What do you get when you combine snowboarding style with D.C. culture? You get Aplomb Clothing, a D.C.-based collection of streetwear and accessories with “an urban art twist,” says the company’s 26-year-old founder Ryan Ryskamp. The graffiti-inspired tees, leather wallets, and fitted caps are designed with Washingtonians in mind, but could also easily fit in at the skate park or ski lodge.

Aplomb Clothing is sold at clothing stores and skate shops throughout the country, including DEKKA on U Street, where Ryskamp showed me his latest designs. The line is geared toward “the 20-something male who enjoys activities like skating, snowboarding, and surfing,” he says, and the bestselling items are the men’s tees, hats, and wallets. However, customers include people of all races, ages, and lifestyles, ranging from “the 13-year-old skate competitor,” to women who enjoy the urban music scene. (Ryskamp explains that he and his business partner experimented with feminine designs, but found they were “better off making the men’s clothing in extra-smalls.”)

Aplomb "Skyline" Tee, $20 online at aplombclothing.com

Unlike other D.C.-based brands that often retail for couture prices, Aplomb Clothing is fit for a recession. Ryskamp takes care to find quality yet affordable manufacturers overseas in order to keep prices low, and hopes to continue to lower prices. Currently, the cotton tees with original artwork cost $20 to $30, and hats and leather wallets cost $25.

Ryskamp grew up in Woodbridge, Virginia, and skated a lot as a child. After college, he got a job in sales but says he had the “wrong attitude” for corporate work and soon quit to snowboard in Vail for six months. He then contemplated a move to Los Angeles, but returned to Northern Virginia to take another sales job that made him “miserable,” in his telling. By November 2006, Ryskamp had had enough of the corporate life and decided to pursue his passions—art and snowboarding—and Aplomb Clothing was born. In the spring of 2007, Ryskamp’s friend Matt Corrado, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, signed on as his business partner to work on design and the website. Ryskamp is currently applying to design schools himself and hopes to expand the brand to more stores, particularly skate shops.

As a designer, Ryskamp dishes out tough love to Washingtonians on their sense of style. “D.C. is lost,” he says, comparing the city’s fashion sense to the city’s hip-hop music scene, both of which he finds lack distinction and organization. “The last thing Washingtonians are thinking about is fashion,” he admits, “but the kids keep it alive.” But for a youthful brand like Aplomb Clothing, that is a good thing—“that’s the whole reason why we stayed in D.C.”

Aplomb Clothing is available at DEKKA at 1338 U Street NW and Kickballers 3285 ½ M Street NW, as well as various other retailers in Maryland, Virginia, and elsewhere, and online at http://www.aplombclothing.com.