Inside menswear maverick and social media style superstar Nick Wooster's abode in the sky — hundreds of pairs of sneakers included

It was somewhere after his fifth or sixth&nbsp;conventionally charming <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/watches/omega-constellation-manhattan-29-mm-by-omega">Manhattan</a> studio that Nick Wooster decided it was time&nbsp;for a change. Swimming in a trove of covetable men&rsquo;s clothing and accessories, he&nbsp;knew that, in addition to a seasonal storage unit, he needed a proper home.

&ldquo;Living here is maybe not everyone&nbsp;else&rsquo;s dream of living in New York, but it&rsquo;s&nbsp;like the New York that didn&rsquo;t exist,&rdquo; he&nbsp;explains, sitting in his new living room.&nbsp;&ldquo;Because, listen, I&rsquo;ve lived in more studios&nbsp;than I care to remember, and there&rsquo;s something about a walk-up and a studio and&nbsp;just that struggle that most New Yorkers&nbsp;go through. I did it, but it&rsquo;s nice to not&nbsp;have to do that now.&rdquo;

Perched 30 stories above the ever-evolving Hudson Yards development, the space&nbsp;is drenched in sunlight thanks to its western&nbsp;exposure and offers a sweeping view of the&nbsp;Hudson River. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a nice way to be,&rdquo;&nbsp;Wooster adds, turning to look at the view. Upon first inspection of chez Wooster, it&nbsp;might be easy to make a quick study of the&nbsp;lauded menswear fixture, who now boasts&nbsp;nearly 800,000 loyal <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/art/best-instagram-photographers">Instagram</a> followers. There are many tightly curated stacks&nbsp;of books and magazines, most of which&nbsp;include lengthy odes to his sartorial prowess. A guest bathroom is covered papered&nbsp;in portraits made by fans from around the&nbsp;globe. One is covered in Japanese characters, and when teased about being &ldquo;big in&nbsp;Japan,&rdquo; he shoots back with a smile, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m&nbsp;actually much bigger in Korea and China&nbsp;than I am in Japan.&rdquo;

Of the apartment&rsquo;s two bedrooms, the&nbsp;master has been converted into a double-height closet space, and while it may strike&nbsp;most as an unconventional setup, Wooster&nbsp;sleeps in the adjacent guest bedroom. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s&nbsp;the ultimate luxury,&rdquo; he explains of the&nbsp;master bedroom&ndash;turned&ndash;closet. &ldquo;You can&nbsp;also see the skyline better when you&rsquo;re&nbsp;lying in the guest bedroom.&rdquo;

All of this is to say that Wooster is&nbsp;indeed the stylish clotheshorse, devoted&nbsp;so much to his art of dressing that dozens&nbsp;of brands, from Thom Browne to Paul &amp;&nbsp;Shark to Calvin Klein to <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/very-ralph-hbo-documentary-ralph-lauren-2019">Ralph Lauren</a>&mdash;the list goes on and on&mdash;are eager to collaborate with him season after season. It&rsquo;s&nbsp;not only his pedigree as a seasoned buyer&nbsp;for venerable department stores like Bergdorf Goodman and the late, great <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/barneys-bankruptcy-news-new-york-2019">Barneys&nbsp;New York</a> that makes him attractive to&nbsp;them, but his certain inexplicable panache&nbsp;that is only complemented by his silver&nbsp;hair and devil-may-care attitude. But if you can look past the several&nbsp;hundred pairs of shoes, over a hundred&nbsp;pairs of sunglasses, and that blown-up&nbsp;cover of GQ Taiwan, there are many hidden gems that lead a visitor to quickly&nbsp;discover much more about this self-proclaimed &ldquo;free agent&rdquo; of menswear.

