'It's a special niche de luxe,' says designer Matt Dick, facing his extensive aprons rack on a sunny San Francisco afternoon. Set in the Heath Ceramics factory building in the trendy Mission District, his showroom studio is a destination in itself. The bright space meticulously displays bounties of craft and fashion rarities. They are either hand-made on the spot – like his own collection of khadi cotton kurtas – or curated from across the globe: from esoteric jewelry by collaborator Llane Alexis, to leather goods from select Japanese brand i ro se, blankets from bhujodi weavers and abstract mobiles in elm by local artist Ruth Charlotte Kneass.
Dick, a former collaborator with the legendary designer Tamotsu Yagi, has traveled extensively. Fluent in Japanese, he educated himself about rare fabrics and endangered traditional processes. Founded in 2010, his Californian Small Trade Company (st/CO) is the epitome of his high, refined, Asian-inspired aesthetic, transcending the indie terms of 'slow-fashion' or 'stealth luxury'. Hence the aprons.
The workwear line (and Dick's company name) stem from Irving Penn's 1950 book Small Trades, a collection of black and white portraits of retro professional looks. st/CO's contemporary versions dress baristas, hotel staff, servers and clerks for clients such as Blue Bottle Coffee, Heath Ceramics, Durham Hotel, the Mast Brothers and Tartine Bakery. The de luxe feeling comes from the aprons' stunning simplicity, attention to detail, and crisp or heavy natural fabrics, as well as the radical efficiency of their expert geometry.
Canvases experiment with raw dark denim, wheat linen, crisp muslin, natural poudré leather or even hemp 'stained in turmeric spice tea' (for a SF tea company). Waist ties in thin natural leather and pockets aligned in strategic positions welcome all sort of personalisations. The st/CO credo of essential chic in working contexts will next be unveiled on the staff of massage therapists, aestheticians and lifeguards at the Shibui Spa at New York's Greenwich Hotel.
The company takes its name from Irving Penn's 1950 book Small Trades, a collection of black and white portraits of retro professional looks
Matt Dick, who has collaborated with the legendary designer Tamotsu Yagi, has traveled extensively, educating himself about rare fabrics and endangered traditional making in the process
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Small Trade Company's website
Photography: Daniel Dent
ADDRESS
Small Trade Company
550 Florida Sreet
San Francisco, CA 94110
-
Wild sauna, anyone? The ultimate guide to exploring deep heat in the UK outdoors‘Wild Sauna’, a new book exploring the finest outdoor establishments for the ultimate deep-heat experience in the UK, has hit the shelves; we find out more about the growing trend
-
Highlights from the transporting Cruise 2026 showsThe Cruise 2026 season began yesterday with a Chanel show at Lake Como, heralding the start of a series of jet-setting, destination runway shows from fashion’s biggest houses
-
Behind the design of national pavilions in Venice: three studios to knowDesigning the British, Swiss and Mexican national pavilions at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 are three outstanding studios to know before you go
-
Ai Weiwei’s new public installation is coming soon to Four Freedoms State Park‘Camouflage’ by Ai Weiwei will launch the inaugural Art X Freedom project in September 2025, a new programme to investigate social justice and freedom
-
Leonard Baby's paintings reflect on his fundamentalist upbringing, a decade after he left the churchThe American artist considers depression and the suppressed queerness of his childhood in a series of intensely personal paintings, on show at Half Gallery, New York
-
Desert X 2025 review: a new American dream grows in the Coachella ValleyWill Jennings reports from the epic California art festival. Here are the highlights
-
In ‘The Last Showgirl’, nostalgia is a drug like any otherGia Coppola takes us to Las Vegas after the party has ended in new film starring Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl
-
‘American Photography’: centuries-spanning show reveals timely truthsAt the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Europe’s first major survey of American photography reveals the contradictions and complexities that have long defined this world superpower
-
Sundance Film Festival 2025: The films we can't wait to watchSundance Film Festival, which runs 23 January - 2 February, has long been considered a hub of cinematic innovation. These are the ones to watch from this year’s premieres
-
What is RedNote? Inside the social media app drawing American users ahead of the US TikTok banDownloads of the Chinese-owned platform have spiked as US users look for an alternative to TikTok, which faces a ban on national security grounds. What is Rednote, and what are the implications of its ascent?
-
Architecture and the new world: The Brutalist reframes the American dreamBrady Corbet’s third feature film, The Brutalist, demonstrates how violence is a building block for ideology
