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OutsideNoah’sshopinNewYork,a smilingfamilyoftourists
stops to take picturesinfrontofa muralofa cartoonpigina
suit with the caption“PigBrotheris watchingyou.”Therefer-
ences 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 busi-
ness—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 seem-
ingly in conflict: surfers, skaters, and punk rock fans who wantMenswearlineNoahbringsanin-your-face
honesty to luxury retailing
By Angelo Spagnolo Photographs by Lumia Nocitotochallengethemanwhilewearingnicelymadefabricsand
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 hard-
core bands like Youth of Today and the underground straight
edge culture of the 1980s and ’90s.The Preppy Punk
Babenzien in his
Manhattan shop