Marisa Langley. By Devine Blacksher ·Updated June 14, 2024
This story is featured in the May/June 2024 issue of ESSENCE.
Days before the start of New York Fashion Week, I am set to interview Chris Echevarria, founder and creative director of the Brooklyn-based fashion and life src=”https://www.essence.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/0524-ES-STU-001_preview_preview.jpg” alt=”In The Studio: Blackstock & Weber” width=”400″ height=”500″ />Marisa Langley.
While his appreciation of clothing and patterns advanced through his adolescence and teenage years, he never envisioned a career as a fashion designer. Fashion was just something Echevarria enjoyed—an interest that was a constant in his life, from the friends he chose to how he spent his time and money. He’d skip classes and take the bus near his high school in New Jersey to SoHo in Manhattan to hang out at shops like APC, Bape, KidRobot, Billionaire Boys Club and Alife Rivington Club. He says it was a time when people weren’t trying so hard and were just doing what they liked. It was also the era of MTV’s TRL and BET’s 106 & Park, so Echevarria saw what it looked like aesthetically to be a superstar like Notorious B.I.G. or Mase.
“These are people I looked at assrc=”https://www.essence.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/0524-ES-STU-003_preview_preview.jpg” alt=”In The Studio: Blackstock & Weber” width=”400″ height=”500″ />Marisa Langley.
“I said to myself: I have this traditional sort of premium product, and it’s well-made and not skimped on—but then I have this other side that can communicate well with the younger consumer, and they create buzz and excitement over new products, new colorways,” Echevarria says. “They talk about these things at an increased cadence, because they’re engaging with new things every week. And I just put the two sides together. That’s what Blackstock & Weber became.”
Named for the two streets the designer grew up on in New Jersey—Blackstock Road and Weber Road—the line launched in 2017, with the loafer as its core product. To make the best loafer in the world, Echevarria’s strategy was to communicate with new consumers by releasing a loafer in a new colorway every week. He saw this as a different way for the consumer to interact with classic American design staples. By owning one product, Blackstock & Weber has become a popular name in the loafer game—leading to Echevarria’s appointment as creative director for Sperry by Chris Echevarria, a limited edition capsule collection of the brand’s iconic Captain’s oxford and original boat shoe, at the shoe company Sperry in September of 2023.
Yet amid his own brand’s success and the beauty of its creations, Echevarria has confronted daily challenges as a designer and entrepreneur. When asked what trials he’s faced and how he has overcome them, he warns that I might not like his answer.
“There’s a challenge every day,” he says. “I think that the biggest challenge was understanding that there were challenges every day, and being able to move through those challenges gracefully. Doing that work, and taking the world at face value—not taking an inconvenience as ‘Somebody’s out to get me,’ or ‘The universe doesn’t want me to succeed,’ or bringing negativity into my own life as a result of my feelings—was the biggest hurdle and the biggest work I had to do. And it was the most important work.”
Marisa Langley.
It’s an honest, relatable and valuable answer. Echevarria now accepts that as we continue to grow in our work and personal lives, there will always be challenges. The true unlocking of our superpowers comes when we learn how torel=”tag”>loafers men’s fashion
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