Bad Bunny, Bieber Favorite Glass Cypress to Hold First Show in Paris in January

When Bad Bunny, Justin Bieber, Drake and G-Dragon wear your brand, you know you’re on your way.

That’s just the experience that Samee and Saber Ahmed have had the past few years as their Houston-based artisanal menswear brand Glass Cypress continues to expand its reach.

Glass Cypress was founded by the brothers in 2016 as a luxury men’s label that creates updated silhouettes using time-honored South Asian techniques such as Nakshi Kantha embroidery and traditional dyeing, quilting and construction.

The brand expanded into womenswear earlier this year, debuting the collection during New York Fashion Week in September.

Now they’re planning to hold their first menswear show in Paris in January. Although they are not yet on the official calendar, the show will be held Jan. 21 at Ogata, a trendy restaurant in an historic building in the Marais that also features a tea salon, boutique and gallery.

Samee Ahmed said for two years the brand has had its sales showroom in Paris, so they wanted to host their inaugural show in that city.

The Ahmed brothers, who are self-funded, started the brand because of their shared interest in fashion, but have no traditional training in the field. They got started screen-printing T-shirts, like many others, but soon grew to question conventional fashion wisdom and began to reinvent some traditional pieces with their distinct aesthetic.

For example, a black denim jacket in a cropped, boxy silhouette is covered with functional flap pockets in geometric shapes. A green mohair cardigan is emblazoned with an allover jacquard knit heart motif, a classic button-down shirt has a dual-button placket to accommodate hanging buttons, and a khaki trenchcoat has angled pockets and hanging threads along the back.

“That’s the benefit of not being academically taught,” said Saber Ahmed. “It allows us to go against the grain and question the rules that are stuck in this industry. Through that, we’re able to create products that are extremely novel. I think the definition of true luxury fashion is novelty and providing people a new perspective on what to wear and how to wear it.”

It’s that attitude that led them to relocate their manufacturing early on in the brand’s life. Although they started producing their collection in Italy, they ran into resistance from the manufacturers that didn’t understand their attempts to rework the classics. So they pivoted and began using their family’s factory in Bangladesh, where the artisans there hand-embroider, wash and naturally dye the garments to their specifications.

The brothers started out selling directly to customers and opened a store in their hometown in 2018 in a retrofitted Montrose home. Two years later, they opened Neo, an Omakase restaurant, within the space that has become a popular eatery and hangout.

Their first wholesale customer was H.Lorenzo in Los Angeles, which opted to take a chance on the brand in 2022 after the brothers pulled up at the store with their collection in a suitcase. “It sold out in three weeks,” Samee Ahmed said.

Other customers today include Ssense, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Webster and Browns. The brand recently expanded to South Korea and will be moving into South Africa and Dubai next year.

In 2024, Glass Cypress was named a Saks Fifth Avenue Designer Accelerator brand, a program that recognizes emerging designers. In the past few years the brand has collaborated with several other companies, including Scarr’s Pizza in New York and The Webster on capsule collections.

Samee Ahmed said among the brand’s most popular items are its “free flowing” hoodie in a cashmere cotton blend, its denim and shirts. With prices that range from $800 to $2,500 in the core collection, the customer is generally older, in his early 30s, and in the creative field.

As they prepare for their Paris debut, the brothers are clear on one thing: their mission for the brand — and it’s an ambitious one. As Samee Ahmed put it: “We want to be one of the great luxury brands.”