L ifestyles /C ulture
Jews of Philly Fashion: Brian Nadav
FASHION JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
It’s the newest edition of Jews
of Philly Fashion, introducing
you to the Chosen few who
dress our city. They might mix
wool and linen, but they’ve got
some strong opinions on mixing
stripes with florals. In this space,
we’ll talk to designers, sellers,
buyers, influencers, models and
more. This week, we spoke to
Brian Nadav.

THERE WAS A TIME when
Brian Nadav, 39, lived the
musician’s life. He toured the
country, playing a few times
with Matisyahu; a jam band
devotee, he played guitar and
the Middle Eastern oud.

But you can’t play shows in
New York at night and then
open your family’s store in the
morning for all that long, Nadav
learned. City Blue, the family
venture, needed managing, and
loathe as he was to give up the
stage, he was more than happy
to step off if it meant he was
in, say, the new Commes des
Garçons hightops.

Brian Nadav
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Today, Nadav, who grew up
working retail at various City
Blue locations, runs Lapstone &
Hammer, one of Philadelphia’s
cutting-edge streetwear shops.

Besides carrying original
apparel from Lapstone &
Hammer — heavy on the
tie-dye, as of late — the store
at 11th and Chestnut streets is
stocked with the likes of Adidas,
Maison Margiela and Rick
Owens, accessible fare mixed
with the higher-end stuff. For
the man with treasured first-
hand memories of the Nike Air
Max 95 drop at The Gallery, it
couldn’t be a cushier landing
for his stage dive.

“It’s about an aesthetic,”
Nadav said of Lapstone &
Hammer, which puts vibrant,
loud clothes against a relatively
minimalist backdrop (clean
lines, white walls). “It’s about
a sensibility. It’s about being
creative. It’s about having fun.”
Nadav, a father of two, is
a graduate of Perelman Jewish
Day School’s Forman Center,
as well as Temple University,
where he majored in environ-
mental studies and geography
and urban studies. Though
music was and remains a central
plank of his life, working in
his Israeli family’s well-known
clothing shops instilled in
Nadav an appreciation for the
power of this particular form of
self-expression. “Fashion is an unspoken
language, a way of expressing
yourself,” Nadav said. “You
walk into a room, and you get
a vibe about a person, by the
way they dress, by the way they
carry themselves, by the way
they groom themselves.”
Like anyone acting as a
junior partner in the family
business, Nadav found that his
ideas about the best way to do
things didn’t quite gel with that
of his elders. On top of that, the
clothes Nadav wanted to see on
people walking out of the store
were not what a few genera-
tions of City Blue customers
were looking for. In 2012, he
had the “menswear concept
of the future” on his mind;
by 2015, Lapstone & Hammer,
named for the old-fashioned
tools of the cobbler, was ready
to stake its claim.

What’s the last book you read? the feet up.

“The Tipping Point,” reread
for the third time.

What item of clothing should
more people be wearing?
What clothing trend would
Tie-dye! Especially Lapstone
you like to see make a Dyes.

comeback? Bell-bottoms.

What person’s style do you
admire? Dream Shabbat dinner guest?
Mordechai Rubinstein, or
Bob Dylan or King David. Mister Mort, as he goes by on
Both musical geniuses.

Instagram. What’s something you can’t Best neighborhood in
believe you used to wear?
Philadelphia? Z. Cavaricci’s. So bad, they
Fishtown. are actually good.

What talent would you most
What’s the worst thing you’ve like to have?
watched in quarantine?
Allen Iverson’s basketball
The news.

skills. l
What’s a universal style tip?
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; Always get dressed from 215-832-0740
Name: Elana Collection
Width: 3.625 in
Depth: 5.5 in
Color: Black plus one
Comment: JE - Frequent Flyer
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Photo by Evan Kaucher
JEWISH EXPONENT
NOVEMBER 26, 2020
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