People We Admire — Steve Marchris

On Personal Uniforms, Memory, and Imagination

There are things we choose, and there are things that quietly become part of us.

For Steve Machris, the way he dresses seems to belong somewhere between the two. His everyday wardrobe has gradually settled into what he describes as Military–Americana, with touches of Japanese style or Amekaji. A combination that has been with him since the end of university, long enough to become less of a style choice and more of a personal uniform.

It is a language built from familiar references: utility, denim, boots, layers, and pieces made to be lived in. But its origins are not necessarily found in fashion.

A Personal Uniform

Steve's relationship with clothing is not particularly driven by music. Despite being a musician, he says music no longer has much influence on the way he dresses.

Instead, some of his strongest references come from cinema — Top Gun, Forrest Gump, and war films. The characters, uniforms, and visual language of those films left an impression that eventually found its way into his everyday life.

Over time, these references became something instinctive.

What began as an interest developed into consistency. The same sensibility continued to return through different stages of his life, until it no longer needed to be consciously defined.

It simply became his uniform.

Something Inherited

Perhaps the more interesting discovery came later.

As Steve grew older, he began to notice that his personal style had a familiar quality. It reminded him of his father.

Vests. Boots. Jeans and cargo pants. Leather jackets.

His father had a strong Americana sensibility, and only with time did Steve realise how closely some of his own choices reflected it.

Personal style, in that sense, can sometimes be less about discovering something new and more about recognising something that has been there all along.

Certain things stay with us without asking to be remembered. A silhouette, a particular piece of clothing, the way someone wears a jacket. Years later, they can quietly reappear in our own lives.

Playing, Collecting, Imagining

Today, some of Steve's creative inspiration comes from an entirely different place: his son.

Playing together creates a space where imagination can move freely. Stories appear, ideas develop, and ordinary moments become something else.

His collection of action figures becomes part of that world too. What might begin as collecting gradually becomes another way of engaging with characters, objects, and imagination.

It is a reminder that creativity does not always come from a studio, a stage, or a defined creative process.

Sometimes it comes from playing.

And perhaps that is what connects the different references in Steve's world — films, his father's wardrobe, collecting, music, and family. They are not necessarily things he set out to combine. They are simply experiences that have accumulated over time and become part of how he sees the world.

Everyday, Without Much Explanation

There is something quietly familiar about Steve's approach.

His clothes do not need to explain who he is. They have become part of his everyday rhythm — practical, personal, and shaped by references that carry their own memories.

The result is not a carefully constructed image, but something more natural: a way of dressing that has stayed long enough to become part of the person.

Steve Machris wears Form 3 — Utility Shirt M by h./label.

People We Admire is an evolving archive of perspectives, experiences, and sensibilities — a continuing exploration of people, spaces, and the worlds they inhabit within the Hyde Concept universe.