Small bits of elevated erotica can be&nbsp;found dotted throughout the apartment,&nbsp;from a shirtless portrait of a buff, ginger-haired man from an exhibition by Thomas&nbsp;Knight called &ldquo;Red Hot&rdquo; to a coffee-table&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/politics-culture/princess-marie-chantal-etiquette-book-tips">book</a> simply titled BUTTS. There&rsquo;s even a&nbsp;small print of a writhing gladiator type&nbsp;of a man affixed to the refrigerator like&nbsp;a proud homework assignment. He wears&nbsp;an orange mesh jockstrap. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just a pervy old man&mdash;what can I&nbsp;say?&rdquo; Wooster confesses with a laugh. &ldquo;I&nbsp;think that maybe for most of my life,&nbsp;being a gay kid in Kansas in the &lsquo;60s and&nbsp;&lsquo;70s, I did everything in my power to not&nbsp;broadcast anything sexual. It was like,&nbsp;&lsquo;Oh, just be quiet,&rsquo; and that&rsquo;s one of the&nbsp;amazing things about where we are culturally is that we don&rsquo;t have to worry about&nbsp;that sort of thing.&rdquo;

Born in Salina, Kansas, Wooster is the&nbsp;antithesis of a town known best for its&nbsp;domestic manufacturing, but there are&nbsp;small hints of this <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/categories/politics-culture">culture</a> throughout&nbsp;the home. In the entryway is a schematic&nbsp;drawing of a Volkswagen, a nod to his&nbsp;father, who was a Volkswagen mechanic,&nbsp;and in a corner sits a handful of framed&nbsp;high school graduation photos. &ldquo;They&nbsp;were taken in the fall of 1977. That is so&nbsp;fucking long ago,&rdquo; he jokes. And while he admits that his family &ldquo;has absolutely no comprehension&rdquo; of&nbsp;his life, he has always maintained a firm&nbsp;stance in his styling.

&ldquo;I insisted on dressing myself,&rdquo; he says matter-of-factly. &ldquo;My&nbsp;mom could not buy me clothes or tell me&nbsp;what to wear, ever.&rdquo; Little did he know this would pay off&nbsp;for him starting in kindergarten. &ldquo;I heard&nbsp;this story, so it&rsquo;s third-hand, but I had a&nbsp;kindergarten teacher named Mrs. Voss,&nbsp;who died recently, who I never had contact&nbsp;with after elementary school,&rdquo; Wooster&nbsp;recalls. &ldquo;She told a friend of my dad&rsquo;s that&nbsp;she always remembered me and said, &lsquo;He&nbsp;was the best-dressed student I ever had.&rsquo;&nbsp;She taught at the same elementary school&nbsp;for her entire career and must&rsquo;ve been&nbsp;there for 40 or 50 years, but how is that&nbsp;possible in kindergarten? I don&rsquo;t even&nbsp;think she had any idea of this life that people know me for.&rdquo;

Tales like this make his undeniable&nbsp;success that much more inevitable. It&nbsp;appears it was fate that led Nick Wooster&nbsp;to become who he is, a universally sought&nbsp;after bellwether of good taste, evidenced&nbsp;not only in his wardrobe but his home too.&nbsp;However, no one seems more surprised&nbsp;by all this than Wooster himself. &ldquo;Maybe&nbsp;Ms. Voss could have predicted it,&rdquo; he says.&nbsp;&ldquo;But I certainly didn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;

Get a Glimpse of Fashion Mogul Nick Wooster's Skyscraper Apartment

Related Articles

Pop culture

Fashion Creatives to Follow on Instagram for Positive Vibes and Much-Needed Laughs

Fashion

Meet the Design Talents of Equinox and L'Officiel USA's Future of Fashion Initiative

Pop culture

Artist and Activist Yoko Ono's 10 Best Quotes

Recommended posts for you

Fashion

New NYC Store Openings in 2024

Be Well

What Is the Winter Arc? The Self-Improvement Trend Taking Over Social Media

Pop culture

All the Celebrities at Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024

Fashion

Get a Sneak Peek At Sabrina Carpenter’s Outfits for Her Netflix Christmas Special

Fashion

Los Angeles Fashion Week Gets Closer to Finding Itself in 2024

L'Officiel Art

Your Ultimate Guide to Art Basel Miami Beach 2024: Galleries, Exhibitions, and Events

Pop culture

Discover Paul Mescal’s Best Films and Series’ to Watch After 'Gladiator II'

Fashion

Of Course Telfar’s New NYC Store Isn’t Like Any Other