HubThreads: Celebrating Boston Street Style

Photo by Diana Levine

Critics say this city has no style. We’re here to prove them wrong. Welcome to HubThreads, where we chat with the most stylish people we find out and about in Boston. Think you or someone you know has the best street style? Let us know.

ANNIE

You used to work at December Thieves? I did! I learned so much from Lana Barack, she’s great.

What are you up to these days? I’m now the head buyer for Concepts. I’ve always been into sneakers, since I was just a little girl, seeing my dad getting ready for basketball. I always knew this was the path that I wanted to go on. It took me a couple segues to get there. I originally reached out to Concepts in 2013 or 2014. I said I wanted to work for them so bad. Nothing really worked out at that time, but last year, Dion, the creative director, reached out to me and said he had something for me.

Tell me about your job. What a lot of people don’t know is that even though we’re an international brand, we’re a super small team. So I do all of the buying and I do a ton of other things too. In my day I’m looking at what’s selling, what type of buys I need, what previews I need to go to, and I’m talking to account reps. I’m also doing my own research on what’s new and what kids are talking about, what the new hype brands are, and what releases are people looking forward to. If we’re doing a collaboration with someone, I give my input on that too. It’s cool, we work in such a small office and everyone is really creative and ideas are always being bounced around. I love it.

Do you work on the apparel side as well, or just on footwear? The majority of what we buy is footwear, but we have our own apparel too. A lot of the apparel is mostly based towards men, but we’re trying to get more brands that are either unisex or have women’s sizing too. We have to cater to our bread and butter, which is the men-dominated styles, but we’re also thinking of ways to expand our business.

It’s funny that the sneaker world was such a man’s game for so long. If you look at a big release, there will be maybe five girls waiting in line because a lot of the styles don’t come in female sizes. Girls are like we don’t want pink, we don’t want pastel colors. We want everything you’re putting out, just in our size.

Has the sizing gotten better? It has. The whole athleisure trend has taken over and Urban Outfitters to Gucci has sneakers, so brands are recognizing that. It’s not there yet. We have a lot of work to do, but it’s getting better. We’ll get there.

You said your love for sneakers was influenced by your dad. Did he have an incredible sneaker collection? My dad was a basketball player during the 90s, during the Jordan era. He was very particular about cleaning his sneakers and making sure they were perfect. I remember him in the bathroom, cleaning all of his sneakers and getting ready for his game day. That’s what dad did on the weekends.

How would you describe your style? Basic in color palette and variety and then I try to dress things up with bold statement pieces. I invest in sneakers and I invest in jackets. I always try to make an effort to look my best on rainy days. It helps me set the tone for the day.

Where did that coat come from? My mom bought it for me in El Salvador. She lives there – a lot of  my clothes come from there.

What is she doing there? She was born there. She came here for college and then went back. She loves shopping more than I do, and she knows my style. She hates that I wear sneakers with everything. She would love me in peep-toe, pearl-rimmed heels at all times. She’s always in pearls.