I Talked To The Man Who Made The Perfect Knit Polo
A Q&A with Safa Taghizadeh of Cobra SC, PLUS 30% the brand’s entire offering.
I first came across the burgeoning LA-based label Cobra SC a few years ago, when its sultry button-up shirts and tailored suits began making waves among the city’s artist and indie rocker cool guy set. But I didn’t have any IRL experience with the brand until this past February, when founder and designer Safa Taghizadeh invited me to a low-key preview of the latest offering at the Bowery Hotel. In short, I left the room thoroughly impressed with the range. From weighty cashmere-wool overcoats, to iridescent double breasted suits, to bomber jackets crafted from an unexpectedly refined wool-canvas, the collection hit a rare sweet-spot: trend-free luxury without being the slightest bit boring.
In the weeks that followed I continued to circle Cobra SC from afar, occasionally scanning its website wondering which premium piece might become my entry point. Then, a few months later, Safa answered that question for me when he generously sent me one of the brand’s knit polos. I slipped it on, and instantly, everything I thought I knew about Cobra SC wasn’t just confirmed—it made more sense than ever. This shirt wasn’t just good—it was in the running for the best knit polo I had ever worn.
I wouldn’t blame you if, at first digital glance, Cobra SC’s take on this knitwear staple seems like just another solid-hued, long-sleeve option in a market that’s flooded with them. But as is the case with so many of my favorite products, the secret sauce is in the details—and with this specific shirt, that recipe starts with the fabric. Instead of pure cotton or wool, Taghizadeh utilized an Italian-made blend of 55% silk, 45% cotton that’s designed to only get better with age and boasts an intoxicating, cool-to-the-touch feel. The collar is appropriately sized—structured and sizable enough to remain in place under a sport coat, but not so wide that it veers into Discoville—while the fit is a touch relaxed but not sloppy. Add all of that up, and you’re left with something that makes me feel like my most handsomest self each time I put it on—an item I keep turning to for work events, nights out, and a lot of the time, frankly, just cause I feel like it. I may never own the perfect vintage Porsche 911, but when I wear this shirt, I feel like I already do.
Now, is $500 ($350 when you use the code below, wink wink) a good chunk of change to drop on a knit polo, or any shirt for that matter? No doubt. But considering the luscious fabric, the meticulous craftsmanship, and the sheer versatility of the resulting item, I can also think of 100 less practical ways to burn through that kind of cash when it comes to clothing. (Note: I purchased a second version of this shirt literally as I was writing this.)
Yet while this polo has become a staple in my rotation, I wanted to learn more about the entire brand, so I went straight to the source and rang up Safa at his LA home to chat. What followed was a wide-ranging conversation where we covered not just knitwear, but everything from his pre-Cobra days working for the now-defunct cult favorite brand Adam Kimmel, to his new-wave approach to tailoring, to his plans to open his first ever store in LA.
Safa also extended an exclusive 30% off the entire collection for 72 hours to subscribers of this newsletter. So after you’ve read through the interview, head over to Cobra SC’s site and pick up a shirt, jacket, or—duh—a knit polo of your own. Enjoy!
This newsletter is ENTIRELY funded by subscriptions. I don’t use affiliate links, and all of these products are things I’ve endorsed and/or included because I actually like them, though in some cases I did not pay for them. Point is, your subscriptions are both extremely cool and very much appreciated. Thank you!
OTHER POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE
My Favorite Under $100 Summer Shoes
These Shoes Are More Comfortable Than Mephistos
The Best Summer Pants Aren’t What You Think
The $200 Loafers That Look Like $1300 Loafers
My 50 Favorite Button Up Shirts For Spring-Summer 2025
My New Favorite Summer Suit Is Less Than $500
The Simple Outfit I’ll Be Wearing All Season
The 6 Best Heavyweight Tees I Own
Read the interview with Safa below. Below the Q&A you’ll find a code to receive 30% off the entire collection (code will expire in 72 hours).
