Five Fits With: Wildly Influential Menswear Consultant Aaron Levine
Even if you don’t know Aaron Levine’s name, you know his work. He's like a menswear Rick Rubin. It’s apparent in his sagely look and equally chill demeanor, but also in his knack for hitting exactly the right notes when it comes to revitalizing brands. Most recently, Levine was at Abercrombie & Fitch as the senior vice president of men’s and women’s design, and prior, he was vice president of men’s design at Club Monaco.
He initially studied biochemistry at Virginia Tech, but soon realized this was not his calling. He bounced in and out of school before settling in Richmond, Virginia. After working as a bartender for a bit, he was hired by A&F as an assistant manager. “The retail life was hard for me,” says Levine. “But I was like, ‘I want to design clothes, man. I love it enough that I think I can do it.’ When I went back to school, I studied merchandising. I left six credits shy, moved to New York, and started working.”
Below, Levine and I discuss his innate passion for clothing, his ability to direct brands of all ilks, replicating your favorite looks via eBay and thrift shops, being a “self-loathing stuff-lover,” and plenty more.
Fit One
Do you have any fun stories or memories of when you first became interested in clothing?
I was always passionate about mixing things and creating tension within the things that I was wearing, even when I was a kid. I might buy something from Britches Great Outdoors, or the Gap, but then pair it with something I got from Fairfax Surf Shop or something vintage—that kind of mixture of army-navy surplus, vintage, surf shop, and then east coast prep, is how I grew up. I remember everyone, all my friends, would make fun of me for how I dressed and now they're the ones that call me and ask for advice.
You seem to be working all over the place since your tenure at Abercrombie. What are you up to these days? Who are some of your clients?
Since I've left Abercrombie, there have been several I work with. I started working with Aimé Leon Dore right when Abercrombie ended. I'm very grateful for [ALD founder] Teddy Santis for allowing me to do that. I learned so much from him and that team over there. I also worked with Vince out in L.A. I'm very grateful for Caroline Belhumeur. She was my mentor when I was at Club Monaco. She was senior vice president of women's when I was vice president of men's. I was just grateful to be able to work with her again. I think so highly of her. She's family. I learned so much from her, so any opportunity to be able to work with her again is amazing. I started working with Madewell. Worked a little bit with Viberg Boots. I worked with Ten Thousand, which is a great athletic brand that I love and wear religiously when I work out. When Abercrombie ended, that was the biggest deal for me. I was like, "Okay. I'm going to take an assessment of myself, what I want to do, and how I want my life to look." It looked very simple. "I just want to work on product that I love with people that I love." And that was it, man.
Fit Two
All of those brands you mentioned are arguably pretty different markets. What about your knowledge and experience allows you to connect the dots for all those brands?
I've been doing this for a long time. It's not just about work for me. I have hobbies, but unfortunately for me, my work is also one of my biggest hobbies. I'm very passionate about it. So whatever realm it's in, from tailored clothing to something like Ten Thousand, I will learn about it. I will go down rabbit holes and try to figure out what I don't know. I will learn while I'm falling out of the tree. I'll figure it out as I'm doing it a lot of times. I breathe this stuff. I don't know why. It's something I don't have control over. I found my thing that I am good at and I love so much. Being ADD—I talk about that a lot because it is hugely impactful in my life and to my brain—a lot of people don't understand the nuances of it, but being ADD, it allows me to be hyper-focused on things that I truly love.
How do you ground yourself from clothing and commodity overload after working in the industry for as long as you have?
I talk about this with a couple of close friends and we say we’re “self-loathing stuff-lovers,” a term that we've coined. I wish I didn't love stuff, but if I didn't love stuff, then I wouldn't be as passionate or good at what I do, so it's really tricky. It's interesting now, because we live on some property in Ohio in a little college town, and not a lot of people care about it out there. When I go home now, I can unplug and de-stress. I still think about it all the time. I still do research all the time, but I can also go out and stare at the pond in my backyard or go pet the animals that my friend has on his farm. It's quiet there.
