It starts with black jackets. If you don’t have a great black jacket or a white, crisp shirt  . . . you better go buy it.”

This is the philosophy of Jeff Rudes, an industry veteran and denim icon who founded J Brand, and who is now branching out with his own self-titled venture (well, almost self-titled: He added an umlaut to give it Euro sophistication, à la Bronx-founded Häagen-Dazs). Jeffrey Rüdes debuted in August with a fall/winter collection.

The luxury brand has taken root in a picturesque block of Soho. Housed behind a beautifully decaying red brick and iron-columned facade on a cobblestone street, the flagship store has everything for the refined yet adventurous man. Rudes was there for an event earlier this month, wearing a slim blackbutton-down, raw denim and a pair of loafers of his own design.

“This represents how I dress,” he says of his brand. “This all started from my own closet.” The line includes shirting, blazers, leather jackets, shearlings and jeans — with the focus being on the wearable. Outré and androgynous trends on European runways are not on his radar. “We don’t make three-sleeve jackets,” he says.

Shirting is tailored to be worn either tucked in or left out. Leathers are snug and supple, cut from the finest French plonge. The blazers, arguably the core of the collection, include single-and double-breasted renditions, as well as a shawl-collar dinner jacket — all of which have a signature slimmed down, streamlined lapel.

The label started during a trip to Italy, when Rudes attended the Milan fabric show last year. Hoping to make a higher-end product, Rudes assembled his team and opened a design studio in Bologna, a corporate office in Los Angeles and now his flagship store in New York City — all in 10 months.

“We’re entering the designer level. . . we’re competing with all the big boys,” he says. His design team, headed by chief designer Lorenzo Marchese, formerly of Zegna Collection, works with the same factories used by heavy-hitters like Lanvin and Burberry.

Rudes’ orders were minuscule compared to the other clients, and he was skeptical about whether they’d take him on. “The factories were inspired by the product,” he says. “They said, ‘This is wearable, we feel your business is going to grow, we want to start with you.’ ”

The brand is a realization of a longtime aspiration. “I told my kids five years ago, ‘I’m going to sell J Brand before I’m 60, and I’m going to do a luxury men’s line,’ ” he says. Despite some initial family pushback — why sell an empire he had worked so hard to build? — at 57, Rudes has done just that.