JW: Could you tell me a little bit about yourself and what made you want to start Cobra?
ST: I grew up in Australia sort of in skate culture. Somehow I got into a really good art school, and I got my mind blown open with a great teacher who taught me about Comme, Margiela, Helmut Lang. I just really realized there was a lot more to the world than denim and hoodies. And then in university I became obsessed with Adam Kimmel, so I emailed them and said, "Hey, I'm in Australia, but I really love what you're doing. I'd love to come and intern for you." So they said, "Come and say hello." So I jumped on a plane and arrived in New York on Saturday, went and met them on Monday, and then had a job on Tuesday.
Wow.
Yeah, it was pretty crazy. I had an internship, and it was my absolute dream job. That turned into a first real job, and I was there until Adam shut the doors. But that was really the experience that shaped my aesthetic in a real way. It taught me about working in Italy, got me really interested in the art world. It just really was an experience. It definitely shaped what I am now.
Was there anything specific that you learned from Adam in that time?
Just only work with the best. What I really love about Adam and what I try and do now is that an Adam Kimmel piece has that magic dust, where it almost feels like a vintage piece. And that comes from really high-level manufacturing using the best materials, and I think really classic shapes. And that's definitely what I try and carry into what I do. I try and imbue everything I do with that magic dust. Do I always get there? I don't know, but that's the goal.
So you stopped working for Adam. He shuttered the brand. From there, what was the journey like to start Cobra SC?
I worked at a whole lot of brands. Working at Adam Kimmel, it was a really small company. It was five of us, and it was just this really awesome culture. It was fun. The product was awesome. And you go from that to working at a bunch of really kind of normal brands, and it was just not as fun. I did the spectrum of everything from low to high-and just, I was like, I don't even really like this. What is this? This is boring. So it was more about kind of wanting to just be really inspired with what I'm doing and enjoy what I'm doing. And that comes from, I think, working on a smaller scale project and working at a really high level. That's kind of what it's about. Obviously, working for myself is such a blessing and a gift. It’s scary to start doing it, but then you do it and you realize, oh, I should've been doing this a long time ago.
What was the vision when you first started Cobra? Did you think, like, "This is what I think is missing from the market,” or was it more just “This is just the vibe that I'm trying to cultivate?”
Honestly, I've never really thought like that. I run on instinct and make things for myself. I've never really thought, how does this fit into the market or does this fit into market or is this relevant to what's happening right now? It's more just like, what am I interested in? And that's what I'm going to do.
How would you describe the brand to someone who's not familiar with it?
I think what I'm trying to do with Cobra SC is reimagine a tailoring brand that's relevant to me and the generation I grew up with. The really traditional houses to me are so stuffy and boring and the fit sucks. And they're astronomically expensive. So what's the new version of that? I feel like I'm trying to do a new version of a traditional tailoring house.
I think you see that in a lot of the pieces, especially in, for example, the iridescent suits.
Cobra’s made in the same factory as all these major brands, but it doesn't look like those brands. It's like, “What's more relevant to me and my friends?” It’s got to be interesting. It's just about doing something to me that’s more relevant today.
How do you make tailoring relevant to a new generation of shoppers who didn't grow up having to wear suits? It's a very optional piece of clothing these days.
It is optional and I think that that makes it almost better because people want to do it in a better way because they do it for pleasure rather than having to wear it to the office or whatever. For me it's all about just great references, whether from film or whatever and creating these characters. I think showing people that they can sort of imagine themselves like Keanu Reeves in the nineties or whatever that thing is, that iconic moment, the guy in a suit.
For the stuff that's available on the site now, was there any sort of unifying inspiration behind it, or are you a designer who's just like, "I'm just making individual pieces and I want each one to be good and then they'll add up to something in the end?"
