The closest thing to a true Renaissance Man in Melbourne: Simon Agosta, creative director and owner of Milkbar. An individual with wide interests and expertise in several areas, Simo has his hand in fields such as design, fashion and creativity- which is barely scratching the surface of it. Arguably most importantly, he knows the importance of being well-versed in these various areas of life. We recently sat down and spoke to Simo about being tasteful, creating a world for his business, and some strong character traits of his that are held in high regard.
When I was searching through my research for this interview, I found that everything was all so brilliantly curated- from the Instagram, to Pinterest, to your blog. How long did it take for you to have such a clear vision for Milkbar?
It's still growing. I've been through things in the back half of last year that I think will dictate the next three years of the brand. I'm in the process and have already made decisions that are going to take me to a new side of the brand. But taste is an interesting thing. Sometimes I've looked at it as art direction, which is all about branding, fonts, and imagery, but it's a hard skill to really put your finger on. You can't learn taste. I think people consult other brands for inspiration, but it's hard to say, “pay me a hundred bucks an hour and I'll give you taste.” It's a very personal thing. For me, when I was young, I spent a lot of time on Tumblr. I would’ve been 14, up at 2:00am, just scrolling through Tumblr. Just the pure quality of most Tumblr images was really strong, and that’s what Pinterest is for me now. I spend a lot of time on Pinterest just curating. But to answer your question, at the start [of Milkbar] there was this general broad idea of ‘I appreciate Australian culture, I appreciate Melbourne culture. Why can't our culture be just as cool as New York culture?’ That’s a similar sentiment that drives a lot of Dyl's [Dylan Walsh of Garden State Journal] work, and that's what we bonded over early on.
But at the start, there was a lot of business and manufacturing things that obviously affected how I could deliver the brand identity. I was a kid that didn't have any money, sewing everything myself. It was a lot about figuring out how I could express this idea through a blank crew neck or a blank hoodie, so it would be through creating interesting names for the colours. Even though it was navy, or it was green, I would call them ‘Arvo Navy,’ or ‘Australian Green.’ Obviously the most popular ended up being ‘Wog Brick Brown,’ but I don't think that came until later. It continues to grow, and I think as you get older, your taste becomes more refined. I hope that my taste now will have a bit of longevity to last me until 25, which would be 2027. I'm sure I'll get to that point, and it'll change again. I'll be looking at who I want to be when I'm 30, and my taste will be affected by that.
That's interesting. Because for me, when I went to school, it felt like not many people had taste at all. But it's very interesting, because I think some people have it, and some people just don't.
Yeah, it's a good point. I think taste is like armour. I can only speak for myself, but I think especially as men, we always need some type of armor. If you're good at sport, you don't really need taste because you can say, “oh f*ck you. I'm good at sport. I don't need to have taste.” That works all the way down the line. I feel like a lot of blokes will always have that one thing that they pride themselves on. But for me, I think what gives me a unique point of view is that I am a few of these things. I try to be good at sport and stay healthy, which usually doesn't correlate to having good taste. I think that gives me a really unique point of view because I'm interested in having both of those things. What happens when you combine those two things, it becomes really powerful if you think about it. When menswear was at its peak, you think of a Michael Jordan or a David Beckham, who are very different aspects of masculinity. That blend has always interested in me. I don't want to walk down the street and people think that I’m solely a fashion guy. I want people to look at me and think that I’m just a bloke, but if they look a little bit closer, they might notice that I'm a bit more put together than the average person.
When did you know it was the right time to go from the ‘old Milkbar’ to the ‘new Milkbar?’ Was it just things were getting stale, or did you see better success if you shook up the brand a bit?
