Maddox Haberdasher was a medic in the Iraq War. Now he's the life of the party.

Many people know Maddox Haberdasher from his party hosting and emceeing gigs around town, his stylish fashion sense, his high-profile social media presence, his outgoing personality, and his many friends. In the lead-up to the launch party for his new men’s clothing enterprise, Preface, happening on Veteran’s Day, he talked with the Weekly about how his philosophy of enjoying life was informed by how precarious he's seen it be.

Weekly: Where do you live?

Maddox Haberdasher: I'm in Monterey, the Lighthouse District.

What do you like about that area? 

I call it Diet City. It's busy enough to feel a little cosmopolitan, but it's not crazy. It's not Manhattan or anything. I know a lot of my neighbors. So to go to Cat's Meow, or Poppleton's, I know all those people, so it just feels, in a funny way, it's just neighborhood. It's an old concept. I know Brian at Oya. I swing by and get coffee and say hi. My friend Ana, who's a DJ, is two blocks away from me. Todd Samra, musicologist, four blocks away. He works for the symphony. Nacho Business is Steb and Brittney. Everything's right there. It really feels like a little neighborhood. What I don't know if people know, is part of the reason I am how I am is I was in the Army for 11 years and I moved every two years. You never get a chance to really have roots. You just kind of move around every two years. You're transient. When I got here, and I was stationary, got the concept, the idea of being part of a community, it was like "Wow, I can meet somebody and he's not gone in two months." I was excited about the concept, being part of it. I threw myself into it. "Oh, you guys are having a community event? I'd love to be a part of it." I was excited to be able to be a part of my community. It grew from there.

What was it like growing up in Springfield, Massachusetts?

At the time it was great. Cuz when you're a kid, what do you know? Looking back now, I don't really miss the snow. You got to shovel it. Nah. If I want snow I'll go to Tahoe. Sometimes around that time i was growing up, there were a lot of people that were doing bad things and it made it look really good. I would see my dad, hard working guy, works real hard, comes home tired, providing for his family. And then you see a drug dealer, flashy, girls, cars and all that. That dude barely works and he's having a good time. But he can go to jail. It's got to be some kind of medium between my dad working 18 hours a day and the drug dealer making a lot of money but he could go to jail. For me, that's always been my thing—to find that middle. Have a good time, but have a stable way to make money. I find that in the arts here.

How would you describe, looking back, your 11 years in the Army? 

I was a paramedic in the Army. A bunch of different units. One of the most prominent is 1st Armor Division. That's the crew I went to Baghdad with. For a lot of people in the military, before 9/11, we were always ready for whatever, but we didn't know we were going to war. Once that happened, that changed everything. We're not playing soldier—we're soldiers. For real for real. It changed the perspective of things. It makes things a bit more precious because you know how easy you can lose things. You lose friends in the Army on some flukey thing. I even got caught in an ied blast myself. You never know. It teaches you honor and integrity. But also that life is precious.

How did you come to Monterey?

I was in Germany. It was my second to last duty station. I filled out a sheet where you can choose 5 duty stations and they'll give you one. The fifth one, some lieutenant told me about a place called Presidio of Monterey in California. "Oh, that sounds cool." I put it down and got it. My last year of the military was here. I was a paramedic so I was staff. I worked at the clinic.

What were some of your first four [duty station] choices? 

Fort Buchanan in Puerto Rico. I forget the outpost, but one in London. Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn. Cuz I liked that scene, that Harlem Renaissance vibe. I want to say the fifth one was Australia. I was like "This is my last chance. I'm going to get out. I don't want to go back to war." I had never done anything else since I was 19, so I would try it out. I put all these stations down that could leapfrog me to my new life. I could be in London or Australia. Maybe I would have never come back to the United States. Just happens that this is the one I got.

My dad was also a medic. In Vietnam. I heard that medics are not allowed to carry and discharge weapons in war. Is that true?