It kind of depends on the season. It depends on what I'm feeling. I'm opening a store really soon in LA so I decided that, while I've been trying to avoid wholesale, maybe it's a good idea to do some more. So last season was sort of just a collection of favorite items that I've collected over the last couple of seasons, that I wanted to make and hadn't made yet. I want to approach the brand as a wardrobe. Especially with the store opening, I want a guy to be able to come in and really dress for every day, not just a suit. So this season I introduced some outerwear, some denim, as well as the tailoring, and great knitwear. It was just sort of approaching it from what do I want in my wardrobe right now? What do I think's interesting? I want the perfect bomber jacket, I want a great double-breasted suit. I want a pair of black denim.
You want to create a brand where you can go in and you could buy your entire wardrobe and be like, "I'm good now."
That's what I'm trying to do with Cobra. There's a certain kind of guy who likes Cobra, and I want to not just make his suit. I want to make the kind of baggy chinos he wears on the daily or his crewneck sweater or his perfect white T-shirt or his leather jacket or whatever it may be. That's the goal, that's the aim.
What are some of the vintage inspirations that led you to the pieces in the collection?
Well, with the bomber jacket, I took a very classic military sort of shape and then did a custom wool cotton blend canvas at an extremely luxury mill. It’s just a new take on it. And that kind of encapsulates what I'm trying to do, which comes from building a fabric from scratch.
Are you building these custom fabrics for everything?
Not for everything, but for a lot of it. And if it's not a custom fabric, then I try and do a custom color and I think it's sort of one or the other. With the silk polo shirts, for example, that could be a cotton polo, but the fact that it's 55% silk, 45% cotton, as you wear it and wash it, the cotton rounds off and becomes like vintage-y almost immediately, while the silk sort of maintains its character. And it just becomes a vintage piece very sort of quickly.
I feel like knit polos are a big thing in the collection. They're well represented. What is it about a knit polo specifically that you love as a designer and as a consumer? You're wearing one right now as we talk, too.
I wear them all the time, man. I think they're a really classic piece of menswear. Number one, I think they're really easy to wear. I think you can wear them in a whole lot of different situations. I always try and do something with them. On my site now, there's the ‘90s polo, which is like a real interesting sort of diagonal rib knit, but it's cut off this polo that was actually a vintage polo made for Polo. It’s a little cropped. It has a wingspan, but the sleeve pitch is almost horizontal for movement, so it's a unique thing. Whereas the cotton silk polo, it's like a more traditional shape, but then you get this really interesting and really luxurious fabric that washes down into this vintage-y, really vibe-y looking thing. So I don't know. I like how versatile polos are, but I always try and give them something new that's not just standard.
Did it take you a while to dial in the cotton silk knit polo? Was there a lot of tweaking that went into the fabric, the fit, etc.?
There's been a whole lot of tinkering that's happened with the fit, the sleeve, the collar. And especially what happens after it's washed—the initial ones, the collar was too small, so I didn't like the proportion. The new ones have a slightly bigger collar, so post-wash, they're perfect. There's a whole lot of tinkering and it happens with time. I happened to work with this absolutely incredible knitting factory in Italy that just are artisans and are as obsessed as I am. And they bring these things to life—it's such a pleasure to do it with them.
Are there any new iterations coming in the future that you're excited about as well?
I'm excited about the polo that I showed for fall. It's sort of a departure. It's this incredibly beautiful and fine merino wool which I use for all my merino stuff. It's got a different sleeve treatment, and it’s slightly baggier, slightly more cropped. Again, it comes from a vintage piece that I was just really feeling.
Are there any other pieces in the collection that stand out? I mean, the bomber is a good one. Another one for me personally that I saw in person was the double-breasted overcoat. It’s beautiful.
That coat is a personal favorite. It comes from a ‘90s piece from a big Italian house that I like. But I had to adjust the lapel on that one. The original lapels are down at your knees. I think just having a great double-breasted overcoat is such a staple, especially if you live in New York. Everyone should have one. And I think that's kind of the perfect one. That's the aim anyway. That bomber jacket, same thing—you buy that bomber jacket and you don't need to buy another bomber jacket for some time.