That’s a good question because it's a business question. I'm trying to get better at business, but I'm not a businessperson. I'll make creative changes because I want to make creative changes, but a lot of the time I'll consult Zakk about a lot of the big business decisions. He's sort of my business guardian angel on my shoulder, stopping me from making too many creative decisions. Most of the time I want to do ridiculous, crazy things, and I'm trying to get better at finding a balance between crazy creative decisions and business decisions. The way I would explain it, I started being around older people from work and other things. I'm 21 now, and for the most part, you grow up in that bubble of people around your age. When I was 18, it was cool for me to start working with older people. But do I want to be this when I'm 25? Or even when I'm 30 or 35? That in a way also affects the previous question about taste, because everything that I knew about myself and my identity, I put it through this filter of, “do I want that when I'm 25?” I'm obviously very close to the brand and the brand is very close to my identity. I want that to reflect in the brand, because the reality is yes, maybe I can get away with being known for selling baggy T-shirts with graphics on them right now, but do I still want to be selling that when I'm 25? Probably not. That's fine if it’s going to continue to be a bit of my revenue, but overall, when I'm 25, I probably want to be selling nice tweed jackets, pleated pants or even suit jackets. I want to make changes so I can leave it open to that very broad sphere of what I could be at 25. Dylan and I have always spoken about one day. we're just going to have a moment where we're just wearing always wearing suits and ties. We've always said that, but it's about planning for that. I'm not going to corner myself into streetwear if I know that one day, I am going to be wearing suits. Some creative directors or founders will think, “f*ck, I don't really like this brand anymore because it doesn’t really represent who I am,” and they get to this situation where they sell the business, or just continue to work in a brand that doesn't reflect them. To answer the question, it wasn't a business decision. It was a longevity decision, and it was a creative/emotional decision.
I love the whole community feeling about the brand. Like hand delivering the orders before Christmas to make sure that they're there on time or handwriting the letters for the ‘Simo's Wardrobe’ collection. I don’t think many other fashion brands do community-based things like that, where they make something feel personal. Is that a big goal of yours to create a community with your brand as well?
Definitely. I think ‘community’ is a word that gets overused, but I obviously understand what you're saying when you when you when you use it. It's sort of a unique selling point. At any smaller brand, it is an advantage. Bigger brands can't afford to do that.
When I did Simo's wardrobe and I hand wrote all those letters, those weren't small cards. These were A5 letters, and I was detailing what was going on behind the scenes when I was making that specific jumper, for example. That took a f*cking long time- a full week. For people that don't know, that was a drop where I was selling some of my personal items from previous collections. I probably wouldn't do that again because it very time consuming, but I get what you're saying. It does go a long way when you do those kinds of things. When I started, I would message every new follower personally, and the first message would always be a little bit generic, something like “thanks for following the brand, I make everything here in Melbourne, how did you find out about the brand?” Just something very generic to get someone talking back. Then on that second message, I’d try to play off what they said, or if they had an interesting profile picture, I’d break their balls about that. I think that's where a bit of the community aspect comes from. I've actually just started to do that again when I have time, even if it's not with every new follow, but I'll try my best just to reach out and introduce myself. Obviously, that is going to really phase out as a brand grows, but I think the idea would be to keep some of that locality. Eventually, it would be amazing to have a retail space where people can come in. I want the relationship to be of that of an older man and his tailor. You come in, and he's going to sort you out.
The details are all a part of what makes it so special, right? You create a world, with characters, and the names of colours, as you were speaking about before. I wanted to ask you where you got the inspiration for the names, like ‘Old Holden Red,’ or ‘Northern Blue.’
I was struggling with that one, ‘Northern Blue.’ I don't know if people actually picked up on it or not, but it's a reference to the North Melbourne Kangaroos. There's always a biographical aspect to how I create things. When my dad’s side came from Italy, they lived in North Melbourne. He tells me stories about how he would go down to Arden Street Oval when they used to play games there. He would sneak down there with his brother when he was a young kid and they'd watch a big game, and then they'd sneak into the change rooms where all their favorite players were.
The imagery of ‘Old Holden Red’ reminds me of this story about Ralph Lauren. It's not about Holdens, but it's the same sentiment. Ralph Lauren was driving in the country one day, and he sees this old f*cked up red truck with the paint peeling off. He spins his car around and he chases this car down. and he eventually follows the guy home and asks to buy his car. The guy goes, “oh, I'm not sure. I’ll ask my wife.” Anyway, he meets up with him later and he ends up buying the car. But that idea that this f*cking billionaire still cares about this old f*cked up car with paint peeling off it is unreal. I think Ralph is obviously built off a lot of those characteristics, and I'd say I feel similar in that sense that it's not always the most sleek or shiny thing that interests me, but it can be something old with character.
