I started working at a streetwear store in my home city of Leicester called Wellgosh and I was very into streetwear fashion and culture, and hip-hop music. But also, my mother has always knitted and she made lots of knitted and crafted items, which is very inspiring. Then on my father’s side, obviously, within the Jamaican culture, there’s a big history around style and how it’s been reworked to identify their culture, through music and how things are worn, and icons from the Caribbean, you know, people who I looked up to, like Bob Marley or Peter Tosh, who were great musicians, but also had really great style. So yeah, I’m very much inspired by my own journey in fashion, with the sort of streetwear culture and how I developed my aesthetic through that, but also taking in references from my parents and the cultural backgrounds they come from.
How did you find fashion when you were young? Has fashion been linked to music and other culture for you since that time?
What made you choose fashion from amongst all the other creative industries out there? Also, please tell us which fashion designers and brands inspired you at that time.I decided to be a fashion designer because I think it’s a great way to tell stories and narratives. It’s a really great vehicle to show all my beliefs and ideas through fashion, and obviously through the films and the imagery and the look books and my shows, so fashion felt like a great way to showcase my ideas. And the designers who I looked up to have always been very vast, but specifically, Japanese brands like you know, Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo, but also British brands like Casey Hayford and Paul Smith, and my previous boss, Nigel Cabourn. When I worked there with his design team, it was very inspiring. So, yeah, they’re kind of the references for how I developed and understand how I can create a brand and showcase my aesthetic design through my own label.
While you were a student at Central Saint Martins, you did internships with various designers and also worked at stores. How have you used this experience since launching your own brand?Yeah, I studied at Central Saint Martins at the BA menswear course where I learned how to design and create a collection. I also interned on Savile Row to learn more about tailoring and menswear. There’s such rich history on Savile Row and it was something I wanted to experience. Obviously, Nigel Cabourn where I worked previously was really great to see how an independent menswear brand works. I looked after some of the production and design roles within that job, which was really inspiring, and very important to how I developed my brand today.
I heard that you made your graduation collection one that you would want to wear afterwards, but is your desire to make clothes that you want to wear still the same today?Yeah, my graduate collection, I wanted to create that which had a really strong DNA on my heritage; but also clothes which I would want to wear and my creative peers who I respect and always collaborate with would like, that was a big part of it. I wanted it to feel very wearable— but also still pushing forward on design. My graduate collection was obviously bought then by Beams Japan, who had been a really great supporter, and they started my business in the Japanese market. It was important to have a really great graduate collection because some of the styles and silhouettes which I created there, I’m still reworking and revisiting even today.
So everything I feel is interconnected with where I started and where I’ve grown the brand currently, and how I’ve used all these references and experiences to help make the brand as strong as it is today.