242 Mulberry’s Chris Echevarria talks retail mentors and the future of menswear

After starting as a sales associate at J Crew’s Liquor Store concept shop while studying menswear design at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Echevarria was recruited by retail legend Millard ‘Mickey’ Drexler to start a brand collaboration program. Now, he is hard at work building his own footwear brand, Blackstock & Weber, and running one of New York’s coolest menswear concept stores, 242 Mulberry. 

Inside Retail: The beginning stage of your career was spent working with companies like J Crew and the Italian luxury fashion label Stone Island. What inspired you to move over from assisting other brands to launching your own?

Chris Echevarria: I felt like I had something to say and that it was different than what was out there.

Honestly, the biggest thing that I saw, especially in the traditional menswear retail market, was that everything felt kind of old and stuffy and I didn’t think it needed to be that way. 

I took a look at how a lot of modern fashion brands, especially streetwear, had this type of communication with their customers that had more of a friendly tone to it, and how it wasn’t elitist.

I really wanted that to radiate through menswear, because I’ve seen it in forums or with niche groups of people, but I’ve never seen that on display as far as with a brand’s ethos.  

IR: Who were some of your mentors along your journey to launching your first brand?

CE: Millard ‘Mickey’ Drexler, founder of Madewell and Old Navy and former CEO of Gap Inc and J Crew, was a big mentor of mine. He was the first person I contacted to talk about this [brand that I was building]. 

Ryan Babinzine, founder and former CEO of lifestyle sneaker brand Greats, was also somebody I spoke to about [Blackstock & Weber] in the early days. They were two great mentors to me.

IR: You opened up your own bricks-and-mortar store this summer. What do you think are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen within the menswear industry in recent years?

CE: Men are shopping more for themselves. With brands like mine, we create this space where guys feel comfortable talking about clothes. There are podcasts, like Throwing Fits, and then there are people on YouTube and Instagram who talk about clothes, and that allows a sort of safe space for men to talk about fashion.

IR: Do you feel that your space, 242 Mulberry, is providing that type of environment for your shoppers?

CE: That’s exactly what it’s meant to do. Be a safe and well-curated space to learn.

We don’t expect you to know everything when you walk in the door. We welcome the opportunity to be able to educate people on what it is that we do, and why we do it. Why we might mix one item with another, and why we make our clothes and our shoes the way we make them. It’s all there to be learned about because it’s all done with intention. We have a lot to say if people want to learn.

IR: Big fashion players like Ralph Lauren and Tom Ford have become synonymous with their brands. What do you want people to think about your brand in, say, 30 years?

CE: I just want people to come into my space and feel like they’ve been heard. I want people to feel like there’s somebody out there who feels the same way they do and makes the clothes they need to outwardly express the way they feel. 

I would also like people to say that we continue to make great content and that our employees say they love working here. 

In 30 years, I would like to influence the next Chris, whoever that might be.

IR: What does your fashion say about you?

CE: As I grew up, I started this idea of how you can dress a certain way and be who you want to be on any given day. I looked at my wardrobe in the same way that a movie set would look at its wardrobe department and think about what character I want to be today. Who do I feel like today? That’s usually what my clothing says about me.

IR: What do you think are three style essentials from the menswear category that everyone, regardless of gender, needs to have in their closet?

CE: Loafers, of course. [Chuckles] A nice gray heather hoodie. And a really nice pair of jeans, not like something that is $20 off the shelf. Everybody should have a good pair of selvage denim jeans. 

If I had to include a fourth item, it would be a nice pair of sneakers. 

I think everybody should have a signature sneaker. If you have a favourite sneaker and you wear it all the time, that can be your thing. So when I’m not wearing loafers, my signature sneaker is the New Balance 996. 

This story first appeared in the September 2024 issue of Inside Retail US magazine.

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