The tagline for Standard & Strange, a specialty clothing shop located in West Berkeley’s Fourth Street neighborhood, is “Own Fewer, Better Things.” Owner Jeremy Smith lives by that philosophy, an ideal that harkens back to early industrial America when “Made in the USA” was synonymous with high-quality, long-lasting products.
Ironically, Standard & Strange’s inventory is primarily made up of Japanese and European imports that were inspired by the American blue collar look—denim, boots and leather jackets—all crafted on American machinery that became obsolete when factories modernized their production methods.
Smith recalls his motivation for opening the store: “I’ve always been interested in how we choose to dress ourselves from a social and holistic perspective. And that led to the questions, ‘Why does everything suck right now? Why are my clothes falling apart? Why do they fit so poorly?’ And that pushed me into learning about manufacturing, sourcing, offshoring, etc.”
Smith and cycling friend Neil Berrett started Cedar Cycling in the early 2000s, selling superior jerseys that are still coveted today. “The problem was I put all my money into product and not enough into marketing,” admits Smith. “I learned that a good product will live forever and leave a mark, but you have to get that product into the market.”
The two decided to gamble and try again, identifying a need for a welcoming and friendly retail experience selling high-quality basics. In 2012, they turned a tiny, 100-square-foot horse stall in Temescal Alley into a clothing store. The name “Standard & Strange” comes from a passage by author Jane Jacobs, a reaction against urban renewal:
“Cities, however, are the natural homes of supermarkets and standard movie houses plus delicatessens, Viennese bakeries, foreign groceries, art movies, and so on, all of which can be found co-existing, the standard with the strange, the large with the small.”
In 2015, they moved to a larger space on Telegraph Avenue. The following years saw a slow and steady expansion as their loyal customer base grew. They opened a shop in Santa Fe in 2019, followed by a shop in New York in 2021. In 2024, they moved their East Bay storefront to its current location, formerly a bank. Smith renovated the space himself.
“All of our stores are not new builds,” he explains. “They have wear marks on them. That’s the whole point. New uses for old spaces. It’s about character and neighborhood. It’s the cracks in the economic veneer where we can sneak in, where you don’t have to pay the brutal premium to get in the door.”
Earlier this year, Berrett retired, leaving the business to Smith, who has no plans for growth and is happy with the way things are. So happy, in fact, that he and his family are moving to Japan. “I have great managers, great staff, so I don’t need to physically be here that much,” Smith says. “And it will really speed things up when I can interact with our vendors directly. For example, I can go to a tannery if I need a leather sample and touch it. I can look at the fabrics in person. All of that.”
It’s an exciting prospect for a shop owner with the intelligence and analytical rigor of a UC Berkeley professor, tattoos and nose ring included. Merchandise is tailored to each store location, and is updated on a weekly basis. “Many of our customers will just buy one thing per year. But it’s something they want more than anything, and that makes me happy. Everything we sell just gets better with age,” he notes.
A huge variety of brands are on offer, including Wonder Looper, featuring prime vintage construction details, and The Real McCoy’s, authentic reproductions of 1940s and 1950s American fashion. Some products can be categorized as “Amekaji,” a Japanese fashion style that combines Japanese aesthetics with classic American workwear.
Smith’s guiding mantra: Is this going to look stupid in 10 years? The store also offers repair and alteration services. And while one can purchase most items online, which saved them during the pandemic, Smith prefers that customers come by in person. “I know e-commerce is growing, but at the end of the day, buying clothes is a social activity. I think Americans have bought into this endless online buying more than any other culture, and as a result have become more isolated,” he says.
It is this desire for truth, this steely-eyed gaze upon the fabric of our lives, that drives Smith, making Berkeley the perfect home for a shop which calls out our greed, a beacon of old fashioned common sense in an ocean of Targets and Amazons and unfettered American commercialism.
And to think it all started with a love for denim.
Standard & Strange, 755 Hearst Ave., Berkeley, 510.373.9696; standardandstrange.com.
