To combat the brand-name conformism so typical of today’s
young business world, UCSD graduate student Jeff Horowitz aims to sell men
clothing that exudes creativity and uniqueness.
“We’re all monkeys when we dress up anyways, at heart,”
Horowitz said.
Horowitz is part founder and front-man of DressMonkey, an
online business that caters to young male professionals, allowing the buyer to
design and tailor their own blazer, from the color and fabric down to the
number of pockets and buttons.
Horowitz usually gets up at 8 a.m., takes care of online
DressMonkey orders, goes to school, crams in homework during lunch and comes
back home to his La Jolla apartment to go over strategy and sales with his
business partner, Coley Dale, in Shanghai.
“From the minute I wake up it’s either something school
related or business related with a little bit of eating in between,” Horowitz
said.
Horowitz began as an undergraduate student at
Since high school, when receiving a C prompted Horowitz to switch from Spanish
to Chinese language classes, he had been attracted to Chinese culture. When in
college, he always imagined going to
and a trip abroad there during his junior year altered his future.
Horowitz graduated from
in 2003 with a degree in government, and although he was offered a job as a
financial adviser in
fresh out of school he decided, instead, to go back to
Horowitz saw the move as a unique way to expand his knowledge of the world.
“I fell in love with the country,” Horowitz said. “I’ve
always been interested in the culture and the language and the people. It was a
great experience for me to go into business there and continue speaking the
language and negotiate in Chinese.”
Horowitz got a job at a logistics company in
where he was the only foreigner in the entire business. Although he was there
as a businessman, he could not help but notice the discrepancies in fashion
between what he was used to and what was typical for the Chinese.
“I got to witness a lot of interesting things,” he said. “I
remember going into work and the Chinese would wear suit pants with white socks
that were coming up over their pant legs. It opened up my eyes to the
differences in style. I wish I took pictures of them.”
These dissimilarities in style, along with the custom of
tailored clothing so typical to Chinese fashion, prompted Horowitz and his
former roommate Dale, who currently lives in
to create DressMonkey. Horowitz and Dale, who met while they were abroad in
as juniors, had both gone back to
after their graduation in 2003. While roommates, they were both aspiring to
become entrepreneurs.
“We wanted to work for ourselves so we said, ‘Screw it,
let’s quit our jobs and do this,’” Horowitz said.
The company began as a clothing service for friends and
family, and through advertisement and word of mouth, the business grew. People
began to gravitate toward the concept of customizing their own clothes as well
as the name of the business itself.
The two friends created the company name while sitting on
their couch, watching a movie. They zipped through possibilities such as
Trendsetter and DressYourself; titles that simply did not satisfy or were
already taken. With a slip of the tongue, DressMonkey was born. The philosophy
behind the name is meant to encourage the young, conformist, cubicle-inhabiting
businessman to find his unique style rather than relying on brand names, a
trend that Horowitz had experienced while in
— where he had all his suits and blazers tailor-made.
“I felt compelled to address what I thought had become a
growing need for young professionals like myself: the creation of a more
respected and fashionably-dressed office monkey,” said Horowitz.
Owning a company that custom designs clothing, it comes as
no surprise that Horowitz has dealt with some strange requests. For example, he
had recently received an e-mail from a woman who wanted to recreate a specific
polyester pattern that her son wore in the ’70s with a specified insignia.
But dealing with out-there orders and customers isn’t
Horowitz’s only responsibility; he also has to do his homework.
Horowitz is currently working on obtaining his masters
degree at the
Relations
regional concentration on
Balancing demanding schoolwork with small-business ownership, while difficult,
has been a positive experience for Horowitz. Although it has taken some
adjustment, he finds that his classmates are of the same business oriented
mindset, which definitely made the transition from the business world back to
school easier.
And, because Horowitz prefers a more direct and practical
approach to learning rather than simply studying theory, he believes that IR/PS
fits him well. The curriculum includes classes on strategic marketing, global
economy, managerial economics and offers perspectives on both the micro and
macro sides of the economy.
Horowitz and his
classmates work one-on-one with local companies, creating business models with
them and working with real-life data sets. To Horowitz, this type of hands-on
experience is valuable in anything business-related that he may decide to do
after graduation. His regionalized program, in particular, combines the
cultural and political sides of
to the overall business and management training aspect, which he believes will
surely assist him in his DressMonkey endeavors.
Although Horowitz and Dale don’t see DressMonkey expanding
into a separate store anytime soon, they are looking into partnering with small
boutiques or showcasing their suits in kiosk-type arrangements in
York City
clothing options for women.
Horowitz plans to graduate this coming June, and although
his future isn’t set in stone, he is considering working on DressMonkey full
time.
“I’d be selling myself and the company short if I didn’t
devote my full time because there’s so much more we could do and there’s
definitely room to grow,” he said.
Despite the potential difficulties, Horowitz considers
entrepreneurship as a viable option for anyone with the drive and patience to
make it happen.
“It’s easier than you think to sort of build on [your] idea
and perhaps build a business based around [your] idea, based around [your]
passion,” Horowitz said. “Don’t feel intimidated or think that this is
something that only the smartest people in the world can do. That’s not true at
all.”
