If you're a fan of Number (N)ine or TheSoloist, much credit is due to Al Abayan for helping develop the legacy behind these historic brands with cult followings. Al has assisted Takahiro Miyashita for nearly three decades, since the earliest years of Number (N)ine. Al was largely responsible for many of the details found in the Number (N)ine stores’ interiors such as how furnishings were styled, he also oversaw both label’s expansions into the western market. Having once managed Number (N)ine's store in TriBeCa, Al now owns his own store in the same neighborhood, RE:AL which serves as both a permanent showroom for TheSoloist and a curated boutique gift-shop.In addition to fulfilling a creative and business consultant role, Al is more importantly a long-time friend to Takahiro Miyashita. Al's involvement in the industry goes well beyond his work with Takahiro; his store recently expanded into a revolving showroom called, STUDIO - RE:ALABAYAN which champions designers such as Nicolas Andreas Taralis. Al has worked on several impactful projects in TriBeCa, including lending his interior design skills to a restaurant/gallery in the neighborhood, North Bar, and partnering in launching the luxury lifestyle store Patron of the New.Al Abayan was more than welcoming when I asked if he would be interested in participating in an exclusive interview for ARCHIVE.pdf. The two of us sat down in his newly opened showroom and shared an open conversation pertaining to his background in the fashion industry, his friendship with Takahiro Miyashita and his plans for the future.When it comes to interviews or articles about you, there is almost nothing out there. Is this a conscious decision you made? You know, I love that you're starting with this. I moved here to bring Takahiro's brand, Number (N)ine, to America. He's like a brother, he's like family to me - we've known each other now for 30 years, I think we met in '94. I moved here to develop his brand, not me. I gave him that respect. Takahiro gave me the respect to be myself, but I was here to develop him and the brand. I was part of it, but it was really about him and building his name. I moved here in the mid-90s from San Francisco, I had a brand there and that's how we met.
Takahiro Miyashita and Al Abayan. Photography by Edonishiki
It was called One by Two right?Yeah. Daiki Suzuki from Engineered Garments and Nepenthes, and his boss Keizo Shimizu found me. They bought a couple of collections. Takahiro was working for them and they brought him to America on their buying trip as they were going around to different cities. Daiki was living in San Francisco at the time and they said, "Here's Takahiro, someone new on our team, will you take him out?" Takahiro was 20, I was 24, so they're like, "Take him out, have fun." My fashions were bright colored at that moment. We would get dressed up, go out, drink and have fun. That's how we met. It was like the opposite kind of; he was buying for Nepenthes and I had my own collection.
Daiki Suzuki and Keizo Shimizu of NEPENTHES. Photo via eye_C magazine.
Funny how the roles sort of reversed, right? Yeah so then fast forward, I'd go to Japan, they would represent my brand there. We were originally going to do Number (N)ine in San Francisco. But I thought, what are we doing? The brand makes sense in New York.Pursuing a career in fashion and starting your own brand, was that something you always wanted to do? I grew up in Santa Barbara and I left at 19. I graduated at 17 from highschool and did a year and a half of junior college of business management and finance. I wanted to work in a tall building in a bank because numbers were really easy to me. I just liked that idea. But when I moved to San Francisco, I wanted to go to FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising). When I found out how expensive it was, I thought, oh my god. My mother couldn't pay for my school, so I would have to do it myself and I was never going to be able to pay for that.So I chose another route, I got a job. I worked in Palo Alto for Saks Fifth Avenue where I was doing visuals. I left Saks and started my own little business going around stores asking if I could do their windows. After that, I worked for Marithé et François Girbaud in San Francisco. I started to do their floor layouts, merchandising and sales. And then I just started. I went to Europe, bought fabric and just started making hats. I would sew them in my closet and then I took them to a store called MAC (Modern Appealing Clothing). They're still in San Francisco, they carry cool local designers. They bought like ten of my hats and sold them all in a week. They asked me if I could make more and I said, "That took months to sew."
One by Two, images provided by Al Abayan.
You were really starting to experience the production process.Yeah, keeping up with demand. I just liked home sewing, you know?Did you teach yourself how to sew? Was there someone in your family who knew how to?I don't really know where that came from. I think where the design part came in was that I was always aware of space. I'd tell my mom that the walls need painting or the curtains need to be re-hung. I was always concerned with layout, I'd always want to move the furniture around. So now whenever I go into a room and I see something out of place in a store or my showroom, I'm like, we have got to fix that. You know, it's just like innate to me.
