The story begins shortly after I started working at Drake’s. We walked to our team dinner at Lucien after work. I was looking at Google Maps and told my colleagues, “We need to make a right on Houston [ˈ(h)justən/] street!”
Then Frank said, “In New York, it’s not pronounced as Hyoo-sten [ˈ(h)justən/] Street, it is ‘How-ston’ street.”
I was surprised and confused. It’s spelled the same as the city in Texas. Kyme then kindly explained, “Our office is SoHo, which stands for (So)uth of (Ho)uston street, and just above us is NoHo, (No)rth of (Ho)uston Street. Many areas in Manhattan have names like this. Tribeca, for example comes from (Tri)angle (Be)low (Ca)nal Street.”
After that, every time I passed Houston Street, it reminded me of that conversation. Since moving to New York, SoHo has been where I’ve spent most of my time and where I’ve met most of my friends. That’s part of my inspiration - the DNA for the Basato story.
Acting on my desire to capture the essence of SoHo, I worked with an artist to convey this story and this message into a graphic. The pronunciation you see on my sweater is a direct reflection of art imitating life.