Well, let's start easy… what's your background?

Matt:
Ever since leaving school, I’ve developed a passion for marketing, brand building and the eCommerce industry. This passion led me to start and run multiple online brands over the years. The majority failed (due to my lack of experience at the time), but the more recent few succeeded, which subsequently enabled me to fund the launch of STUDIO.BLAQ with Anthony. 

On top of this, I’ve built up a lot of knowledge in the fashion niche by working closely with big brand owners (some turning over in excess of £4m per year), running their Facebook Ads and advising them on their overall marketing strategy. 

STUDIO.BLAQ felt like an obvious next step, but this would only be possible through the design and production knowledge that Anthony has! So we teamed up.

Anthony:
I have a big background in fashion, having graduated from London College of Fashion in 2019 and interning for many fashion companies such as Feng Cheng Wang and Balmain. More recently I felt ready to start realising all the fashion, design and production skills I learnt into something that was truly our own, and so in late 2020 we sat down and started creating a brand that felt like a true reflection of our taste and values. 

Explain the brand name: “Studio Blaq”

Both:
We knew that the name of the brand had to reflect us as founders, but it also had to communicate the direction in which we see the brand evolving.

The colour black has always stood out to us. It acts as a canvas to focus our development on texture and details but with an overlying aesthetic. We came up with many different name iterations, with Tokyo Black being one of them. However, it was STUDIO.BLAQ that felt right because we really love to take a hands-on approach to pattern cutting and developing our product within our studio base. 

The styling and development will all evolve from this space where the minimal use of colour will allow us to better explore a garment's function and interactivity, as opposed to pushing loud colours and graphics.

In this current landscape of overnight brands, how do you find it navigating through a saturated market? 

Matt:
Great question. From my perspective, it’s all about finding a unique voice and focusing on ourselves rather than what other streetwear brands on Instagram are doing. It’s so tempting to look at other successful brands and copy their moves, but this is not a viable long-term strategy. Our pieces are integrated with different functions, and are built to maximise end usage with the wearer. This is Anthony’s area of expertise and is something that most brands don’t focus on.

Our combined level of expertise will help us navigate the early stages, but there are lots of talented brand owners out there so it’s going to be a tough journey regardless.

Anthony:
The industry is in a really bad place right now, with overconsumption feeding over-production, throw away garments leading to cheap prices, poor labour and bad quality - we cannot go on like this so we really want to bring the quality back and educate our community on buying better. So our plan here is to create garments that have different functions as Matt has touched on - allowing the wearer to become more attached to their pieces and bringing an ability to change the same garment. 

Why Studio Blaq? What makes you unique?

Both:
The unique aspect of STUDIO.BLAQ has to be the combination of interactive elements, luxury fabric and intricate pattern-cutting that we don’t typically see within the streetwear landscape. This all stems from Anthony’s passion for making a really high-quality product, and how we envision garments evolving. 

Our first collection acts as a simple introduction to our ethos, with simple notions to increase wearability through drawcords in all our hems and the brand tag system. The idea of maximising end usage within our product is only going to increase as we grow and become more comfortable with exploring different ideas around modularity with our community.

What’s your favourite piece from the new collection?

Matt:
This is always a difficult question, but my favourite has to be the Offset Hoodie. The thick 550gsm fabric and the details in the pattern-cutting make it really stand out to me, and it seems our existing customers share a similar preference! I also just really like wearing hoodies.

Anthony:
For me, my favourite pieces are actually our tees - we spent a lot of time on them in the studio getting the fit and silhouette perfect, accompanied by some in depth fabric research. We are so pleased with how they have turned out and honestly with the fabric, they are closer to what you would expect as a sweatshirt from most other brands out there.

 To what scale do you envision your brand being at, what’s the end goal?

Both:
Our end goal is to become a part of people’s everyday statement wardrobe, a synonymous fit and level of quality in fabrication and make, without losing the vision. As we grow, it’s imperative that we’re continually able to implement sustainable and environmental practices into our product development, and to do this while remaining true to our design language. It’s hard to give a tangible goal (in terms of business size, brand awareness etc) but we wouldn’t put any limitations on growth. We’re really looking forward to refining the brand over the next couple of years and growing it as much as we possibly can.

Being that you are quite a new brand, what’s the production process like for you?

Matt:
Anthony is definitely in a better position to answer this one! Production has probably been the biggest learning curve for all of us. The minimum order quantities have been manageable, without the requirement to develop hundreds of pieces of each style. I’d also say we’ve learnt a lot from our first round of production, such as the need to be extremely clear with our design concepts, right through to arranging cost-effective transportation. I’m sure Anthony will have more to add here!

Anthony:
Ha! Many a Zoom call between the teams figuring out production issues in the early stages were needed (to say the least). We’ve really been hit by covid and brexit delays so this has pushed us to aim for making our future pieces in England. This will allow us to work closer with our factories to ensure all the products are fully thought out and of the highest quality, while giving us room to experiment. That being said we are still blown away daily when we wear our first collection by the quality of fabric and construction, so it has been a good experience to be able to lean on previous contacts from work and fashion school to get this first season released.