STUDIO RE:AL via The Art of Living.
I think that's the case for a lot of people who find themselves with a career in interior design. It's an intrinsic need to fix and organize. Not entirely something you pursue to learn. But of course there are some things you can learn from other people.Yeah, you can learn the fundamentals which they'll tell you when you're starting in merchandising. Like the Pyramid Principle. But that's just one way of doing it. From a creative side and also just that neat way of doing things, you kind of just have it.So that's how it began, I started sewing and I came to New York in '95, '96? I was doing the boutique trade show at the Javits Center and had a lot of fun. I sold to Barneys, Amalgamated, Screaming Mimi's and Fred Segal. But then I started to feel complacent doing all of that and living in San Francisco. I didn't feel challenged, I was in my late 20's and I felt like a big fish swimming in a small pond. I kept in touch with Takahiro who had left Nepenthes around that time and just started Number (N)ine. I remember helping him because he needed sunglasses for his shop. We were just young kids trying to make something different for him and myself. We started to talk of maybe me coming to Japan. He never told me to stop doing my brand.
Number (N)ine Store in Harajuku, 1997.
So how long were you doing One by Two after Number (N)ine was founded in 96?I was doing my brand up until 2001. Oh wow.I had stopped the "seasonal" thing, because I was just making t-shirts and selling it to Japanese clients at that point. I just wasn't getting anything out of it. I had a store in San Francisco and my own little factory in Potrero Hill, but I wasn't impassioned anymore. I started working with marketing companies doing uniform designs for Procter & Gamble. I did a uniform for Coca Cola once.
Image provided by Al Abayan.
Are there images of your brand at all online? I did some searching and couldn't find anything.Probably. I was going to bring - I have this binder where I keep all my One by Two stuff. It was written about in the San Francisco Chronicle once. San Francisco was really good to me. Those were my formative years and made me into the individual I am today. I love San Francisco and I wanted to make it work there. There was a design community in San Francisco, but eventually I gave up and decided it was never going to happen.
One by Two, image provided by Al Abayan.
I came to New York and thought, this is where I am supposed to be. You could feel the energy and well, it was the next chapter. That's why I always wanted to drive on the sidewalks to get around people in San Francisco. You come here and that happens. You know, 'get out of my way, we've got stuff to get done!'You can tell the Number (N)ine Store had San Francisco elements, such as carrying City Lights Bookstore merchandise.Yeah, yeah! It just feels very San Francisco. A place you'd find there with some alternative musicians hanging out, books and records piled up everywhere.Well that's where Takahiro and I met. Being young and connecting - saying to each other we kind of have the same idea, philosophy even though we're very different. We both came with no formal training in fashion. He was very particular in the way he did things and I'm very particular in the way I do things, we respected that about each other. That's one of the most important things, that we respect each other. I think that's why our relationship has been so strong.
Did you see Takahiro as a designer when you first met him? Since he was working as a buyer and doing press.Yeah because he was also a stylist and he was working with all the magazines. He had this energy, this kind of flair of putting things together from a styling standpoint. I loved that. Anyone can make clothes, but it's about how you put it together.
Takahiro Miyashita in Smart Magazine ca. 1996
Making it all cohesive.Yeah, yeah. So that's the beginning. As time went on, it's the way he took things apart and reconstructed them, turning the styling into the design of the garment. It got really deep. That was intriguing to me because I came from not having any money. We always made things, dyed things, we bleached them. So the way he built things and always having that vintage element in there spoke to me. There was this synergy and I wanted to be around that. I decided, I don't need to design, I'm a part of this.Did you feel your creative desires were still being utilized because you were working as a creative consultant?Right, yeah. We would go on research trips together for every collection after each show he did. We would travel across the U.S since that's where he always wanted to go. He would say, let's go to three cities. We're going to do Portland, Austin and Los Angeles and I want to look for these things. He'd have his two assistants, myself and him, maybe a shop manager - always like three to five people.
Takahiro Miyashita and Al Abayan.
