Jaime is a reader based in Atlanta, Georgia. He’s a pastor there, and works particularly on social justice projects and inter-faith relations. Church has always been an excuse for him to dress up, but also an excuse to talk to young men in the congregation about how they can dress better.
He has other strings to his bow too. He and his wife run a podcast about marriage (above) – “your mentors for the messy middle” – and he’s trying to bring local menswear events to Atlanta along with his friend Wesley Knight, another reader and menswear guy.
It was interesting talking to Jaime about the culture of church and also of Brooklyn, where he grew up – especially its attitude to Ralph Lauren back in the day.
Outfit 1:
- Suit: Orazio Luciano
- Coat: Coherence
- Shirt: Permanent Style
- Tie: Petronius
- Hat: Drake’s
- Scarf: Drake’s
- Shoes: Alden
- Glasses: Rigards
Jaime, let’s start with your first experiences of menswear. When did it begin?
Well, when I was growing up I wanted to be a stockbroker, I wanted to work on Wall Street – partly because I wanted to wear suits all the time! My Dad always wore a suit and he would educate me about materials and styles.
I think it was around 12 or 13 that I started getting into menswear heavily, I was reading GQ every month, trying to put all the looks together. Then I moved onto Men’s Ex, and then blogs when they happened – Die Workwear, Permanent Style – and now social media is blowing it all up.
This was in the nineties and I was growing up in Brooklyn. Back then, Ralph Lauren was the brand to wear. It was a real streetwear brand.
That’s interesting because I feel that was more of a New York thing, it didn’t happen so much in London.
Yeah it was big in Brooklyn, the Lo Lifes they called themselves. Head-to-toe Ralph Lauren, all the time, even down to the socks and underwear. The thing about Ralph Lauren is, he knows how to sell a lifestyle, and it was what kids in Brooklyn wanted to be, to emulate. It wasn’t even a reworking of the brand, putting their own spin on it. It was just pure Ralph, worn as street style.
That movement grew into ‘Lo Heads’ more generally, the super fans, and there’s still an annual meet-up in Times Square – they give out awards for the best gear.
I have a bunch of vintage pieces and I’m usually wearing something – I remember when we met in New York last year I was wearing those bright-red cord trousers from Ralph, with a Rubato yellow sweater.
Yeah that was quite the look. You dressed a bit more conservatively for this shoot.
True, and it was really cold on that day too, so there were fewer options. We tied it into a visit I was doing to a church to speak, and it was 8am and freezing.
Where’s the brown suit from, that’s a great colour.
It’s Orazio Luciano, although actually I got it off a friend – I do that a lot, swapping pre-owned things with people. This one friend is about the same size as me and he was getting rid of it.
If you don’t mind me asking, do you think with your skin colour you can wear stronger colours more generally?
That’s fine, and yes I think I can, although actually dark brown is the one colour I usually avoid, because it’s too close to my skin tone. I find I need to wear it with something that has quite a lot of contrast – like this pale shirt and the patterned tie – or it will drown me.
I don’t actually wear a lot of really strong colour, but it’s a personal style choice as well right? Those red pants are one of the brightest things I own, and I hadn’t worn them for years. Though I do have one other really strong pair, bright-yellow Purple Label linens. Actually it’s generally easier to wear that kind of colour on the bottom half, I find.
I hadn’t thought about that, but yeah it makes a lot of sense. I think this shade of brown looks really nice with that blue of the raincoat as well. And in fact the Color 8 cordovan is nice too – they’re both good examples of what works well with mid-brown.
Thank you, yes I know what you mean. These loafers are great – I wear loafers so much, and in fact hardly ever wear other leather shoes. I think I have one pair of lace-ups. They work for me as I have flat feet, and they’re so versatile. It’s a lot of Aldens, but I also have Spigola, Crockett & Jones.
Outfit 2:
- Suit: Ovadia & Sons
- Shirt: Permanent Style
- Sweater: Club Monaco
- Shoes: Alden
- Tie: Drake’s
- Watch: Timex
Tell me about church, Jaime. Do people dress up?
Yeah, absolutely. In the African-American tradition church is really where you make an effort, it’s almost like a fashion show. It’s like every week is Easter Sunday.
You see that quite a bit where I live too, around the evangelical churches in Peckham – the bright colours, everyone singing, a sense of real celebration every Sunday, it’s wonderful.
A lot of the pastors here wear robes, but I like to wear my suits, I think it looks smart and it’s a nice excuse. In fact, I often get younger guys coming up to me saying they want to dress this way, asking for advice.
Oh that’s cool – so what kind of thing are they wearing?