Like so much of the collection, that coat is just so versatile. It's done in black, it's got really good proportions…
It's also like an 800 gram wool cashmere, which is an absurdly luxurious fabric. It’s basically bulletproof. So it's designed to be worn for a really, really long time. And hopefully will become a vintage piece at some stage.
Is that something that you think about when you're designing pieces? You're like, ”I hope that in 25 years someone will have a vintage Cobra SC piece."
I think about that with everything I do. I want it to have several life cycles. If that happens, I think that's a win for everybody. And I love hunting for a great vintage. It's so fun.
Going back to the knit polo—and I guess this applies to the whole collection—but I think some people might see the $495 price and be a little intimidated. We've talked about the different benefits of it, how it'll last, and how it'll wear over time, etc. But I wanted to hear from you just what the value proposition is in terms of people investing in something that is so high quality. We know guys could go out there and buy 10 knit polos for 50 bucks a pop, but they’re not going to be the same.
I mean, from my perspective, I'm working with the best yarn and one of the best factories in Italy with some of the best materials in the world. So the $495 price tag is actually un-wholesalable because there's no margin in it. So those ones are only available on my website. I didn't offer them the wholesale just because they would need to be double that if they were at retail. I've been trying to offer real value to customers. I make these items alongside the biggest brands in the world, but their prices are three to four times what Cobra is sometimes.
Right, it’s certainly a premium price, but it’s not meant to be unattainable.
I do want it to be accessible. I don't want it to be this thing that guys can't buy. It's expensive because it's expensive to make, but it's not even that expensive when it's in the context of how it's made and what it's made of and where it's made. I'm trying to really offer a strong value proposition. I'm trying to give a lot to Cobra customers, and I think that’s why a lot of them, I’ve found, come back.
I also think having the store is going to be such a huge win because a brand like Cobra, that is so much in the fabrication and the fit and just the hand of everything is... People are going to love seeing it in person.
I'm really excited about having the store. I'm definitely challenged when it comes to social media or any sort of promotion. It's not my bag. So I think just having a place where people can come and also experience it in the way that I want to show it, in the way that I think it should be presented, I think is really exciting. Wholesaling, especially as a really small brand, you can sometimes be shoved on a rack somewhere and it may not be presented the way you would want it to be presented. Of course, some wholesale is fantastic, but I'm just really excited for Cobra to be in the environment that I feel like it should be. This way, guys can come and see it, feel it, try it on.
Can you talk about the shoot you did with the band Sons of Raphael? (Above) What was the inspiration there and what drew you to work with them on the shoot?
I’ve been friends with Ronnel and Loral for a long time. They’re great guys, and I really respect the way they approach their work. All their music is made the old-school way—no artificial elements, no digital shortcuts. Everything is recorded live, in a single take, using equipment from the ’60s and ’70s. There’s a certain intangible feel that comes from creating that way. They also wear full Cobra outfits while recording, which is probably another reason they sound so good haha.
The shoot came together in a really spontaneous way. Sons of Raphael had worked on the score for Priscilla, the Sofia Coppola film, and I made their tuxedos for the Venice Film Festival red carpet. I was heading to Italy for some production work, they were already in Rome, and my longtime friend, photographer, filmmaker, and Cobra collaborator Niko Møller — happened to be there shooting a documentary. We all linked up for the weekend, hung out in Rome, and shot a lookbook.
Where do you want Cobra to go over the next few years, and how do you see the collection developing and growing?
Cobra is this idea of the perfect wardrobe for a dude. So that's kind of the overarching idea. I want to build out every category. I'd like to have a few stores starting with LA.
And then, please, New York next. We need that over here.
Yeah, man, New York. I don't really design for LA. I think I still have a New York/European mindset when it comes to building the collection. So yeah, New York next for sure. No doubt.
This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.
Cobra SC is available at cobra.sc For 30% off the entire collection, subscribe below.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to JAKE WOOLF to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.