Meet Academy, a New Menswear Brand Remixing Prep-School Staples for Grown Ups
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“Life is a big school,” says designer Chris Echevarria. “As I get older, I look back at what I learned about myself, what I learned about the world, and how the next year is the year I get to apply those lessons.”
It’s easy to imagine that the 36-year-old is speaking to his experience as creative director of Blackstock & Weber, the loafers-meets-streetwear shoe brand he founded in 2018, and how it led to the launch of his new apparel line Academy in November. And while his time with Blackstock & Weber has doubtlessly played a major role in the formation of his latest venture, Academy’s roots go back to his brief stint as a prep school rebel.
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Echevarria, who grew up in suburban New Jersey, for a time attended a private school with a strict dress code. A blazer with an oxford shirt and chinos was worn to class (with the blazer and oxford substituted for a polo on warmer days), while P.E. was spent in sweats or maybe a ringer tee and mesh shorts.
Once he realized that the school rulebook was silent on whether said uniforms could be mixed or matched, Echevarria began to experiment, wearing a track tee under his blazer or sneaking sweats into his class attire. These early forays into self-expression were rewarded with demerits, and in time Echevarria was shown the door.
But a funny thing happened when he returned to public school: he continued to wear his private school threads, styled to his preferences. “This thing that I wanted to shirk very badly ended up being something that defined me,” Echevarria says.
While perusing Academy’s initial offering, one gets the sense that Echevarria has slipped back into that uniform—but this time got to write the rulebook himself. There are striped oxford shirts and schoolboy blazers; hooded sweatshirts and joggers; and yes, even a track tee. Across the assortment, the learning institution of Echevarria’s imagination is represented by graphics ranging from the word “Academy” appliqued across a bookstore crewneck to the handwoven bullion patches that show up on its rugby shirts.
In his role as dean, Echevarria has placed a premium on fabrics, sourcing Japanese cloth for each garment—save for its houndstooth blazer, which is tailored from Harris Tweed. He’s also made place of origin a prerequisite, with every piece from its embroidered pennant chinos to even an 18k solid gold signet ring made in New York. (Prices range from $75 for an embroidered baseball cap to $1,995 for a wool overcoat.)
“People think that it’s dead, but it’s alive and well,” Echevarria says of the city’s homegrown fashion industry. “There are a lot of really cool artisans that exist within the Garment District. You can get anything that you want made in New York, it’s all about whether or not you want that price point.”
Among Academy’s first collection, there are a handful of pieces that would surely earn demerits. The dress code violators for this season include a wool flannel overshirt, a plaid balmacaan coat, and a tiger camo jungle jacket with matching fatigues.
Echevarria, however, does not wish to limit Academy to the prep canon. Rather, he views it as a “case study” of his evolving interpretation of American style. “It’s not just going to be prep, it’s not just going to by Ivy, it’s going to be different iterations of what I think Americana is,” he says.
While Echevarria considers Blackstock & Weber and Academy to be distinct “visions,” there will be a crossover between the two labels. For now, that’s manifested as a Blackstock & Weber kiltie loafer designed for Academy.
Although its assortment and focus may vary, Academy’s wares are ultimately designed to be timeless, a quality it shares with its source material.
“People that say that prep is back,” Echevarria says of the look’s recent popularity. “Sure, it’s back from a trend perspective, but from a raw, what’s-in-your-closet perspective I don’t think it really went anywhere.”
It seems that no matter how many credits we earn in Prep 101, we’re never quite ready graduate—and that’s just fine.
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