Fit Three
Do you have any tips for guys who are getting into clothing but don't have the budget to spend on higher ticket items, but want to replicate some of what they're seeing from those brands?
eBay, dude. eBay, eBay, eBay. And that's how I buy all my stuff now, essentially. I'll do research on eras or things that I like, and then I'll look up specific designers from certain eras and try to find it that way. I try to look for things that are valuable but inexpensive, and sometimes I suck it up and I spend a little bit more than I want to if it's a certain thing, but I don't get hung up on brand names. I just get hung up on a certain item that I'm looking for, and then remain super open-minded about who made it or where it came from. If people getting into vintage have a look they're trying to get after, I'm just like, "Yo, go snooping around eBay, and then go visit your thrift stores, man." I found so much stuff in amazing thrift stores. You can go to estate sales, too. It's an activity, so you're not just sitting in the dark on your phone, trolling eBay in your living room. It's actually an adventure. On a Saturday morning, you get up, grab breakfast, get a cup of coffee, make a little pilgrimage to an estate sale, poke around, get a weird, old ceramic ashtray and maybe a great sweater or something.
As someone who probably has a pretty extensive wardrobe, what do you look for when purchasing a new piece? Although you just said you’re mostly buying vintage…
I have to be disciplined because I know myself better at this age, so I'll know if I'll wear something more often than I won't, and my style is pretty basic. I'm not a fashion guy. It's all pretty classic, and then I just enjoy how I put things together as a form of expression. If I'm looking at something and it's spendy or new, then it's like, "Okay, cool. I’ve got to be able to wear out that thing until it falls off my body.” I spent too much on a sweater recently, and maybe this will make people cringe, but I will wear it all the time. I'll thrash it. I'll sleep in new purchases, I'll wear them every day in a row. It doesn't matter to me, and then they just get all pill-y and gross, but they become personal to you. I'm not precious with any of the stuff that I wear. I'm hard on all the stuff that I wear. I beat on it, and that's what I look for. It's got to be nice. It's got to be made well, and then I'll just beat it to death.
Fit Four
I am just now coming around to that point in my life, where I'm like, "What is the point of buying this shit if I'm not wearing it, or I'm wearing it once every three months, because afraid I'm going to get something on it?”
And it looks like you, right? What you're wearing right now, it's obvious you're comfortable in it. That's another thing that I look at, too. “Am I going to feel like myself in this, or am I going to feel like I'm a poser in this? Do I feel like a comfortable, best version of myself when I put this thing on?” That's a good piece of advice to people just trying to figure out their thing. It's all about how you feel, and how it makes you feel.
Do you have any favorite shops that might be under the radar, people might not know?
I've got to give Sweetu props over at C'H'C'M'. He has amazing taste. I've loved his shop forever. I hate going in there, because I always walk out of there with something. Like, "You just hurt my wallet, bud," but I like Sweetu’s shop a lot. If I'm in London, I love the Margaret Howell flagship. Other than that, I just sniff stuff out. I'm not really loyal, but every time I'm in New York, I try to swing by C’H’C’M for sure.
Fit Five
If you had to wear one outfit for the rest of your life, what would it consist of?
AL: I always feel comfortable with a great pair of jeans. Currently, the ones in maximum rotation are just an old pair of faded out, black Levi’s from the ‘90s. Probably an easy white T-shirt or an easy black T-shirt. I've just accumulated all these band tees from shows I've gone to from back in the day. Then a perfect sweater, and a Carhartt Detroit jacket. It's just easy, understated. You can get in anywhere and not feel like you're crazy underdressed. I like a suit. I appreciate a suit. I never really feel comfortable or myself when I'm fully suited and booted, so I keep to this disheveled elegance where I feel comfortable and confident enough in myself that I feel good.
You Might Also Like
