The Preppy Punk

Menswear line Noah brings an in-your-face honesty to luxury retailing

- Angelo Spagnolo

Outside Noah’s shop in New York, a smiling family of tourists stops to take pictures in front of a mural of a cartoon pig in a suit with the caption “Pig Brother is watching you.” The references to author George Orwell’s dystopian novels Animal Farm and 1984 were also printed and sold on T-shirts and trucker hats as part of Noah’s 2019 spring collection. Because in today’s polarized climate, promoting in-your-face politics is clever business—and for this almost 5-year-old brand, it is the business.

Founded by Brendon Babenzien and his wife, Estelle, in 2015, Noah has hit a sweet spot by selling an identity seemingly in conflict: surfers, skaters, and punk rock fans who want to challenge the man while wearing nicely made fabrics and colorful shirts. He’s so far bet correctly that the generation that grew up on new wave and hip-hop didn’t automatically turn into dorks once they started having children of their own.

The two of them expanded the store this summer. It’s on a downtown corner of New York where SoHo and Little Italy meet the Lower East Side. In one room are corduroy pants and madras shirts that could have been rescued from your grandfather’s closet; elsewhere are tees that reference hardcore bands like Youth of Today and the underground straight edge culture of the 1980s and ’90s.

Babenzien grew up in East Islip, on Long Island, where he developed what became Noah’s penchant for nautical stripes and the classic polos, rugby shirts, hoodies, and sweaters that dominate seafaring leisure pursuits. Imagine the staple items of J.Crew, made with the premium fabrics of a Loro Piana, with a supply chain managed as tightly as Hermès’s, but with a subversive design angle that’s entirely singular. It’s the only clothing shop in New York with An Introduction to Sailing and a copy of the Skate Jawn zine on its bookshelves.