Traveling in like a clique.Yeah. So we'd say, we're looking for like, vintage cowboy boots from the '40s or something - whatever it was. We'd have an objective. Then before the trip, I'd have to do research of where we are going to find those, whatever we were looking for. I also had to plan what else he could see that would stimulate him creatively.So I knew what he liked and I knew what might push the boundaries of his creativity, mind and thought process. I would try to find like a simple hotel that fit into our budget, but cool restaurants or something - just to get him to discover things.I always thought, why would Takahiro make a t-shirt with a menu from a restaurant? Why a T-Shirt with the Oregon sign? It makes sense, he was telling the story of you all traveling together.
White stag red nose sign and Number (N)ine t-shirt.
Yeah. The team would always do what Takahiro wanted, because that's what they were supposed to do. But I'm off and you know have a little bit of a different aesthetic. I'd say what about these, what about this? He would either laugh or say, "Oh, that's great - do you want it? Are you going to buy it?" I just bought things for my personal use, I didn't have a collection, I wasn't designing anything. I like vintage things, I love thrifting anything from furniture, objects, to clothes.This whole part was exciting to me because I wasn't building a collection, but I felt like I was part of the process for him to get there with each collection. Then to see it at the end was so rewarding, that we were all a part of it.From the start was there always a vision of Number (N)ine as a runway brand? When the brand started it was very streetwear oriented, he wasn't doing high fashion.I think that happened after he did the first show in Japan. He wanted to show in Paris.
Number (N)ine A/W 2000, images scanned by Archivings Stacks.
That was largely because of Jun (Takahashi), right?Yeah. I think he thought, well here's my friend doing it, I want to go and do mens. Because Jun was just doing womens. I don't think there was a real plan. I never heard it.
Jun Takahashi and Takahiro Miyashita.
So the opportunity presented itself and it came to fruition by him seizing the opportunity. Yeah and to do it his way. That's always been so much a part of him and how we built the brand. When I came on board they started to meddle in the way I was doing things here. His partner and the managing director. They were like, "Well what about doing it this way and like this?" I thought, 'I'm American, you hired me to do this in America, you have to let me do it. In America, things are done differently and if you want your brand to be successful here, we have to do it this way.' I was very direct and I still am. That's why we get along, that's why it works because I’m able to give my opinion. He doesn't have to agree, because as you know, it's about his vision? So we have to be able to have that relationship, otherwise I couldn't have stuck around this long.It seems like your guys' dynamic is perfect. You both compliment each other’s personalities well.And I'm not saying it has all been easy.Like all things.Yeah. But I truly respect him. And it's a two-way street. He gives me something and I give him something. And the team, the people that I've worked with along the way have been great. Everyone from the internal team to people in Paris. It's been a great 30 years of growing together, he just turned 50 you know and I just turned 55. I was just talking with Daiki from Engineered Garments, and he said, "I never knew that I was going to know you for 30 years when I met you." We talked about interior design earlier, was working on the Number (N)ine stores your first experience in that field?In San Francisco, I had designed my own store. I did everything myself, the construction.What was the aesthetic like?
Al Abayan store in San Francisco. Images provided by Al Abayan.
The floors were occupational safety-hazard orange with a big gold diamond in the middle. Moons and stars, it was very kind of like, I don't know (laughs).That was the first interior I did, I never really thought that was it. I didn't know that was "interior design". The store needed to look like something, it had to look good. That just kind of started it. When we did the Number (N)ine stores we hired an architecture firm.Line-inc?Yeah so they kind of conceptualized it, but Takahiro and I found every antique ourselves.The first stores' interiors were very minimal, concrete slabs.
Number (N)ine store in Ebisu (May, 2000). Photography by Kozo Takayama.
Yes. There were like four stores like that. They would open for a year and then we destroyed them. What was the reasoning behind that, why were there so many stores in the early years? His reason was that too many people found out about it. He would close them and then move on to another. That speaks so much to his character.It was all undisclosed, no telephone, not listed in the directory to find it.Weren't there financial concerns? Didn't somebody say, "Hey, we're making money. Why are we closing down these stores every time we get traffic?".I think the thing was that he was the designer, the creative kind of genius behind it all. We thought, let's listen to him because it worked.Most people don't understand this, and I say it all the time. The more people can't have something, the more they want it.That's very true. Especially if we're talking about designer, high price point items.It shouldn't be there for everyone. It can be, but you have to find it.You have to put in the effort to find niche things, that's the whole point of it being niche.That was the whole point of it all, I didn't want everyone wearing it. Why are you spending $3,000 dollars on this beautiful thing? Regardless of how it's made, you don't want everyone on the street wearing the same coat as you.It adds value. You wear the coat and you say, "I searched for this, I found it and it's personal.”That doesn't exist anymore because no one wants to discover. No one wants to take an opportunity on a brand that's unknown or walk down the street that doesn't have a light on it. So I think that's why he did what he did. Close it. There's too many people, there's lines of people. Let's just close it, unlist it.Bringing the brand to New York, what was the decision like placing the store in a far away, hidden corner of TriBeCa?