Certain ones. There's weapons called crew serves. Big ones like 50 caliber machine guns. Medics, technically, are not allowed to have those. The M-16 and 9 mil standard issue, those are okay. The bigger ones, those are for combat arms guys, not medics. But you get in a firefight, all bets are off. [Laughs]. You know what I mean? As a medic, we save lives and if saving lives means shooting back, that's what you do. I have a combat medical badge for rendering aid under fire. I have a small one I wear on my lapel just for fun. If I get nervous about going to talk to someone about something, I wear that. I rendered medical aid under fire—I can do anything. If I can make it through that…When they were shooting, pieces of the wall was on my neck and blood all over. If I can go through that, man, Monterey is nothin. Nobody's shooting at me. I'm walking down Lighthouse, it's all good. Even when I was in Massachusetts, I'm not worried about none of that anymore. It's a great feeling. How can I not be in a good mood?

What was an occasion when you needed to wear that lapel pin? When you needed it to bolster your confidence?

I wore it quite a few times during Car Week. Reason why is, that's when I first started working with Tansamai, which we'll talk about. I wanted to make sure I could connect to as many guys as I could during that week. I have to try to connect all week to people. Who knows what could happen. That week I wore that pin almost every day. It gives me confidence. This guy's a millionaire? So what? This guy's got a private jet. So what? Go talk to him. It gives me that confidence. Every day, pushing hard and knowing that sometimes you just gotta keep going.

What is it about clothing and style that is so fascinating to you?

As much as we hate to say it as a society, but first impressions are everything. When you see someone far away, I don't know if you have a degree, where you're from, I don't know anything. So clothing is going to speak for you before you say a word out of your mouth. Once it hit me that it's like that, I tried to curate that first impression. That's number one. Number two: I like to assist other people in translating their ideas through clothes. A lot of guys don't know what's available in all of men's wear. Certain things that might work for a guy, no one's ever said to them…Some guys should be wearing tweed, but they don't know that. They've never tried it. I try to use clothing, cloth, as a way to interpret the wearer. It's' always evolving. I remember when I first got a red blazer. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. Once I got the red one, now let's put a little texture. Then, "flat red?" Eh. Over time you learn how to tell your story better. That's what I think clothing does. That's why I like it.

What do you say about the notion that fashion is commercial and superficial? 

Fashion is. Style is not. Fashion is very fleeting. It's here today, gone tomorrow. Fashion is starting to change now. It's not always sustainable. Style is everlasting. It's something you always have. Style is the way Michael Jordan wore his shorts. The way Clark Kent took his glasses off. The way Frank Sinatra tilts his hat. The way Dizzy Gillespie played his horn. Style is everlasting. Style is forever. That's why you see people, 80 years old, stylish. It's not fashion, it's not sexy, it's style! It's you. It's your best foot forward. That's what fascinates me.

What do you like about hosting events and parties? 

I enjoy being the beacon. I find that sometimes people need…it's almost like a lightening rod. I want to be able to be that focal point for the excitement of a room or event. If I can channel people, or kind of have people look this way or that way, or enhance the experience, I think the experience would be better for everyone else. That embeds me further into my community, which I love already. I know I have a knack for adding a little fanfare for things I'm involved with. I'm good at it. Cuz I'm excited I guess. I get energy from it. Some people come off stage, burned, they gave their all. I come off stage so stoked. Cuz I'm like, man, I did it. I helped people have a great experience. I assisted. When I introduce a band, my job is to work the crowd into such a frenzy that you have to start the music or their heads are going to explode. That, to me, is good hosting or emceeing. I have hold of the crowd and we're on this ship, and I'm steering. I have to instill trust that I'm going to steer you the right way. I have to make sure that everybody kind of knows where we're going enough that they're not nervous. I'm the master of ceremonies. I'm the ringmaster. I love it. Absolutely.

How do you come up with ideas for what a party is going to be like, like the theme, the name? 

It manifests a couple ways. One is that I know if an event has a long name, people are going to shorten it anyway. I have to have a short name. If people shorten it, it's not going to tell the story I want to tell. I have to shorten it and put it out that way. That's one of the rubrics, one of my parameters. I try to have a vibe on…pop culture as whole, but more importantly, Peninsula pop culture. After that, it's dictionaries and thesaurus and Wikipedia [laughs], you know what I mean? Trying to find that right term that will encompass what we're trying to do. Like Blush, at Cibo, which I did 3 years in a row. Blush was an event I did before Valentine's Day, for everyone. Not just singles or couples. I didn't want it to be haves and have nots. I wanted it to be singles, couples, coworkers, groups of girls and guys, everything. I didn't want to do it on Valentine's. I did it two days before Valentine's. To deny it's coming would be silly, so that's why we made it Blush because it makes it vaguely Valentine. It's lightweight, flirty, but not too much. Here's another thing. I always try to get a theme that's easy enough to adhere to. Blush: wear pink. Super easy. They can put their own spin on. When I had my birthday at Cibo, it was called Sparkle. Everybody came out and wore jewelry, metallics, their own version of sparkle. I did an even called Bloom, a garden party at night, everybody did garden party attire, big hats, long dresses. I do it loose enough that everybody can play in it. Sultry Summer in Pebble Beach, people showed up in linen and seersucker and summer dresses. It's the middle of summer so it's warm out, it's sultry so it's kind of sexy. Done. Do your worst. That way it comes out way better and no one feels like "Oh, I gotta adhere to this theme."

