Who They Are: Generally, these Breakout Philebrity posts are reserved for a single human being, but since just last May, local shirtmakers Commonwealth Proper have established such a strong brand and following that, hell, in a city notorious for its failures in producing celebrities, Commonwealth Proper somehow counts. To answer the “who” question, though, CWP is the pairing of lawyer Craig Arthur von Schroeder and designer Bela Shehu. Friend ‘em up on Facebook here.

What They Do: They make shirts. Nice ones, too, that carry a strong fitted line — somewhere between classic Brooks Brothers and a more tailored, British mod style. And as their website shows, they look great on men and ladies. The shirts, designed by Bela, are entirely hand-made by a team of all-local tailors — no sweatshops for this gang. (Or at least, not yet.) As of tonight, when they celebrate their new line of winter scarves with a party/trunk show at North Bowl, they’ll also be in the accessory business.

Hated On For: Nothing. If we really had to dig, we’d say they shouldn’t be photographing their male models wearing these shirts untucked. Real men tuck a damned shirt in, son.

Loved By: Potentially, every man who’s ever bought a button-down at a Big Box like H&M, only to realize they just wasted that money because after one wear (sometimes less), that shirt is little more than a rag with buttons that makes you look like middle management. And also, every woman who loves that man.

Over/Under: The menswear market — especially the local menswear market — is a wildly underserved one, especially if you’re a guy who actually cares about the way he looks. Through its design and marketing, Commonwealth Proper articulates something about that, and we wouldn’t be surprised if they started to catch on in a major way. Taking all that in, knowing what we know about Philly’s retention rate on people with great ideas, they’ll either be in NYC by the beginning of next year or they’ll be here for life. We encourage them to choose the latter.

Read about more Breakout Philebrities here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 3:51 pm.