Number (N)ine store in TriBeCa. Photography by Kozo Takayama.
Well originally we were going to do it in San Francisco and I bought this old bar. It was going to be on the ground floor of this bar in Potrero Hill.You actually bought a bar?(laughs) That's a whole other story - we don't have time for that.Never opened the bar, had the license and liquor, but it never actually functioned. It was just before September 11th and Takahiro had rented an apartment on Thompson st. 150 Thompson I think.He lived in New York?Between Houston and Prince. He never lived here, but he had a place for him because we were coming back and forth trying to figure things out. Initially we weren't going to open a store. It was just supposed to be wholesale and press, which I was responsible for and we were going to slowly introduce the brand to the Western world.We liked TriBeCa, we liked SoHo. TriBeCa because it was still quiet then. He was very concerned for me, he's like "You're moving to New York and you don't have a lot of friends here. I want you to be safe and to feel comfortable." Always very respectful in that sense. I was leaving my life in California, eleven years in San Francisco to come here for him basically. I was going to live in New York and there was going to be a little work, press office in the showroom. We never found anything. Then we were walking around just him and I maybe the Tokyo shop manager too and we saw the building on Washington st. It had this "for rent" card on it. It was after September 11th, that was one of our reasons as well. We wanted to be back in the city, being here more felt like helping the city rebuild kind of.You were a part of the communal resurgence after it.So we called the number for the building and no one would answer. Takahiro told me to keep calling, “You gotta keep calling!” I was like, "I just called! I left a message and the guys not answering."Finally the phone rang and I told him we were really interested. He wound up being a really cool guy and we got the building. We went to this steakhouse on the corner and we had champagne, celebrating, “We got it!” We were so excited. Then he went back to Japan, he took a year off.That's why he had the double collection for 2003 right? That year had one show for both seasons.Yeah. We had just signed the lease and I was moving. Takahiro says, "I need to take a year off."Personal reasons or because of the expansion?No, personal reasons. He needed to take time off for his health. I said, well the first thing is that you need to get healthy. So yeah, take whatever you need. I'll be fine. So for that whole year I just kept planning for our opening, working with Line-inc. Okay, we need speakers and I needed to find this tin ceiling. I would just travel around for antiques and I found everything to put that place together.
Number (N)ine store in TriBeCa. Photography by Kozo Takayama.
So the TriBeCa store was the focus and the stores in Japan conformed to its aesthetic?Yeah. Takahiro wanted to take the Tokyo stores and change the modern look they had to make them more like the TriBeCa store. So actually, Tokyo re-opened before TriBeCa did, looking like the TriBeCa store. They designed Tokyo to look like the New York store. Instead of gray cement the store became brick, warm, broken down, very romantic.
Number (N)ine store in Ebisu (May, 2000). Photography by Kozo Takayama.
Was there communication with you and Takahiro, where you would ask him what he thought about the design of the store? Did he just leave it in your hands?I didn't talk very much to him during that time. He needed to step away. There were moments where he could and there were moments where he couldn't. He needed to be kind of alone. But I worked very closely with Line-inc and they would give me a packet, a tech pack in a sense. I kind of followed that and then I didn't follow it so that I could find things I thought were fitting for the space. It was still his concept, he designed it, but we’d have to make it work. In the beginning we weren’t even going to have doors. It was just going to be open, like a garage. I thought, 'what about the conditions? It’s winter, how is everyone going to work there?' We evolved, changed things. I would always add things, and find other old pieces.When you say you found things, where were some of the places you’d find them? Like for example, the clothing racks?These are actually two of them (points to a rack behind him). I saved some of them. For these we found actual gate posts. I would just travel around to like junk shops upstate and in Connecticut. The Tokyo stores wanted the racks. So I had to find people to make them again, ship it and do it all over for the New York store. It was a nightmare. It was fun though.Tokyo got the television wall with all the broken, 70s kind of looking TVs. Then we had the speaker wall that divided the store. That back part of the store was supposed to be the showroom, but we decided we needed that for stock. We started showing the collection in Paris so we didn’t need a showroom in New York. We dropped the idea of having a showroom, press office.
