would blow up here, but it's not exclusively to the skate community here. It's just kids wanting to rock a different steez that makes them fly, and I love looking at them. Reginald Ferguson [00:06:00]: And I'm gonna keep it real. I have a pair, but I have the slip ons in chambray. It's my summer sneaker. Yeah. That's not the one, I'm using to match my deck. I haven't rocked a skateboard. I haven't pushed 1 in, whoo, since elementary school. But, again, it is becoming a very dominant sneaker, a dominant brand here, and I applaud our ability to make it do a crossover that I don't know if the suits advance because they are suits now. Reginald Ferguson [00:06:44]: They're not just guys with T shirts and shorts. I don't know if they saw this coming, but I love looking at them, you know, particularly the I I don't know the numbers and all that stuff. I'm not that guy. Was it s k 8 and stuff? But to me, particularly the ones with the stripe, I've seen some flavors that if I didn't have an abundance of sneakers, I'd probably cop another pair. New York City is a Nike town. I know you know that. And we keep 2 lines particularly actually, more, but I just wanna talk about 2 in business. AF ones, we are crazy for AF ones. Reginald Ferguson [00:07:32]: You have to understand the terminology for a f ones in New York City, originally, they were called uptowns. Why? Because brothers and sisters in Harlem rock them strong. So we had to give them props. And, of course, that spread amongst the 5 boroughs. And I just love that this particular line has just been through and through from a fashion statement, and, really, this started out strictly as a basketball shoe. But, again, everything in fashion is about repurposing, interchanging, and I'm proud to have a pair of AF ones. And, of course, I have other Nikes as well. I'm gonna say this with gritted teeth. Reginald Ferguson [00:08:32]: We also do major business with Jordans. I'm not part of that. I'm a Knick fan. I refuse to wear them. Jordan. I like him till he started beating my team down. But getting into just the ubiquity of them here in the city, really, the AF ones and the Jordans, all the different colorways. Now with Jordans, there's just so many now. Reginald Ferguson [00:09:06]: I've lost count of the Roman numeral, and I never really was counting since I'm 1st generation Jordan and AF 1. But, again, that really is the Chuck Taylor for the 21st century. It's just it's a standard brand, and it's gonna last for a long time. And much respect much respect to Michael Jordan, much respect to Nike because I'm always gonna love Nikes. Just not Jordans. What other brands? What other items? I'm going back a little retro, but let's talk about bags. The messenger bag, we made the messenger bag happen because it literally was for messengers. We would see these cats on their 10 speed bikes zipping through traffic, never getting hit, drafting behind trucks. Reginald Ferguson [00:10:21]: And when they would lock up their bikes, you would see them sprinting, and they always had their bag, crossbody. And you would see those bags, and you just knew, hey. That's what you do. And then, eventually, the rest of us started rocking them. And that to me was really cool because prior to that, if I really think about it, I had a briefcase coming out of business school. So a messenger bag, it was so different, particularly the original materials of nylon, and they were just so much lighter. Obviously, you could start getting flavors in leather. And when I think of a very specific brand, I really think of 2 brands, and both of them born out of New York City. Reginald Ferguson [00:11:21]: Manhattan Portage and Jack Spade. Literally in that order because Manhattan Portage was the manufacturer of messenger bags for that crew. And then slowly but surely, it became an item for the rest of us. And I having seeing that Manhattan portage red label with the white lettering, it meant you were legit. You were official. And, again, we were really fronting we were fronting on on messengers because this was becoming a fashion item. Obviously, we were using it for legitimate reasons, but it came from them. And then, essentially, one generation later, the way I remember it, you had Jack Spade. Reginald Ferguson [00:12:19]: And he took it to me, not necessarily in a different direction, but he took it to a different level, and he truly made it a fashion item. Manhattan Portage made it an item of necessity, but he made it he made it escalate. He made it go up a echelon. So, I mean, even his store in SoHo, the original store. And I'm here to tell you, if you look on eBay, strong market for Jack Spade. Sad when he discontinued the brand, and I have probably 3 Jack Spade messengers. I've given one away to a client that excludes the 3 I mentioned. I have this dope camo 1. Reginald Ferguson [00:13:14]: Love that. Haven't rocked in a while. Got a blue one, blue leather, blue nylon. I've got bags, ladies and gentlemen. It's a it's a problem. Let's talk about Supreme. Man, I remember when they were on Lafayette Street, and I used to walk by there because my cousin grew up in SoHo. And, like, alright. Reginald Ferguson [00:13:54]: It's a skateboard shop. We got skateboards. Okay. I thought nothing of it. And then years went by. I'm seeing lines, seeing kids, skating in the store, and then I don't have to bore you guys, but the rest has been history. But stamp of New York approval is you have some item that reads supreme out to the rest of us. That logo so strong and so powerful that people have lifted it. Reginald Ferguson [00:14:41]: I mean, this guy is 1 is 1 with a CFDA. So I do not have any supreme gear. That's probably because of my age. But, again, when you see the brand, it knew that it it came from here, And now it's it's undergone a generational shift that the kids are now the dads, and their kids are rocking the gear. I just love that. So, yeah, that's how it works in New York. I'm sorry, but it's just really true. We are for North America, we are the pulse, and it's great to be a part of that no matter how small my role may be. Reginald Ferguson [00:15:44]: So I hope you enjoyed learning just a little about where I come from and how we get down. We're incredible. Alright. I have to stop, but I'm biased. I'm a native New Yorker. I'll talk with you when I talk with you. Always be fly.