It’s Soulland’s second season at LC:M and so the Danish brand – who showed at St George’s Church in Bloomsbury – is starting to feel like part of the fashion firmament here in London. While Soulland stayed true to their classic, loosely sportswear silhouette, the brand experimented in new ways through a collaboration with American artist Charlie Roberts. i-D had a chat with the brand’s popular creative director, Silas Adler–here’s what we learned:
A serendipitous collab with artist Charlie Roberts…
“I bought some of his work, and then I went to his gallery in Copenhagen a couple of times and they said, “Charlie’s been to the store and he really likes your stuff.” Then we had a coffee and a conversation, and realized we have a lot of interests in common. So we just slowly started working on something together. His work is full of references from like modern hip hop. It’s also very low-brow, very like rap music is nowadays. And that’s the fun part about it. We talked a lot about the scene, the Chicago rap scene, and the new breed of Atlanta rappers. From the end of the millennium everything in hip hop was about following the rules of the 90s. And then from about 2008/2009 a lot of rappers went bankrupt and a lot of labels went bankrupt, so people just really went back to square one. Now it’s like everyone can produce and everyone can make a beat, and there’s no rules.”
Their silhouette stays solid…
“Working with Charlie affected the mentality of the collection, and some of the vibes, but the silhouette and the design philosophy are still the same. We’re breaking some of the rules that we maybe had before, and we’re pushing some of the technical ways to do some of the garments, but the silhouette is still the same.”
Find the right factory, get the best fabric…
“We spend a lot of energy on that. We really enjoy that. We’ve started working with a couple of textile mills in Italy and France that do really high end fabrics for all the luxury outlets. They’ve seen that we’re pushing them in a way. This season one of the shirts is a style we developed with this French mill that was based on one of the oil paintings that Charlie did. So imagine, it takes time getting the oil painting, and then I was like, “This is what you’re going to create [in fabric].” A lot of factories are not interested in being creative – they’re interested in doing simple stuff. Ours is super supportive of all the weird stuff we do, and the fabric looks amazing.”
The London move was a goodie…
“We’re not as nervous as last time [their first time showing at LC:M]. With the production teams and the location there were so many of the uncertainties. There are not those uncertainties anymore. It feels like the mentality of the company is moving a bit and you don’t feel like just this Scandinavian company. I feel that we are forced to think of ourselves as a brand in an international context, instead of a brand in Copenhagen, and I think that it’s very healthy for us. The competition in the international market is on creativity and know-how and networks, but it’s also on all the professional side of the brand.”
Where’s menswear at?…
“There’s no clear road for menswear to go right now. In a way that’s exciting, but then also there’s been these certain type of menswear brands around for a while. Like the nerdy kind of menswear look, the black Rick Owens way, or the hip hop way, or the sartorial. I think if you can build a brand that is fluid in the same way as human development can be fluid. It’s not about trying to follow a trend, but trying to follow your belief.”
Credits
Text Stuart Brumfitt
Photography Mitchell Sams