Even my characters, they come from similar places. If we look at things from New York or things from Europe, people love it without even thinking because it's been shown to us a million times through media and imagery. I think to myself about the Brooklyn Brownstones. We all know what they look like. You can imagine a movie where some characters are sitting on the stoop, and someone walks past, and they get into a conversation. We can all picture that in our head because we've seen it 10 different times. We’ve seen that in Sesame Street when you're two years old, and you've seen that in The Godfather. Those pieces of media couldn't be so different, but they're still showing you the same thing. Those things are only beautiful to us because they've been sold to us over and over again. Eventually you start to deconstruct things like that. How is an old brick house any different? Because if you showed me an old brick house 1000 times, I'd probably f*cking love it as well, especially if I'm from another country and I've never seen that before. It would intrigue me, and I would be curious about it. In a similar way, I get to sell some of this imagery and lifestyle aspects of Australia. We would walk past the brick houses every day and not think about it, but now you can enjoy that, and you can be proud of living in an area that has those.
Let's go back to how you like to dip your toe in a few different fields. For me, if Dyl is known as ‘Melbourne’s Scorsese,’ you should be known as ‘Melbourne’s Da Vinci,’ because he is known as a Renaissance Man. There are not many people that are like that obviously, so what is it like blending all those different things?
I have a really good story about that, and it ties into a short story that sums up Milkbar. This was only a month or two ago, but Dyl and I usually go to this old Arab restaurant on Sydney Road. One night we're just working on a few things while we’re at the restaurant, and there was a table of really loud blokes wearing tech fleece, being a little bit obnoxious and rude. They’re the kind of blokes that Dyl and I grew up around, so we were used to that. Behind them was this group of really fashioned, well-dressed pretty boys. Very stereotypical Brunswick guys. Dyl and I just kept working, but the guys wearing tech fleece started to get really loud. I don’t know what they were complaining about, but for a second you begin to think that they’re talking about you. As it turns out, I realised they weren't happy because the pretty boys were looking at them weird- which they probably weren't, they were probably just minding their own business. The guys in the tech fleece were just being aggressors in the situation. I heard one guy saying something along the lines of, “if he looks at me weird one more time, I’m gonna f*cken do something.” I was facing Dyl and trying to work, but this was all happening in the corner of my eye.
A couple minutes later, the guy just slams the table, gets up, and says, “f*ck this.” He walks outside and then his boys follow him. They've already ordered, but they just walk outside. I can see them outside punching a dart, walking up and down the street trying to blow off some steam. I'm facing the window, and the bloke who walked out is looking back in the restaurant pointing at the pretty boys and making signals like, “I’m going to f*cking kill you,” and whatever. Obviously, it's all really ridiculous, but anyway, they end up coming back in. Nothing even happens in the end, because maybe they realised the pretty boys probably weren't even doing anything.
Dyl and I finish up our work, and then we go and sit outside for a bit. One of the blokes in the tech fleece comes outside and he’s smoking a dart, and he strikes up a conversation with Dyl and I. That night, Dyl was wearing this striped, red shirt with pleated pants and boots. I was probably wearing a shirt over a with some pleated pants and boots as well. It really interested me that there is such a fine line between the really fashion-y guys, and the traditional jock-type guys. There’s such a fine line to how Dyl and I were dressed, and the other guys that the tech fleece group were being the aggressors towards. I think something that I'm really trying to hit on the head with Milkbar is how you can be presentable even in the most uncomfortable of situations. I think as a person, you should be able to be around aggressors and level the situation. How do you dress for that? There would be certain things that I wouldn't wear. Especially where me and Dylan have grown up, that's just a part of life. These things happen, and I have to be ready and presentable in order to not be a victim. That's a part of a lot of people's reality. The other side of it is that I want to dress well and be presentable in my own way. But where's the balance of that? I want to be able to convey in the brand that if something like that happened to us, we would stand up and we would say something back. You just wouldn’t let that happen. But how do you present as that person? Sometimes it's actually wearing the same stuff but styling it differently, or your body language. Those things come into play when I'm photo shooting for Milkbar. But the concept of a Renaissance Man is something you'll see through a lot of Dyl and I’s work. It’s this idea of being a jock that's still tasteful and thoughtful- the idea of walking that line between those two worlds.
