How do you know a Bay Area party is good? When 76-year-old Calvin Hom is there. Despite being retired for 30 years, the best-dressed man in Chinatown maintains a social schedule that would make even Mayor Daniel Lurie tired. As I tried to keep up with him over the past few weeks, I could barely catch my breath.
Hom is the chicest septuagenarian in San Francisco — maybe anywhere. I met him two years ago, when he became the unexpected star of my birthday party. As we were wrapping up a celebratory dinner at China Live, a friend, dressed in head-to-toe black leather, noticed Hom at the bar in a similar fit. They struck up a conversation, and before we knew it, Hom had joined us for karaoke.
Soon, I started seeing Hom everywhere — at art openings, parties, the Academy of Art University fashion show — always dripping with accessories and wearing his signature black, layered wardrobe. He’s my fashion icon.
And I’m not alone. Everywhere Hom goes, people flock.
“People are naturally drawn to him because of his style and vibes; the way he views friendships surpasses age gaps,” says Josh (who declined to share his last name), a fashion photographer who considers Hom a mentor. “I don’t even know how he does what he does, at his age especially.”
Over snacks and tea cocktails at 13 Orphans, a stylish mahjong speakeasy inside Oakland’s beloved Baba’s House, Hom tells me he was born in Chinatown to Chinese immigrant parents. While his siblings turned to medicine, as the classic first-generation immigrant path instructs, Hom was a “delinquent, a black sheep.” He frequented pool joints as early as 14, sneaking in thanks to his personal connections. He skipped high school altogether to work his way up at a shoe store. Later, he became interested in graphic design and got a college degree in the field, then worked at various firms. Most notably, he worked on the celebrated branding of the clothing line Esprit. Hom retired in his 50s.
Hom got married at 28 and welcomed his first child at 29 but has been “happily” divorced for 35 years. He has four grandkids, who call him “GP” — “I’m not ready for grandpa,” he jokes. The grandkids find his style “very interesting.”
Hom remembers how, in the early 1960s, he instructed his brother to taper and shorten a pair of pants to emulate a then-trendy style, causing a commotion at school. “I was about 13,” he says, “and that was a real wake-up moment — that was fashion!” He loved reading GQ; watching fashion coverage on KQED; and raiding Wilkes Bashford, Saks, I. Magnin, and Macy’s, looking for the latest styles.
In the 1980s, he was enamored of Japanese designers: Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, and Comme des Garcons, as well as the French visionary Jean Paul Gaultier. “There were a few shops in the city that carried them back in the day, and I would just go in and actually feel the fabric. And the more I saw and felt, the more I wanted them,” Hom says. These days, his closet is mostly a mix of clever online purchases and commissions from small designers.
While some look to early retirement to chill and turn inward, Hom’s interest in fashion and the arts, and his appetite for experiences, led him on a different path: social butterfly. He sees his job now as championing the local arts and the AAPI community. “I am meeting a lot of interesting people,” he says. “I feel I am sort of a conduit for them, putting them in touch with each other, in hopes that they will be able to collaborate in the future.”
Hom recently walked the runway at Neo Lunar, a “reimagined” Lunar New Year celebration in Oakland. He can frequently be spotted at the Asian Art Museum and at Abacus Row, a jewelry boutique in Chinatown owned by designer Christine Trac.
Trac has known Hom for seven years, ever since he first came into her studio and was drawn to a book about textiles. “He’s thoughtful, very fashionable, and incredibly supportive of small businesses,” she says. “He shows up for us and gives his creative input, but he’s very respectful about it. He’ll only give it if it’s sought out.”
Hom has played a big role in Abacus Row’s annual Lunar New Year pop-up. Every year Trac stacks traditional mandarins in the windows, and Hom helped her find a produce distributor with whom she has worked ever since. “He has a lot of friends in Chinatown,” she says.
Hom says he seeks out people who are chasing the things he loves most: beauty, collaboration, or dialogue. “My energy comes from just knowing that if I go to an event, that I will meet at least one person that I will be able to connect with,” he says.
To keep track of his social calendar, he uses a decidedly analog method: a bunch of Post-its on his hallway mirror. “I don’t do well with phone stuff,” he says, despite being very active on Instagram — his handle is “The Sartorial Calvin” — where he has more than 3,500 followers.
Still, Hom doesn’t see himself as an influencer but rather an “inspirer.” “If there is something that you like in what I am doing or wearing, you can take inspiration from that and make it your own,” he says.
His advice for his young fashion acolytes? “Keep it moving as much as you can, while you can. Just show up.” And with that, he’s off to the next event.