Hey, M. Jalil

Yes, I talked to that Jalil! About history, jewelry, and how he got into this biz (early!).

How do I love Jalil Johnson? Well, I don’t have “hall passes.” I have style crushes. They are no joke. (O, Emmanuelle Alt, wherefore are thou, Emmanuelle Alt?) And Substack means a lot of things to me, but maybe foremost in my mind, it’s the place where I first “met” my style crush, Jalil. He has this honed taste for life’s finer things, but not the simple, status-y mainstream kind of finer things. Rather, the artful, esoteric, under the radar — and fun! — kind. His style is completely his own (but inspiring to so many), drawing from mens and womenswear, a host of moods, muses, and inspirations, and above all the spice blend of his own quick mind and joyful heart. And yet he never presents anything in a gatekeeper-y way. Quite the opposite, the gates are wide open and he keeps inviting all of us inside, with open arms and a Kennedy-era silver platter of waiting cocktails (or mocktails!) that are just exactly what we were thirsting for.

I secretly not so secretly long to get a little closer to Jalil! And since we have yet to find our way to a cold brew on the Cape (one of these days he’ll let me treat him & Nick to dinner at Cast) I thought I’d at least see if he might be willing to answer some questions. And good news — [pause for a refined squeal or two] — he was. Away we go.