Number (N)ine store in Ebisu (May, 2000). Photography by Kozo Takayama.
What were your emotions like towards the closure of Number (N)ine in 2009? This was over a decade long period of your life, working on the brand.At first Takahiro called me and he said, “I need to tell you something. I’m going to get on a plane and I’m going to come see you because I think I should tell you this in person.”At that point, I kind of knew what was happening.Was there foreshadowing to his decision at all?No, because he was at the height of his career, the height of the brand. We had just started N(N) by Number (N)ine which was growing. The brand was big, it was starting to really become something and we knew that. I kind of begged him. I said, can we keep something? Can we keep the tailored line? This brand helped us keep our creativity and do the things we wanted to do. But he said, “No, it’s just too much. It’s too big”Once his mind is set. It’s done. It’s over. He goes, “Don’t worry, we’ll do something else”.
Number (N)ine closing letter.
I’ve read and heard from others that it was a “Too many hands stirring the pot” situation. Was that the case?Maybe that was part of it. I think it was just too big. He felt it was becoming something that he didn’t think he wanted. He would say, “I don’t even know all the people’s names in my company”. It just grew way out of his hands, very fast. We were still young, still doing things the way we did in the beginning, how do you sustain that? Scaling it up, would he be okay with mainly selling denim and hoodies rather than pieces from the runway.Fast forward to TheSoloist, that’s why you see the beginning stages being so hyper-different than Number (N)ine.There's an essence of Number (N)ine, but it's so different. The concept was initially making things he would wear himself. If I'm not mistaken, all the clothes were modeled to his body.Right. Yeah, yeah.
After Number (N)ine closed, did you know you were going to continue your journey with Takahiro, whatever he chose to do next? Did you ever see it as a blank space opportunity to do something new?I was worried because we were older. This is all I had done. I kind of gave up my career with design in a sense for the brand. On the other hand, we can do whatever we want. We built and had a foundation. I respected his decision. Would I have done that if it was my business? I probably wouldn't have done it the same way. But I knew that he would do something else and have me involved to be his partner overseas, because he knew I would do it in a way that was respectful to him.Were there any safeguards put into place so that what happened with Number (N)ine didn't happen with TheSoloist?Because of the way he built it, it kind of kept the parameters, the way it’s designed, the fit, all of that stuff. It could only be so big. It still is a business; if you want to go to Paris and do a runway, we have to pay.Employees, staff. You have to pay for things.Yeah, that's not free. Exactly. Unless you're independently wealthy where you can fund those things and money just doesn't matter. You have to make a profitable business that can sustain itself. So obviously TheSoloist had to grow, slightly different from what it was and where it is today. You can see the evolution of it, but it's still him. The team is still very small, very intimate.With Number (N)ine we created things that were more trendy, we created trends in Japan. There were massive lines waiting outside releases for t-shirts. TheSoloist is different. It doesn't have that.I kind of describe his work now as more intellectual. You have to understand it and believe in it. It's different from Number (N)ine which was almost thematic in a sense.Very thematic and conceptual. Storytelling like, "This collection is about Kurt Cobain if he never died and was inspired by Johnny Cash".Yeah, yeah.
S/S 2007 invitation cards.
When Soloist first started it was very Artisanal. It had a handmade feeling, with eArth dyes, the Re-size series and unique fabric construction techniques. Now it has a more oversized, tech-wear aspect to it. What was the transition like there?It's funny because we've been talking about it internally. How it has gone from that artisanal, undone, unraveled, tailored look. Now it's more tech, closed in. You know I think that transition was when COVID happened. Everything kind of closed and he was designing in his own room. Takahiro tells stories in his collection and I think there were less stories to be told, therefore you see it in his collections.
