Filson D.C.

OUR ARTICLE

With a main entrance tucked just off of the city’s fastest growing corridor, at 14th and R Street Northwest, and an additional entry point through an airy showroom for the Detroit-born watchmaker Shinola, CYTIES suggests you take a choose-your-own-adventure path into the shop. 

Upon entering, wood tables and shelving, murky concrete flooring, an inviting plaid couch, neon lighting and low industrial ceilings give it an edgy, intimate and warm quality. Imagine descending into an urban explorer’s bat cave, one outfitted with sleek briefcases, messenger bags and weekenders, watches and wallets, beanies and bandanas, hats and flannel for days. There’s a versatility of effects to equip the modern man for almost every occasion; the mark of a company that’s evolved, while remaining true to its origins. The 24-Hour Tin Cloth Briefcase and Rugged Twill Original Briefcase are CYTIES favorites. Complete your haul with a charcoal Wool Packer Hat (best worn in fall and winter) . . . Is there anything slicker than sliding your thumb and index fingers cross a wide brim and finishing with a flick?

Among the mix of well-known chains and high-end restaurants inserting themselves in the neighborhood, Filson is firmly established as a welcome alternative in a city eager to shed its “stiff” rep. It’s unabashedly helping to shape the District’s maturing identity, stocked with investment pieces for urbanites that, like a well-manicured beard, only get better and more distinguished with time.

Here, functionality meets timeless style and wooded bliss, projecting an effortless, no frills expression of masculinity. If it’s possible for a brand to have an eastern Manifest Destiny, Filson is fulfilling its own and injecting some workman swagger into the local menswear scene.