Let’s move a bit away from Milkbar and let's talk a bit about yourself. Now, one thing I'm really, really interested in is your mentality to be your own person and be confident in yourself. I think more people need to hear this. I just came out of high school like a couple years ago now, and all these kids I think are subconsciously doing or not doing things because they fear other people's thoughts on what they are doing. Where did you learn these values are from? And how did it start?
Good question. I think coming into high school, I was probably just as insecure as everyone else. Everyone goes through that as a teenager. I just found my way through it a lot earlier. Not to say I don't have my moments anymore, but I think it came from my parents. They instilled into me a confidence or arrogance- that's for other people to decide which one it is. I think very early on I had a lot given to me. When I think about primary school, I was naturally smart. I was good at all those core subjects, but I developed really early. I was the kid with a mustache in Grade 5, and really, really hairy. I'm short now, but I've been this height since I was 12. In sport, I was obviously naturally gifted, just because I was bigger than everyone. I wasn't actually skilled or anything.
But when I got into high school, kids were obviously smarter. They were studying way more than me, and I didn't study at all. Kids were going through growth spurts and people were training harder at certain sports. So, I eventually fell behind in those things, but that was still a big part of who I was. I still played a lot of sport, but being smart wasn’t a part of who I was in comparison to other things like creativity. But I still had that confidence for whatever reason. One of the things I said when Dyl and I met for the first time (and we both agreed on it,) was I always felt I’d do something different or special. I wasn't just going to go to university and have a cookie cutter life. I know everyone thinks they're going to be special, but I know that I have to work for it. I can't speak for everyone, but I think for a lot of people very deep down think they have something to give. I think a lot of people have that somewhere, and for some people it's closer to the surface than others, but to me, I knew from a young age that, “oh yeah, I think I'm special, but everyone else thinks they're special too. So now I have to prove it.” I think because of going through those things of being gifted early on but then losing a lot of that made me realize that I have to do the work and f*cking prove it.
I think there's always a criterion for being confident. I'm cool if I am this, this, and this. I'm strong if I’m good at this, this, and this. I did all the dumb sh*t that would make you cool in a high school environment early on, and it didn't make me feel any better. But everyone would point at me and say that I was cool for all the stupid sh*t that makes someone is cool in high school. Those things didn't make me happy, but everyone was looking at me whilst I am regurgitating this message of these things that make you cool in high school. Eventually there was a point where I thought, “well, what’s the point of this?” I was telling everyone to do this stupid stuff, and I wasn’t even enjoying it myself. I was doing it because I got told by older people that this was high school culture, and that was cool. That's when I started to deconstruct a lot of things. I think I thought, “Ok, I'm told this is cool or whatever, but this doesn't actually make me happy.” And what actually makes you cool? It’s like what I was saying about New York. I've been told these things were cool, and in time, it becomes cool. I realised doing anything with confidence and consistency is cool. I started to think about what makes me happy, and what I enjoyed doing. A lot of this culminated in a lot of change at 16-17 which is when I started to get into the local fashion industry.
Dyl taught me a lot about being creative and starting to get disciplined with the creative work. I needed that at that time because I hadn't found consistency and structure. He was able to offer that to me. I think it sounded like from what he was saying in his interview that he did with you that I was able to offer a bit of confidence to him. He would call it ‘stick your chest out.’ Dyl and I were in very different friend groups. But then I met him, and when I'm around new people and they're a bit unsure of themselves for whatever reason, I'm try and put across that they’re with me now. If people have a problem, f*ck them. Dyl is sort of that person now. He does that for others, and I think a lot of people just need that person. Sometimes it just needs to be yourself.
