My problem was playing ice hockey growing up. Two decades later, I still have outsized quads and glutes relative to my waist and inseam, which makes it impossible for me to wear any pants off the rack. Denim is my fashion enemy #1. They either fit like yoga pants or knickers.
When loose fitting, wide-cut “dad jeans” recently began making a comeback, I quietly rejoiced that my old baggy Levis and Carhartts were back in style. My wife recoiled. For the next few years I gave up on denim entirely—which made my wife recoil even further as I retreated back to even less well fitted pleated chinos. Then, thankfully for both of us, along came Monfrere.
“Ever since I was 14 I always wanted to work in fashion,” says Steven Dann, co-founder of the startup jeans brand.
“I started my journey with fashion working at Maraolo, which was a shoe and accessory store in Great Neck that carried all high-end designer brands. I went on to work for Armani, Gucci, Versace and Donna Karen. No matter what kind of education you have there is no schooling for working with these people one on one.”
In 2005, after a decade of mentoring, Dann went out on his and launched his first eponymously named boutique Steven Dann in downtown Great Neck not far from where he began his first job, with his own hand-curated collection of designer brands. The boutique was an immediate hit, leading to Dann opening a second in nearby Greenvale, followed by his own namesake shoe line in 2011. While Dann featured a few select denim brands in his stores, they were more back rack accessories than designers he led with in his storefront windows. Marriage would eventually change all that.
