Man of the Hour | Sean Hotchkiss

If you’ve ever perused the world of GQ (or just obsess with it like we do), then chances are you’ve spent some time on the GQ Eye - the online blog for Gentlemen’s Quarterly. As we’re quickly learning, creating content for blogs is significantly more complicated than just finding things and posting them and the GQ Eye certainly succeeds in discovering interesting and engaging eye candy. When we started conceptualizing content for this journal, one of our key initiatives was to interview interesting and well styled men. Why not start with one of the authorities?

We sat down with writer/blogger Sean Hotchkiss, (GQ Eye and GQ.com) and founder of Khaki Crusader, at his East Village apartment to talk style, Boston and dance parties. 


 
EA: Let’s start with the first date questions. What brought you to New York?

SH: I grew up in Maine so my first real exposure to New York was in between my junior and senior year in college. I had an internship here in the financial sales world at Bloomberg. I always thought I’d probably just move to Boston since that was the natural progression from Maine but, yeah, I feel like I don’t even want to say this but a big factor was a girl I was dating. She grew up in Greenwich and was so familiar with NYC. So after school I just sort of came here. 


EA: Did you know what you were going to do when you got here? 

SH: I had absolutely no idea. I got out of school when it was the best job market ever….. people literally giving jobs away. I really didn’t know myself well at that time, I just wanted to get a job. I’ve always considered myself a writer. My favorite classes in college were creative writing but I never thought I’d go get a writing job so I just came down and interviewed for finance and commercial real estate jobs. I ended up interviewing for one job and honestly took the job because the offices were incredible. [Laughing]

EA: So from there, how’d you get into discovering what was possible with your writing? 

SH: I was working the commercial real estate job in 2007 and was miserable, wearing a suit to work every day. Out of boredom, I would go online and really got into tailored clothing and men’s fashion blogs. One day my friend from back home mentioned that there was no “golf/style” blogs which she knew were two of my passions. So since I sat at a desk every day, I would finish my work and then write a couple posts. It was great because it got me writing every day; thinking in that journalistic mindset again. I started out just pulling photos from news wires of golf tournaments to critique the guys’ style. It got me in that mind set and it all started making sense…. maybe I could make a career out of it. 

EA: Describe your current style. 

SH: NYC is definitely credit for my style now. I still feel like I’m so young, it’s still evolving. Six months ago my style was different than it is now. 

EA: What brings change about your style?

SH: Now that I’ve been around it for a bit, I just want it to be super simple. Sometimes I just wish I could wear a uniform every day. In my humble opinion, the coolest dude at my office literally wears black denim, black t-shirt and a black denim jacket every day. I guess I understand…. once you’re so over saturated with this stuff all the time, it’s awesome to just pair down like that. I have too many clothes. I find myself lately wearing the same three shirts over and over. 

EA: Maybe we can start a sample sale for you online!

SH/EA: [Laughter]



EA: Do you think if you would have moved to Boston that your style would’ve evolved differently? 

SH: No question. Though I will say in the past five years, the whole blog culture has equalized things. I’ll be in Boston at the train station and see two to three guys who really look great. I think five years ago that would have been a lot tougher. New York is the best place to be in fashion. I’m sure some Europeans would argue, but certainly for the US, this is the place to be. You just get bombarded with it here. 



EA: What does your perfect New York day look like?

SH: Saturday. I’d get up, ride the bike for a while, walk it up to get coffee and people watch over on Bond Street. Then I’d probably meet someone for brunch outside on a fall day. Then maybe work on something creative with someone in the afternoon. Maybe catch up with some old friends in the evening and go out and do something fun at night. 



EA: What do you do for fun at night?

SH: I’ve certainly had periods where I’ve gone wild! [Laughter] I can’t quite do it like I used to but I’m not dead yet! I like hanging out in my neighborhood, around the East Village and Lower East Side. Sons of Essex is my favorite place right now. They have these picnic tables in the front. I’d probably just go there with a bunch of friends, have some pitchers of beer and just relax. Not really into clubs but always up for a late night dive bar. Just places where you can have a conversation, hear someone talk…. I’m not opposed to a good dance party every once in a while though. [Laughing]



Connect with Sean: The GQ Eye | Khaki Crusader | Staying Up all Night | @SHotchkissNY

Photos by Eric | Interview by Becky | Foreword & Edited by Nate