When you and your mates are together, do you separate the work from the friendship, or is it like when you guys are together, you're focused on having a good time?
It’s a really good question. The mates you're talking about, it is pretty work centered. What I'm strict on though is if we're talking about work, let's talk about work. Let's not 50/50 it. There have been times where we get caught in conversations where we're just rambling on about very broad, almost bullsh*t-ty conversations about work. At a point, I'll just go, “we’re not talking about this.” After doing that for a while, I think we have a good balance now of knowing when to talk about work, cracking it open and learning from each other. But if we want to talk sh*t, let's talk absolute sh*t. Let's be stupid and let's enjoy ourselves.
I think we continue to get better at that, but it is a fine line. I'm glad that with this group of mates I can walk that line really well. We'll do stuff purely to f*ck around, and we're starting to do that stuff more. But we’re always strict on getting work done first.
When I spoke to Zakk, he told me that you were the one that started the conversation with him. Dyl and yourself have been mates for a while, but were you the one who messaged the rest of the boys as well?
So Dyl and I met in high school, but Zakk followed Milkbar. When we were younger, he had this brand where he sold Nike Tech fleece- and everyone in the area was buying them. And I would hear these stories- “oh yeah, I bought some, and this guy rocked up to my house. He got the shorts out of the trunk, and I tried them.” I would always hear these stories, and people would come into school on sports day with these trackies on. When he followed Milkbar, like I said, I was always messaging people. I remember telling him that I knew about the brand he had when we were younger, and we ended up getting coffee. I don’t know if Zakk told you this, but I always tell Zakk that the first few times I met him, I did not like him. But over time, we got closer, and we started to share a lot in common.
Now we have a cool, honest, healthy relationship and we just call each other's bullsh*t out. We all do that, but Zakk and I probably do it the most. If someone is talking sh*t, we'll go, ‘no bro, don't grow.’ That just means stay the same. Brother, be careful, you might grow. We're always finding new ways to gaslight each other into growing and being better people, and I think I do that with a lot of my mates, but I do it with Zakk the most. Our back and forth is very productive.
Spencer and I, we argued about this once, but apparently, I messaged him first on Milkbar. Jackson and he were doing Astelle at the time, and I wanted to know about some screen-printing stuff. When we all met up for the first time, I had met everyone except Jackson, and the rest is history.
Well to you it might be sort of a lazy question, but I still want to hear it. I think you might enjoy answering it because I got it straight off your blog. So, for you, what is the essence of a man?
That’s a great question. I think that was the first blog I put up. There's obviously the essence of what men are, and then there's the essence of what men should be. Obviously, a lot of men don’t live up to what they should be, as people in general don’t. Not all men want to be masculine now which is fine, so I’m going to answer the question as if you’re asking what the essence of masculinity is, which goes for male or females wanting to utilise those traits. But to put it simply and not ramble on about it, masculinity is to be noble. A provider and a protector. Not everyone needs providing for and not everyone needs protecting, but when appropriate, doing those things with nobility is the most important part of it. You can be strong, but not noble. You can be rich, but not noble. You can be all these things, but if you don't have nobility with it, you're a f*cking wanker. A lot of the time it is about accompanying the very traditional, strong masculine traits with almost a feminine touch of grace or respect. That the way I view it.
To follow up with that, you talk a lot about the people that inspire your work. Influential people. Who for you is someone you look up to that is a man, and what a man should be?
There's not many. I definitely look at my dad. When I think about him, I think again of those three things: protector, provider, nobility. The other little qualities that I love about him is he could fix everything in the house. He never did a trade, but he could fix everything. I like that. He is stoic, which is a very traditional one that has its limits, but he is stoic. Obviously, a hard worker and disciplined. It's really hard to know how much the men and the women in past generations of your family have sacrificed. I really respect that.
