Style Profile: So Wrong It's Right

If you spot Scott Kuhlman in his trademark glasses biking towards his eponymous Belltown boutique, you might think him a stylish academic. With impeccably cut clothes, effortlessly combined, the Seattle-based tailor is a model for looking great without playing by the rules.

Photograph by Andrew Waits for City Arts.

Who taught you to sew?
I’m mostly self-taught. I did a lot of alterations, which is how people started out in the old days. The name in the trade for it was “busheling.”

How old were you when you first realized that style mattered?
Fifteen.

Do you have any style or fashion pet peeves?
It’s interesting that people are kind of anti-fashion here, but that is a style in itself, just like atheism is a firm belief system.

Is there a style rule you feel compelled to break?
I’ll let you know. Figuring out which rules to break is what moves us forward.

What one item should every gentleman have?
A blazer.

Who are your choices for best-dressed actor and actress of all time?
Cary Grant. Katharine Hepburn.

What are your favorite local shops?
M. Gutweis, Sugartown, Wall of Sound, Zig Zag.

What three adjectives describe how you feel when you’re dressed your best?
Warm, cool, wrong.

Why wrong?
Any number of reasons. For instance: breaking a rule as you mentioned earlier. Or pushing myself outside my comfort zone. Or doing something that might get others’ anti-fashion drawers in a bunch. And wrong was a buzzword, meaning so wrong it’s right, for about five minutes about seven years ago.

WHAT SCOTT'S WEARING
(unless otherwise noted, purchased at Kuhlman) Paul Frank eyeglasses, vintage tweed blazer (Goodwill), Tailgate shirt, Lands’ End cashmere vest (father’s closet); Android wristwatch, Tellason jeans, Rockport shoes (gift from brother), Gold Toe socks.

LOCATION DETAILS
Scott was photographed outside the Lexington-Concord Apartments on 2nd Avenue, not far from his Belltown shop. Constructed in 1923, the building was nominated by the city as a historical landmark in 2007.