In an ideal world, which stores would you like to be stocked in?

Both:
For now, we both agree on remaining direct to consumers as much as possible to fit in with our sustainability plans, both in terms of controlling stock levels based on demand and by releasing products that are extremely high quality without the insane mark-ups.

That being said, if we were to be approached by a stockist we would definitely be willing to have the conversation, so long as the above points were met. A pop-up in Browns would be pretty cool, giving us a big iconic platform to explore both design and production.

What are the 3 key pieces of information which consumers should take away from this interview?

Both:

1. We will never compromise on quality 

2. Function and maximising end use is the most important factor in our design language

3. We care about working toward a smarter and more sustainable fashion industry

Have you experienced any brand milestones yet?

Matt:
I’d say we’re too early into our journey to have hit any milestones just yet. We’ve definitely had a number of small wins in terms of sourcing the best fabrics, getting the first customers through the door and receiving great feedback on the overall quality/experience. All these have been great to witness. The biggest so far though has to be the official launch of the collection, and I’m sure Anthony will agree with me on that!

Anthony:
Honestly when we released the first season it was an amazing feeling to finally see products we had been working on for so many months finally out there, it made this whole process feel so real. Launching is of course the hardest part but most importantly finding a well balanced team of partners who all compliment each other's skills, talents and personalities. It's also been amazing to work with people who work as hard and are as passionate about something as much as I am. Working with a team who are all entirely on the same page is a dream and we have a really good team of people within the brand who are going to make this all happen.

What other products can we expect to see from you all soon?

Both:
We are constantly sampling new products and this has really picked up since we moved into our new studio in central London. We’re looking forward to continue defining the STUDIO.BLAQ wardrobe publicly in the future, while our next few drops will consist of the shirt jacket which is an introduction to using high quality nylon in our pieces with notions and details taken from outdoor gear, and we’re also working on our first accessory piece which you can see in some of our campaign images. The STUDIO.BLAQ Cross Body Modular Bag is such a step up in product development for us and we can’t wait to release it to our customers so they can really explore all of its functionalities. 

What's been the biggest challenge for you so far?

Matt:
From my end, we are behind from a marketing perspective. The external delays we’ve faced throughout production led to our UK logistics partner receiving the full collection at the start of October, so we didn’t have time to shoot everything, market the collection and get the brand hyped up before launch (otherwise we would have missed the crucial festive period). Therefore, the biggest challenge that I’m facing right now is spreading awareness to our specific target market in a cost-effective and time-effective manner!

Anthony:
From a design and production perspective it's all been in the sourcing. Trying to find the right production and manufacturers partners who not only understand but who are physically able to help you produce at a level that meets our expectations. Trying to develop at a luxury level as a start up is difficult, especially when it comes to contemporary high-end level streetwear. We can easily produce tees and sweats in similar if not the same fabrics and in the same way our current competitors do, but we have made a decision to stay true to our obsession with quality and we believe this is what will shine through in the long run.

How do you come up with the inspiration and ideas for your products? 

Anthony:
For me it's all about maximising how much a single product can do without over complicating it. Sometimes it's an aesthetic need and a functional need and that challenge is what pushes me to develop further. 

We really believe this is the future of how people should interact with their clothing and I am driven by making pieces that customers both feel and look good wearing whilst allowing customisation and functionality! I love going to the studio everyday and sampling ideas I sketched the night before, then spending weeks wearing and testing everything I've made - that way once it comes to putting it into production I know it's right and what changes need to be made before the product makes its way online.

Post covid-19, what are your plans?

Both:
We really want to continue building out our community and bringing that back into the real world is going to be important for us. Pop ups (starting in London) are definitely a part of our plans in the near future. They’re such an effective way at connecting with customers and getting direct feedback outside of the social media landscape, something that we feel fashion brands don’t leverage enough. As we hope has come across, the design work at STUDIO.BLAQ is really about maximising end usage and being people centric, so seeing our community in person will allow us to further gauge what we are doing right, and what they want to see next, be it new products or improvements to current ones.

Can we expect a collaboration with other brands in the near future?

Matt:
For sure. Collaborations are the perfect way to add value on other platforms and to also learn from like-minded brands. It shouldn’t be limited to brands within the fashion industry though. There are plenty of other brands, businesses and individuals out there that share the same core values we do (i.e. simplicity, eco-consciousness, integrity and connectedness). 

Anthony:
We would love to explore potential collaborations in the future but only when we feel ready and have fully refined and defined the brand ourselves. I am also really eager to use STUDIO.BLAQ as a vehicle to push the industry forward into a smarter future, so our ideal collaborations would be with companies outside of the fashion industry, so we can look elsewhere at different expertise and see how we can apply that to what we do to make really unique work. 

 You can shop STUDIO.BLAQ’s first collection online here.

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