My personal style signifier is a pair of JM Weston penny loafers. I’ve worn them for a decade and I keep my birth-year pennies in them because, when I was a kid, I was told that was good luck. Those, plus a navy-blue polo shirt and vintage Levi’s, are my uniform. At 43, I dress more like my mum dressed me as a kid than ever before, which is a funny thing that happens to a lot of people. I rebelled in my early twenties, but when you get older you’re like, “Wait a second, this is how I’m meant to look.” I dress up more now than I used to, but part of the appeal of the penny loafer is that it brings things up a notch. We’re making a navy polo shirt for my brand Hanover, but usually I buy them from Uniqlo or J Crew. I’m really happy with the Hanover one because it’s a little thicker, and sometimes they’re too thin. Finding the right pique was a challenge, but I think we nailed it.
Chris Black’s Norda running shoes (left) and JM Weston penny loafers © Pierre Crosby
The place that means a lot to me is Elmyr, a dive bar and restaurant named after the Hungarian artist Elmyr de Hory, in Little Five Points in Atlanta, Georgia, which was the punk neighbourhood when I was growing up. It’s a total shithole, it smells bad and the walls are covered in graffiti, but I land at the airport and if the timing’s right, I go directly there. When I was a teenager, I used to eat lunch there every day and drink there every night, so it has this chokehold over that era of my life. Now that I’m sober I’m glad I can still go back and soak up the environment. I get a tofu burrito, chips and guac and water. But they’re famous for a drink called a Griz, a baby Corona with a shot of tequila in the neck of the bottle.