How would you describe your relationship to social media?

I think social media is the new neighborhood. It's your neighborhood, your community, your group. Facebook stops you at 5,000 friends. Once I got to 5,000 friends, it was weird because I had never even thought about it. Then you get to thinking "Who's one of these 5,000?" Anybody that was a fake account, duplicates, I took them out. If there's no profile picture, you're out of here. Even my aunt. Because I've been doing that for a couple of months, that 5,000 is starting to shore up. It's real people. When I see people that I'm friends with talking to each other, I'm like, Yeah, good. I can express myself however way I want to. I love social media. I mean, I'm a social person. It's a new community.

Tell me about Preface and Tansamai.

Tansamai is a men's wear company and fashion house. By definition. It's a company started by Scott Sutton. We used to be roommates. Scott worked for Salinas police department when I was working for Robert Talbott. He would come home, and we would sit on the sofa, just talking about men's wear. One day he bought this jacket and he really loved it and I was looking at it like…mmm….let me show you a jacket, Scott. I pulled out this limited edition jacket I had and he loved it. From us having conversations and him going to Europe and me telling him about brands, he built Tansamai. He brought me on to assist with the clothing creative side of it. Scott's extremely good at the business structure. I'm the creative director. Tansamai is the Cleveland Cavaliers and I'm LeBron. I don't own the team, but I make a difference.

Does Tansamai make clothes? 

The way Tansamai works is we're completely custom.

That's bespoke?

Bespoke and custom is the same thing. Bespoke is a term that became popular in the early 1900s because when guys came to London to buy a suit, you had to say what you wanted. It was to be spoken. The term came out of that. It's a very old school term for custom clothing. Guys who have been in the business a long time, I have to make sure I use the term around them. It's a men's wear term.

My understanding is Preface is you guys trying to teach men how to dress?

Let me explain it better. I know it's confusing. Preface came out because Tansamai is a new, American artisan brand, we want people to start on a relationship with our brand. In order for us to do that, we have to explain our point of view. That's where the idea for Preface came up. The story before the story. You know how at the beginning of Star Wars you have the words come up? If Tansamai is the book, Preface is the preface. A runway experience broken down into eight vignettes. To show different points of my life and Scott's life and how we arrived here. The very first one is called Bravo. 91 Bravo is a medic in the Army. I've taken a vest, waistcoat, and I did that vest in Army green with camouflage trim piping, and it's on my friend's son Alex who's about 11. Because he's so small and young, which is what I was—small and young when I went into the Army. He's walking through, but he's playing Call of Duty, Army game. There' s a person in all black walking with the TV in front of him. While he's doing that, I'm talking over the speakers talking through the piece. And Richard Carr is playing baby grand piano.

This is taking place at the Thwack Factory. What is that?

Craig Malin, who's a city manager, during that parking day they did in Seaside when they had the streets blocked off, was in front of that building and he was making baseball bats on his lathe. And that's how it got dubbed the Thwack Factory. Like home runs, the sound the bat makes. When I heard that, I thought it was cool. We'll do it from the Thwack Factory. Absolutely.

What is New Wave? 

It was trying to assist emerging artists and pushing their art forward. Sometimes with artists, they're very much into the art and not so much the marketing of it all. That was a way to put people out in front. I have a knack for...I tell artists, even [artist] Ana Roman is like "They look at me like a Martian." I tell her stay on Mars, I'll sell telescopes. Be an artist. I'm able to tell people "This thing is amazing. Come look."

What's the value to you of being outgoing, gregarious, the life of the party?

