For as long as they can remember, Ogden-based brothers Phillip and Micah Petty have loved fashion. Their passion developed at an early age, a byproduct of attending church every Sunday, where their father was a pastor and they had ample opportunity to style-watch.
“Sunday was the fashion show for all the members: extravagant hats, suits, and ties — everything,” says Micah, head of marketing for Soul By Amé. “Fashion has always been in our genetics and in our environment.”
While fashion has been a cornerstone of the Pettys’ experience, it wasn’t until they were preparing to go to college that Phillip truly dove in, accepting a full-time position as a stylist at a Nike factory store.
“[I had to know] everything about fashion, colors, textiles, and being able to help customers know performance-wise what they should be wearing,” explains Phillip, founder and lead designer of Soul By Amé. He worked full-time at Nike while earning an associate’s degree in business. Along the way, he began to entertain the idea of taking his passion to the next level.
“[When] the pandemic hit, a time of uncertainty and having plenty of time to myself, I started designing and getting out of the box with things Nike probably wouldn’t produce, but [I thought] these ideas should be elsewhere,” Phillip says. “Soul became that channel.”
In October 2020, Phillip launched Soul By Amé, an online brand that elevates streetwear by mixing textiles like denim and tapestry and fusing them with art.
“‘Culture-inspired streetwear’ was our tagline,” Phillip says. “We elevated it to be ‘culture-inspired artwear.’ We largely see it as a fashion-based art company.”
Phillip’s designs evoke a sense of late-’90s nostalgia, an intentional throwback to the days when things were, for the most part, still analog. “We came up in the ’90s-2000s era of inspiration where mixed media was super big,” he says. “We’re into the magazine era — our parents scrapbook; we recorded everything on VHS; we remember CDs. When we created our streetwear brand, we wanted to take all of those things and translate them into fashion.”
Since their launch, Soul By Amé’s designs have been featured on runways from Park City to New York, in major outlets such as GQ and Vogue, and on stars from NFL players to influencers.
Not long after the launch, Micah came on as head of marketing to help his brother maintain Soul’s momentum and help manage the duo’s label, Essence. Essence and Soul By Amé converge on the brand’s website, where Essence Radio spins beats from a curated playlist meant to enhance the shopping experience.
At Soul By Amé, art, fashion, and music unapologetically collide to “spread the culture and serve as a segue for all people to embody and embrace the African American influence through art and fashion,” according to the brand’s YouTube channel.
The Pettys say that building a streetwear brand in Utah has had its challenges, but the lessons learned have been rewarding. “We took a risk staying here because Utah’s fashion scene is a bit slow-paced when it comes to urban or hip-hop culture streetwear, but we’ve also had the opportunity to watch something blossom and grow,” Micah says. “The culture’s grown immensely. What has made it inspiring for us, with Utah specifically, is a lot of people can connect to art.”
As they look to what’s next for Soul, the Pettys plan to explore the intersection of streetwear and formalwear — continuing to represent Utah along the way. “Being able to put Utah on the map in places where people already don’t expect us to be from Utah, and then they find out we are, that reaction we get makes it extremely worth it,” Phillip says.
Micah agrees. “We love being here. We love being able to do things that bring recognition back to Utah.”
Styling 101
For those unsure where to begin with styling, Phillip Petty recommends using Pinterest to experiment with different concepts commitment-free. “It’s always great to start with mood-boarding something,” he says. “Pinterest [is] a comfortable starting place where you can develop taste by just putting together images that you like versus images that you [don’t], and looking at them together creates a narrative for you.”
Micah Petty advises dressing for your mood and upscaling from there. “Dress according to how you feel,” he says. “If you are someone who’s into loungewear or you just want to be comfortable, okay, let’s put on some sweats. If you want to elevate it, throw some heels on with it. Crop your hoodie and maybe just throw in a little bit of accessories. That goes a long way.”
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