Suits too, but they’re much more fashion driven right? So it’s very slim suits, very tapered pants, colourful socks, muscles like poking out of the sleeves. Narrow lapels usually. Whereas the older guys at the church, they’re less trendy – the suits might not look very current, but they’re classic. They’re better made as well – not bespoke, but nice, maybe old Armani.
But the younger guys get to feel they don’t want to look like a kid anymore. Maybe they’ve had a kid themselves, or they’re married, and they want to look more mature. They’re not in college anymore.
This is a bit of a random thought, but do you ever see zoot suits, or echoes of that style, in some of the churches you visit?
Not so extreme, but yes in African-American churches you do see some styles like that – very wide pants, saddle shoes, the chain coming out of the pocket. You don’t see jackets as long as that, but perhaps there’s people referencing something else they’ve seen. Fashions are always recycling themselves. It’s not my style, but I see it.
Is this chalkstripe suit also a pre-owned one?
No, but I got it pretty cheap. It was from Ovadia & Sons, back when they were doing tailoring. I think it was made by Martin Greenfield, I saw it at one of the sample sales and it was just siting there, I paid about $300 for it and it’s Fox Flannel cloth.
Nice. And where’s the watch from, I like the simple design.
It’s Timex, a collaboration with Todd Snyder. I like Timex because I can bang them around. I’m not good with watches – I always seem to hit stuff with my wrist and I’m playing with my kids. If I break a Timex it’s like $150 to get a new one and that’s OK.
I want to get a Cartier Tank some day, but not yet. Maybe if it’s a more expensive watch I’ll be more careful, but it’s hard to take the risk.
Your glasses are unusual, I remember picking up on that shape around the bridge when we first met.
Thanks, yeah these are Rigards, r-i-g-a-r-d-s. It’s a Japanese brand, they’re handmade and often a little quirky in the design, though not too much. They’re full titanium so really light and strong. They also come with like a green visor that you attach with magnets, to turn them into sunglasses.
Outfit 3:
- Coat: Drake’s
- Sweater: The Armoury
- Jeans: Full Count
- Shirt: Drake’s
- Shoes: Alden
- Hat: Ralph Lauren
What’s the menswear like down in Atlanta? You haven’t been there long right?
No, just over a year. I was in Texas before that, and New York before that.
Texas was very western wear, lots of big hats, big boots. Atlanta is a little sparse, not a lot going on. You have Sid Mashburn but he’s very much in his niche. It works for him, but he’s still got those narrow lapels, there isn’t much that’s progressive anymore. I think that’s why I get complimented a lot when I go around actually, people always want to know where things are from.
I’m hoping to start something down here with my buddy I told you about, Wesley Knight, maybe just a pre-owned event or something to start with. I was talking to the Alfargo’s Marketplace guys and getting advice from them. It’s crazy how big they are now compared to where they started.
Yeah, I think it’s great. We went to one when we were in New York and it had such a nice vibe – the mix of pre-owned, professional vintage sellers, brand sample sales and then other stuff like coffee or chainstitching. It felt just like a place you’d go to hang out.
Exactly, I’d love to do that here. It would be like a place for people to all meet up.
You always seem to wear a shirt under your crewneck sweaters – is that something that comes from Ralph Lauren styling back in the day?
I don’t think so actually, it just always seems to feel right. A crewneck without a shirt underneath just always looks wrong. It’s not what everyone does though, maybe it is a bit of a style signature.
Is there anything else like that?
I wear caps a lot, and have a lot! I was tempted to wear a baseball cap with every one of these outfits. My wife keeps on telling me to stop it with the baseball caps – enough is enough.
How do you store them – I know guys who have these big teetering piles of them on top of lamps.
Yeah I have that! I also put some nails in the wall so I can hang them all up. They’re what we call dad caps, the low profile, and they look better the more worn in they are. They get moulded over time and get this patina. I really love a beat-up cap.
What would you say is your biggest lesson from being into clothes all these years – what would you pass onto a reader just starting out?
I’d say buy better quality, I think. I talk to guys at church about this. The suits I’m wearing here, they’re like 15 years old. It’s worth spending three times as much on a suit as it will last three times as long – and for the whole of that time, your suit will look much better than the cheap one. So it’s value for money, the maths isn’t hard.
Cheers Jaime, it was a real pleasure talking to you.
You too Simon, keep up the awesome work.
Jaime is @danewnegro on Instagram, and you can see some very cool (and less tailored) outfits over there. Some we liked are shown below. The podcast with his wife Carlen is @carleneplusjaime and that’s cool for both of their outfits too. Their friend Wesley is @cwesleyknight.