A couple things. One, I read a book a long time ago called The Little Black Book of Connections. It had two quotes that really stuck with me. "If all things are equal, people will do more business with their friends. If things are unequal, they will still do more business with their friends." The implied task is to have a lot of friends. Number two…It's just how I'm built. After the symphony, [for the afterparty] I tried to lay back, and everybody was reeling because Maddox didn't want to be in charge. I don't mind jumping in that spot and taking charge and being the life of the party. I don't mind it. At this point it's just how I'm built. People know it. And they're cool with it. And I enjoy it.

What do you do when you're' alone and don't have commitments to other people? 

I just try to consume information, man. I was just reading a book about rowing blazers. Like Ivy League guys have row teams and they have blazers with the piping, a big crest usually. I was looking at that and what those jackets mean to that subculture of people. I read books like Dressing the Man, or How To Get What You Want Out of Life, or 40 Laws of Power. Sometimes just running through Wikipedia. Those things keep me sharp. Sometimes I read old Army manuals I used to read like Urban Operations. I read it all the time because that's what I do. It explains how you traverse urban terrain, which I do every day.

Are there any causes that you can see yourself devote significant time to?

One that's near and dear to my heart is veterans affairs. What I've found being a veteran is it's so hard for me to get the medical appointments, or all the paperwork I qualify for. Because I'm a disabled veteran as well…

What's your disability?

Because I was in that i.e.d. blast, I have a traumatic brain injury. I also had a beam fall on my head when I was in Iraq, even though I had on a kevlar. I went to the VA and did this brain mapping thing. Because of those two traumatic injuries, I have trouble with memory sometimes. I have trouble sometimes with lining everything up. I have trouble with the chronological vibe of explaining things. [Veterans affairs] is something near and dear to me because if I had so much trouble trying to navigate the system, what about the veteran with bad, bad traumatic brain injury or bad PTSD? Who's helping that guy? It takes me days and days to just get on the phone sometimes with the VA. This guy doesn't even have a phone. There's all these things around that's supposed to help veterans. It's not that they don't. It's just, somebody has to go get them and help them fill out the paperwork. Let him sit there and you do the paperwork. C'mon. You know he qualifies. If he's a veteran he qualifies. Everything else is just paperwork. Now, every time I find out something new, every veteran I know finds out. If I find out we qualify for A, B and C, I'm telling everyone I know. Getting the veterans insignia on the California Driver's License…simple thing, and I still don't have it because of jumping through hoops. I've been through five offices—all five sent me to the next office. I called a friend of mine: "We're going to figure this thing out. Don't worry." They keep putting up walls, I'm gonna get past them. That' a big thing for me. Veterans getting what they're supposed to without a bunch of problems.

If you had a slogan, what would it be?

I'd probably use the one a lady told me a long time ago. "You only get one ride on the roller coaster. You might as well put your arms up." Why you holding on, white-knucklin? C'mon. Have a good time. Don't' do anything crazy, get up out the chair. But work hard, have fun.

What are you working on next that people don't know about? 

After Preface, I'm on the board of directors for Dance Kids of Monterey County. We're doing our annual holiday performance of the Nutcracker. This year it's called the surrealist Nutcracker. In the party scene of the [ballet], we have iconic people from this are like Steinbeck, Doc Ricketts. I'm Louis Armstrong and my girlfriend Nicole is his wife. In January I'm in the mystery play put on my the Friends of the Monterey Symphony. I'm Carnac the Magician. I'm stoked I get to do a little stage acting. It's so much fun.

Have you ever hosted a party you deemed bad, or did not go how you would have hoped?

Yes. I hosted an event early on that I hosted but I wasn't in charge of the promoting. When I got there, everything didn't flow well. For me, the kind of person I am with my traumatic brain injury, I need structure or it will just go horribly wrong. Because there was no structure, it bothered me. It wasn't bad, it was just far from what it could have been. Victory loves preparation.

Thank you for talking. 

Thank you. I love this. I never thought I would live this life. Inner city kid from Massachusetts. It just blows me away. I talked to my cousin I went into the Army with, like, "Man, I can't believe this is life."

PREFACE begins 7pm Friday, Nov. 11 at Thwack Factory, 600 Broadway/Obama Way, Seaside. $65/entry (applies to custom tailored shirt). www.RunwayMaddox.eventbrite.com.