Talking culture,Instagram and the importance of consistency with Oldmanalan
Oldmanalan is a 38-year-old multifaceted creative running some of the communities most influential Instagram pages including @SeeReverseForCare, @What.You.Wearing, and @Film.Wave in addition to his own brand. We sat down with Alan to talk about his opinions on the new fashion culture, business on Instagram, and his favorite creatives in the industry.
YMM: Name, age, where are you from.
My name is Alan, a lot of people know me as Oldmanalan, Im 38 and I live in Los Angeles
YMM: Tell us about your upbringing, and how you got interested in fashion and design.
Yeah, I grew up pretty much all over the West Coast. My late father was in the Navy so we kind of moved around a little bit. Started off in Sacramento, the Sacramento area up north, which is near the bay. Then we moved to Vallejo, spent four years in Hawaii and then came back again to Sacramento.As far as how I got interested in fashion and street culture I'd say the first few things that got me into that culture were sports, music and probably TV. Around 1995, 1996 was when I started to figure out who Michael Jordan was, rap music started to get on my radar, and really that's what got me into this world. Music in general is still to this day one of my biggest inspirations. Whenever I get stuck on anything, music is what refreshes my brain and keeps me in a little pocket where I stay creative.
YMM: What brands were you on back then?
The only things we cared about back then was obviously Nike and Jordan. That was peak Jordan era, you know, that was the 95, 96 Bulls. That was when the Elevens came out. It was just insane, you know. As far as streetwear brands, I think at the time I loved a lot of the Hip-Hop brands like Akademics, Mecca, Seanjohn, Rocawear, the stuff that people in rap were wearing at the time. I also loved Ecko. You know skateboard legend Marc Ecko the founder of Complex. He's a fucking legend. A lot of people don't talk about him enough. Really early on, he was smart enough to see into the future and realize, like let me turn this clothing brand into a media company because this culture needs documenting.
YMM: How would you describe your profession?
You know, I try to figure that out myself every day, to be honest with you. I do so many different things every day. When somebody asks what I do, I can't even really answer it. I create my own personal stuff every day for all the brands under my umbrella but also I’m a business owner and I do everything that comes with that you know. There's so many different things that come into this when you're doing it by yourself or even if you have a small team behind you. You can't really have just one title. If you have one title, you're not doing it right.
YMM: What does your team look like?
Day-to-day stuff is mostly just me, to be honest. I have a small team that helps me with rollouts and visuals on drops. They just help to push the brand but really at this time, I'm just kind of dug in and out doing it myself. My team will definitely expand this year but yeah right now it's just me.
YMM: You run so many influential Instagram pages in the fashion scene, how did you get started with Instagram? What was the first page you started?
Yeah, so my very first page was just my page, Oldmanalan. After that though, I made a page called TodaysHype. I would drop news and other stuff on sneakers and streetwear, it was super wack. That's really another example though, you know what I mean? Looking back on it, it was super wack but you just have to jump in and see what works, what doesn't, and keep it moving.
YMM: Toyojis has been one of my favorite vintage pages for a while. How do you source for Toyojis and how would you describe the curation of the page?
Unfortunately, I haven't really been able to give Toyojis as much time and effort as I would like to in the past six months but when I have the time I want to give it as much attention as it deserves. I source all that stuff myself, I like to put people on to things I love in vintage. It's mainly timeless stuff I put up there and people seem to fuck with it.
YMM: I remember 2019/2020 seeing you put on Carhartt jackets on Toyojis and kinda being at the forefront of that workwear craze.
I think it was just a good time to show people that stuff like that exists. At that time, a lot of people weren't dropping stuff like that. I had so many different crazy colors and stuff that I still couldn't find to this day just because it’s become such a big thing. It's dope to see though man. All the kids like yourself are super into it, which I love. Vintage is the way to go, three fourths of my closet is still vintage even to this day.
YMM: What do you think the role of Instagram is in business and art nowadays?
