Diatribes by Joah

There is no "I" in Style X

Every night before I go to sleep, I pray for God (yes, God) to direct me to the right people, places and opportunities to showcase the talents and abilities he’s blessed me with. Next week or next year isn’t promised to me, so it’s important for me to make the most out of the time and chances I’m given.

This is part of the reason why my first 27 years have been so eventful with each year bringing on more people involved, more places visited and more opportunities taken advantage of. As I approach my 28^th birthday (yes, 28^th) next month, I’m proud to say that my biggest accomplishment is now my latest project: Style X.

I’ve been asked about a million and one times how I came up with Style X or how long I’ve been working on it and I’m hopefully going to be able to definitely answer those questions here.

For starters, there is no “I” when it comes to Style X. I may be responsible for many of the core concepts (pop-up retail, musicians as models, the name, etc.), but Style X would be little more than an idea in my head without the partnership and production savvy of co-founder Jon Pattillo. Jon is the perfect yin to my yang, or yang to my yin. Whichever you choose, that is Jon.

Two years ago when I first came up with the idea for Sneak Attack, SXSW Style was something like a long-term goal in the back of my head. Last year, during SXSW, I partnered with Sanctuary Printshop – a company Jon co-owns with Jed Taylor – during South by Sneaker Fest in our former shop on 2^nd Street. That was the real foundation for Style X. Pop-up retail, musician gifting, SXSW shoppers…almost all the pieces were there. And it worked.

I’d briefly mentioned the idea to Brent Grulke, the creative director of SXSW, in early 2010, but it wasn’t until mid-March that I met someone at SXSW that would really get the conversation going about making some kind of fashion event during the festival and conference a reality.

That someone is Brad Spies, the guy who spearheaded South by Southwest’s enlightenment to fashion as an important cog in the creative wheel. There are other important folks at SXSW who helped to make Style X happen: Darin, Tamara, Cristina, Val and others who know who they are. But Brad was the third head on Jon and I’s three-headed production monster.

So after months and weeks of meetings and planning and back and forth, Jon and I were finally put into position to work with SXSW and make Style X happen…albeit only about three months out from March.

That’s why it’s important to note that Jon and I had a team of invaluable contributors to help with everything from the lookbook and website to designer outreach and the runway shows. Chelsea, Niraj, Brooke, Daniel and everyone else on the team really made this event happen in support of Jon, the production maestro (he managed everything from print row and the web development to the Style X sign behind the runway). You may have seen me running around all weekend looking busy, but the honest truth is that all of them were the ones working hard and making me look good.

As Jon and I start planning for next year’s Style X with more time, more resources and more lessons to be learned, I can do nothing but smile when I think about all the things that had to happen in my life over the last year or two to make Style X 2011 possible.

After a look at the people I was blessed to work with, the places I was able to travel to and meet some great emerging brands like We Are The Process in Atlanta, Cavortress in Charleston, S.C., Tortoise & Blonde in New York among many others and all the opportunities that came out of creating and producing Style X with Jon, I know one thing for sure:

God listens.

South by Southwest: Trending Toward Fashion

The following post initially ran in the Huffington Post.

It's the week of South by Southwest which means music festival season is fully upon us and tour schedules are being booked by the hour. This brings to mind a shift that has been happening in the music industry for the last half-decade if not longer: fewer and fewer arena-level touring acts and more and more club-level acts. For every Kanye West or Lady Gaga, there are three bands with the buzz and critical acclaim of The National or The Black Keys or The Roots. In fact, most of the arena acts are much older than Gaga and Kanye... they're the Bruce Springsteens, Paul McCartneys and Rolling Stones.

In thinking about the intersection between music and style, look no further than the way this trend is being paralleled across the country in America's major cities. The major corporate department stores are few and far between, being outnumbered now more than ever by locally-owned boutiques that cater to younger shoppers and downtown tourists.

In Austin, for example, as SXSW celebrates its 25th anniversary this month, the few attendees who were there in that inaugural year will realize quite a change to Austin's landscape since 1987. The change I speak of may be more significant than the 1994 addition of film and interactive segments or the massive expansion of the music festival, going from less than 200 performers to more than 2,000.

Over the last quarter century, Austin has quietly become an incredibly stylish city. Sure, there are still the cowboy boots and hats along with the jeans and flip-flops, but there's also noteworthy women's shops like By George and denim house HEM Jeans that point to the undertow of fashion that has swept the city over the last half-decade. In just five years, Austin has added a number of boutiques that tap into the city's long-standing "buy local" culture and the city's newly-found interest in fashion.

