Chinatown Market, streetwear brand with a smile that’s disrupting how a fashion label is run
- Named after New York’s bustling Canal Street area, Chinatown Market has had the sort of early success most new brands can only dream of
- The brand has already collaborated with Cole Haan and Crocs, with upcoming crossovers planned with Vans, Puma, Converse and Timberland
Los Angeles-based streetwear label Chinatown Market was named as a tribute to New York’s bustling Canal Street – near the city’s Chinatown – but don’t expect the brand to sell you anything typically Chinese.
“I’ve had companies asking us to make rice bowls and chopsticks,” says founder Michael Cherman. “That’s never something I’m going to do. We’re very sensitive to other peoples’ cultures.”
Cherman suspected that there would be confusion around the name of his company, which has been in business for three years.
“In creating this brand, we never intended to pull from Chinese culture,” he says. “It can be confusing if you only look at the cover of the book and not what’s inside. But it’s how we work, and what we do creatively, that should define who we are.”
Despite the occasional confusion, Cherman, who dropped out of Parsons School of Design in New York after a year, has had the sort of success with Chinatown Market that most new brands can only dream of.
His streetwear-influenced collections of casual-yet-quirky pieces have found a wide fan base, and landed him in retailers including Selfridges and Browns in London, Lane Crawford and Joyce in Hong Kong, and Urban Outfitters stores all over the United States.