Instagram is my main way of getting it out to the world. It's definitely not the best app in the world, especially now. It sucks pretty bad but it's just been around for so long. It's so established. Unfortunately, as much as I'd love for some other platform to come in and, you know, take its weight, it's just always been there. A lot of people have discovered me from there since day one. So for me, it's still the best way to do it, even though you have to fight algorithms and all this if you can stick it through and not consistently worry about that every day and just worry about what you're doing and putting out there, you'll become successful eventually. You know, it's just consistency and not stopping is what you got to do.
YMM: All of your pages have such a strong community behind them, especially What You Wearing and See Reverse for Care. What does this community mean to you?
What You Wearing is super, super fire. I've been able to organically create and build these pages and communities. It’s been great to mold What You Wearing into a specific fashion aesthetic that people fuck with and there's not much effort I have to give at this point for it to continue going, which is honestly the best part of that. When you build organically, it sustains itself. As long as the curator behind it is giving people that consistency every day.
YMM: What You Wearing is just kids sending in fit-pics and you reposting your favorites right?
Yeah, people just tag the page with whatever outfit picture they post that day and that's what I do, go through and choose whatever pictures to feature. It's something easy for them to do on their end and it helps support whatever they're doing. That's also another reason why people do fuck with me still, the number of people I've helped put on in whatever lane they're doing, whether it be fashion, photography, or anything. To me, that's one of the coolest things. Creating content is cool, selling things is cool but being able to help people push whatever they are doing, their business, brand, or even personality to the world, that's the best part.
YMM: You seem to parody this new-era fashion culture in many of your recent products. “I'm not vintage but this shirt is” “I Don’t work construction, I just really like this shirt”. What are your thoughts on the new wave of fashion and do you think you are almost making a mockery of the community you helped create?
100%. Yeah. That's actually why I did it. As much as I love fashion and stuff, I honestly can't take it too seriously. The people that might be in the highest spots in fashion that are responsible for what we see every day, need to laugh at themselves a little bit. Especially when you get into the luxury shit and the most expensive shit we all want. It's taken so fucking seriously to the point where it's kind of becomes a meme of itself, you know? That is the idea behind the shirt and everything else I’ve made like it. It's an early concept and something that I won't do forever. I'm just getting my feet underneath me to even push this brand out the right way.
YMM: What’s one of your favorite pieces you have released?
The one I wear all the time, which is this beanie. The standard OMA beanie is just a classic, so many people just hit me up saying they wear it all the time so that's really a no brainer to me.
YMM: Who are some of your favorite Instagram pages or content creators?
I've been able to meet some good friends through this. I've been doing this for over a decade. One of my good homies is Mark Nguyen @marklashark. He's Justin Timberlake's photographer but he owns a couple of brands as well. He just did a collaboration with Saucony last year with his own shoe. @vandythepink, another amazing creative dude. There are a lot of different people I can name personally. I don't really fuck with too many brands. To be honest but you know, as far as the ones I do fuck with, I’ve been fortunate enough to meet and become friends with brands like Aime Leon Dore. I've talked to Teddy several times. He's such a cool dude for what he's been able to accomplish and still super normal and very humble. Similarly to Teddy is Ronnie Fieg from Kith. Super dope dude and very humble.
YMM: What’s your favorite car, album, item of clothing you own, brand, movie?
My favorite car would probably be a skyline. That's always been my favorite car. I'm a huge Fast and Furious fan so since the first movie, that's always been an iconic thing.
YMM: What do you drive now?
I just drive a hybrid now hahaha. I drive way too much every day so as much as I would love to drive something crazy, it just doesn't make sense right now.
My favorite album would probably be MF Doom Madvillainy.
My favorite item of clothing is this jacket I just got the other day at the Salvation Army. It was like $25. Just a really good-fitting lambskin leather jacket made in Canada. Like fucking perfect cut. Something I'll never, ever get rid of. I've been wearing it almost every day.
YMM: What are some of your ultimate career goals?
I want to be able to grow at a consistent rate, collaborate with my peers that I respect, and stay consistent. I try not to put too many expectations on a lot of this because it's so day-to-day and up in the air. I've never been the type of person to ever put something on the wall and be like if I don't accomplish this, I'm a loser or whatever. I try to stay far away from that type of mentality. As long as I'm, you know, consistently growing and becoming better, I'll be happy.
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Keep up to date with Alan and his many ventures on Instagram at @Oldmanalan
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