The Second Street District, highlighted by the recently-opened W Hotel and Austin's tallest skyscraper and condo tower The Austonian, includes nearly a dozen clothing and accessories shops. These shops indicate both a price-conscious audience and a brand-label shopper with boutiques ranging from Estilo, a cross-gender shop that houses everything from Hugo Boss suits to Nicole Miller dresses, to Plain Ivey Jane, a closeout-couture shop started by a 20-somethings woman who left a job in J. Crew's New York offices to start her own business.

There is further evidence on South Congress Avenue, the main cultural thoroughfare of the city with iconic live music venue Continental Club and outdoor food trailers like Hey Cupcake! On this lively street, menswear shop Stag opened in 2009 and has drawn favorable comparisons to shops like Odin in New York by carrying both emerging and classic brands like UK-based Universal Works and Hamilton Shirts, a Texas brand dating back to 1883, the same year the University of Texas was founded.

And for those looking for Austin's urban side, look no further than the campus area just north of downtown where Complete Clothing resides. Complete is the classic streetwear shop that every major city has to have to be considered "legit" by hip-hop fans both young and old. With popular brands like The Hundreds, G-Shock and Stussy, Complete caters to the fans of artists like Kanye, The Clipse and The Cool Kids. It just so happens that the shop's owner, Zaul Zamora, has been successful in recruiting these rappers to his shop.

Of course, the occasional Kanye appearance can be phenomenal for business, and so can a globally-known event like SXSW. But the truth is that shops like Complete Clothing, Stag, Estilo and Plain Ivey Jane are a sign of things to come when it comes to fashion and shopping in America not only because Austin seems to be a place where young, affluent and stylish people are moving, although that has proven true in recent years.

No, this is primarily true because with the decline of the arena- or mall-sized acts... the Dillard's and Macy's of the retail universe... plenty of room is left for some savvy and nimble business owners who take cues from the music stages that Austin is so well known for.

What would I say to my father?

I can’t quite put my finger on the attribution of this quote, but it goes something like this: “My grandfather was a sharecropper so that my father may be able to learn math and sciences. My father worked in math and sciences so that I may be able to learn arts and literature.”

Again, I’m not sure who said it or if this is the actual wording verbatim but lately it’s been something I’ve thought about intensely. Primarily because I’ve recently gotten into a couple of near-tearful conversations about whether or not I cared to re-connect with my absent father. My standard reply is, “what for?”

Secondly because I’m on the verge of some professional breakthroughs that happen to be a combination of both math and sciences along with the arts and literature. When people look at my bio or resume and really get to know me, I mean really…they tend to see something that I aspire to be on a daily basis: a Renaissance man.

Ben Franklin. He’s the man I’d most want to sit down with if I could sit and chat with any one person. Why? Because he’s the ultimate do-everything, jack-of-all-trades. Thought leader. Writer. Diplomat. Inventor. Socialite. Trusted adviser. Revolutionary. Legend.

Connecting the fact that my grandfather spent many of his years servicing the yards of wealthy Houstonians as a landscaper and lawn service provider and the absence of my father, I see myself serving as two generations at once.

The 4.0 high school GPA and scholarships that enabled me to get a degree from UT, the first four-year degree in my immediate family. The work as a media assistant to the Texas Longhorns then a speechwriter in DC. Taking the plunge into entrepreneurship, first with Sneak Attack, and now with Style X. The support for nonprofits such as the March of Dimes, Children’s Hospital and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Going from writing speeches about Hurricane Katrina to books about Real Role Models. The appointment to the Austin Music Commission.

I don’t share any of this to pat myself on the back, but rather to give context to what it is that I’m feeling. The feelings of a lonely traveler. My life is really my best attempt at mirroring my historical idol, Ben Franklin, rather than following in the trajectory of my family history.

See, most of my friends followed that track. Their parents were accountants, business execs, doctors, engineers, generals, lawyers, pilots, professors and the like. I’m not saying trying to cheapen their accomplishments by implying it’s easy to improve upon one’s genetic predecessors, but it’s also not surprising that someone in their 20s in the post-2000 world would react to their parents’ accomplishments by doing something more creative…work for a nonprofit, get into the fashion business, be plugged into the music scene, go into writing, open a retail shop, become an event planner or any of the other things I’ve fallen into.

Doing the work of two generations, in essence, has me thinking about that quote above and what it’ll mean for my children. What will my future son say about me? Will I have succeeded in math and sciences (i.e. business) and pushed him into the arts? Or will my service to the arts, namely music and literature, mean he’ll react by becoming an astronaut or biology teacher?

The main reason I’m asking these questions isn’t because I’m having children anytime soon. No, I think it’s because I realize that much of my drive is in reaction to my father’s absence and my family’s lack of professional success. I think, to be honest, I’ve finally figured out something that I’d like to talk to my own dad about whenever I get around to seeing him for the first time in something like 15 years and having that conversation…