Vintage Julz, aka Julian Emami, grew up loving fashion. “I always just wanted to be fly. I never intended to stick out. It’s just something that happens, and it’s natural,” he says. Today, the South Philly native is an eyeglass dealer to the stars, especially rappers and celebrities, the guy behind Migos’s iconic BET Awards look, Allen Iverson’s signature Cartier sunglasses, Deoin Sanders’ iconic python-trimmed Emmanuelle Khanh’s, to name a few.
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His 10-year-old shop at 625 South Street, the heart of the 7th Ward, bears his name. Julz went to Roman Catholic, Neumann Goretti, and Southern. He was a student at CCP when he messaged Canadian eyewear connoisseur Corey Shapiro, who gave him an internship that led to working at Vintage Frames in Montreal. A few years later, he decided to bring what he learned to Philly because, “I knew that I could take it further,” he says. “I could get to more celebrities, and my reach can go further because I was younger and I was more in tune with the culture.”
For him, culture means looking to inspiration in films like Rocknrolla and Kings of New York, and acts like Run DMC, Jam Master Jay, Kool Moe Dee and Biggie Smalls.
He understands that with fashion, “the wheel is always repeating itself. That’s why I love vintage, because, you give it long enough, everything’s always going to come back around.” His cases brim with collector’s items: Gazals, Porsche designs, Jean-Paul Gauthier, Versace, Cartier. Julz also offers customization, including engraving lenses.
Success hasn’t always been easy. It’s been a lot of cold nights and struggle days. He’s seen corporate ventures come and go from South Street. But he’s got that street hustle. “You got to evolve with the times, roll with the punches,” he says. “We’re still rocking 10 years later. We’re gonna keep rocking 10 years from now.”
West Philly born and raised with a slosh of Brooklyn, Big Rube partnered with Mitchell & Ness in 2000 to help make it a global brand marketing and selling high-end throwback jerseys. He has been photographing Philly since 2009, including in a Daily News Column from 2011 to 2017. He’s also a chef, preparing to open his own space in 2026.
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