The Right Amount of Wrong: Founder Style Philosophy from Herschede in Phoenix

The phrase I use a lot, both in life and in style, is the right amount of wrong.

Sometimes people misunderstand what I mean by wrong.

I don’t mean wrong in a moral way. I don’t mean hurting people or being a bad person. That’s not what this is.

I mean wrong in the sense of not always asking for permission. Going a little against the norm. Doing something because it feels right to you, even if it’s not what everyone else is doing.

It’s the wink and nod.
The devilish smile.
The quiet confidence of being completely comfortable in your own skin.

It Starts the Moment You Walk In

If you’ve been inside Herschede, my men’s clothing store in Phoenix, you’ve seen the giant photo of Jack Nicholson sitting there in headphones, smiling, holding a smoke.

It’s not there by accident.

To me, that picture represents the right amount of wrong.

He looks relaxed. Confident. Completely comfortable being exactly who he is. He’s not asking for permission. He’s not trying to be anyone else.

He just is.

That attitude has always resonated with me, and it’s the same attitude I believe great personal style has.

Not Safe. Interesting.

Safe is fine.

But safe is usually forgettable.

The best outfits are not always the ones that are perfectly put together. The best outfits, the ones you notice, the ones you remember, usually have a little tension in them. Something slightly unexpected.

It might be Bown of London velvet slippers with Hiroshi Kato premium denim, layered with an Echo & the Bunnymen concert tee under a silk, linen, and wool Jack Victor sportcoat.

Maybe it’s a tie with denim.

Maybe it’s mixing patterns and textures that aren’t supposed to go together.

On paper, some of that might sound wrong.

But when the right person wears it with confidence, it looks exactly right.

That’s the right amount of wrong.

Sometimes You Just Know

Every once in a while, you see a piece and you just know.

You don’t need someone to explain why it works.
You don’t need to see it in a magazine.
You don’t need permission.

You just know you like it.

Over the years, I’ve learned those are usually the pieces worth paying attention to.

Because style, at its best, is instinctive.

And instinct usually lives right there, in the right amount of wrong.

Confidence Makes It Work

That’s really what the right amount of wrong comes down to:

confidence.

Not loud confidence.
Not look-at-me confidence.

Just a quiet confidence that says:

this is me.

Style isn’t about following rules perfectly.

It’s about knowing which rules to break and when to break them.

Where Great Style Starts

I think the same idea applies to life, too.

If you follow every rule, do everything the way you’re supposed to, and never color outside the lines, things might be neat and tidy, but they’re usually not very interesting.

The people with real style, real personality, real presence, they all have a little bit of the right amount of wrong in them.

Not bad people.
Not reckless people.

Just people who are comfortable enough to be themselves.

And in my opinion, that’s where great style starts.

— Eric