TAKAHIROMIYASHITA The Soloist. A/W 2010 (Left) and A/W 2018 (Right)
Reflective of the reality we live in. That's what is always so beautiful. He’s the best at telling a story, from the music to the clothes, to the setting. Every time I see a show, it almost brings you to tears because of how perfectly thought out it is and how much time we put into it. Then it’s over, we move onto the next one. We start those trips again, visiting different places. I do miss that. He hasn't left Tokyo since COVID. I know one day we'll start that again. That's an important part of his design process, finding and telling the story. It's so much smaller now though. In the beginning, it was just him and I. I used to sell TheSoloist out of a duffel bag because we didn't do Paris. I'd go to Barneys and Maxfield with a duffel bag and hang everything up. I wouldn't bring the whole collection of course so I'd just have like swatches for things.I'm sure he already created a good relationship with some of those buyers and stores through Number (N)ine.Yeah. They trust us. They know we're always going to give good quality.Tell me about opening Patron of the New. How did that come to be?I had this person approach me and their son was a fan of Number (N)ine. They asked me if I would partner with them to create a store. At first I said no, and then I said yes. I came up with the name Patron of the New because I wanted it to be about new things, I always loved new things. So Takahiro was inbetween Number (N)ine and TheSoloist, it was a weird time where I had a year to myself. I wanted to be in TriBeCa because that's where my community was and that's what I understood. So I designed it as a community space where you could come and see things that were undiscovered. It was created from the ground up with friends. The racks were done by a friend of mine. An architect friend did the layout, another friend did the lighting. It was my design, but with the help of different fabricators helping me make it all come to life.How did RE:AL come to be?It's basically where you stop when that happened, in 2019. Michael Matula, a friend of mine who owns Mud Honey Salon had to move out of SoHo and he had this big space in TriBeCa. He asked me if I wanted to do a store again. I wasn't sure because I was just doing TheSoloist wholesale at the time, which was great. Then I started working with Greg Chait and The Elder Statesman. I was helping him do wholesale, building great showrooms. He had just won a CFDA. I looked at the space Michael had and it was kind of cool. I thought, we can make this cool. When would I have another opportunity to open a store with a friend and in a neighborhood I understood? So I did it. RE:AL is supposed to be a retail store with a gallery sensibility, always revolving. One body of work created with an artist, designer or brand and then it would go away after a month or few and it would then live on the website. I did an Elder Statesman winter shop at RE:AL and then we did TheSoloist Converse, a friend’s vintage furniture. Then COVID happened and we couldn't do openings. I just decided, okay, I'm going to turn it into a gift shop with things that I like. RE:AL is 100% me now. It's telling the story in my way.
RE:AL store.
How did STUDIO come to be?Similar thing where the space presented itself and I took the opportunity. I started to work with brands that needed to develop. When you're a small brand nowadays people don't want to work and help develop them. There's so many brands out there and I know how to show them in a way that elevates them. You can show a young brand next to something more established. I'm helping that brand get there, showing it in a way that speaks to the brand’s importance. Are there any specific criteria you look for in a brand?If I love it. That's all that matters. I don't work with a brand unless the person and I see eye to eye when it comes to brand development. If we don't see it, I will never accomplish what we want to do. Sales or creatively, it'll never work. I'm not a salesperson. I only sell things because I love it and I love your story.The Soloist speaker that's launching, tell me about that.Takahiro had the opportunity to design a speaker. So his idea was he wanted it to look just like the Flat Iron building. We're launching the speaker in Tokyo, Shanghai and in New York. It only works on bluetooth.
The Soloist Flat Iron Speaker. Image provided by Al Abayan. Photographed by Fred Galloway.
Have you listened to it yet?Yes. Yeah, it sounds good. This is the first generation, there will be others based on this.Favorite Number (N)ine collection?God, that's so hard. Noir.
Favorite Number (N)ine item?I love tailoring, and he does such beautiful tailoring. I really liked early collections like Time Migration. I have a lot of the Axl Rose collection, there were a lot of tailored jackets.If you had to pick one?My Spring/Summer 2004 double breasted coat. The lining is so beautiful, it looks like Liberty London.
Number (N)ine Spring/Summer 2004 “Dream Baby Dream” look
Same questions, but for Soloist.This chesterfield coat.
Favorite Soloist collection would be Autumn/Winter 2018.
Thank you so much.Thank you. I'm very honored, very honored.