Let me try to think of celebrity one as well. I think what ends up happening with a lot of celebrity idols is you think they're one thing, and the truth is, they're not. It’s fine, because again, our parents aren't perfect, we're not perfect. It's just that we're sold a false idea, and then that idea becomes broken. I think the more refined you become, it’s more about liking different things about different people, and trying to put that all together. Don Frye is an old UFC fighter, but I like his presentation. I don’t know what he’s actually like as a person. Tom Selleck is another, and so is JFK Jr.
When I was watching Ron Barassi's memorial, everyone would say he was very principled man. People can say that, but if you don't know them, what does that mean? I need a concrete example. And there's this story about him being in St Kilda, and a lady was getting jumped. He was 75 years old, and he probably couldn't walk. His back was probably f*cked up for playing however many years of AFL footy. He was 75, and he tackled those guys. He got belted for someone he didn’t know, and she was able to get away. He obviously knew that he was old, and he knew he wasn’t going to be able to belt four guys, but in that moment, he protected, and there was nobility to that protection. He didn't get to go in there and knock four guys out and everyone looks at him and claps. That's an example of being strong, but you're getting something from that. But in this moment, he had to get in there, and he would have got f*cked up as an old man. I think that is an essence of really strong character.
You're obviously pretty caught up on the culture. I recently read a book by the bassist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers called Flea, and at the end of the book, he has a list of his favorite albums, songs, movies, and concerts that ended up changing his life or altering his lifestyle. I noticed that you had a couple on your blog as well, so do you have any of these that you have a similar experience with?
Honestly, I can't remember what I put in my blog. I always tell people my favorite movie is Good Will Hunting. I first watched it when I was 12, but every time I watch it, I like it for a different reason. I think that has in a way shaped a lot of my ideas on masculinity and how I want to be. He's a young idiot at the start, which is kind of what I was when I was 15, but he has potential, and he disciplines himself. He puts those things aside so he can go on and live a proper life. That really changed me. I didn't realise that when I first watched it, and I still made those mistakes. But then I went back, and I looked at it. I went through that in a similar way.
Albums wise, this is real low hanging fruit, but one is Blonde. I remember overhearing what my sister would play in the other room, and she would always be playing Frank Ocean before Blonde came out. One day, she told me that this new Frank Ocean album was released, and everyone had been waiting for it. That was my introduction to Blonde, and I think after that I started to listen to albums with extra care. Again, low hanging fruit, but a lot of the stuff I would listen to when I was young was rap. When I was 12, I didn’t have Spotify, and I bought 2014 Forest Hills Drive on iTunes. It was the only thing I would listen to on the way to school, and I think I just listened to that for six months to a year every morning on the bus. Without even trying, I obviously was able to open it up a lot more. Subconsciously, I think J. Cole almost shaped the way I thought about business. He comments a lot on money and capitalism, and I didn’t realise he might have shaped that part of my personality until very recently. Even though I have run a business, I really have not cared about money and there's a lot of good aspects to that.
The issue with this question is I'm not sure. We got into it earlier, but I change so often. A lot of those core albums that stick with me is the music that I listened to when I was 13, and that made the person I was when I was 15. I'm now in a new phase where I'm consuming content and media from anytime between the 1930s to the 1960s. Although things weren’t great back then, but in media, they're seen as great and very mature, even though they're not. I'm looking at those references now trying to create the person I want to be at 25. My point being is when I say Blonde and J. Cole, those are the things that made me the person I was when I was 15-16. There are things in there, but they are still yet to be shown to me. I think it's only going to be years down the road where you think, yeah, that actually really f*cked me up and that changed me. When I was 13, I really related to the movie Kids. I really related to that movie, but I don't like that movie anymore or what it represents. Even though that was a big part of who I was at that time, I now look back on that and know that that’s not the person I want to be. But there are things like Grease, which my mum showed me when I was young. I think that traditionalism and sensibility stuck with me even though I didn't realize it, and I think that's resurfacing now at 21 as I’m thinking about who I want to be when I'm 25. I think you can't really tell what values are going to stick with you from a certain piece of media until 4 or 5 years later. It is a loaded question to me because I can tell you all the things that inspired who I was at 16, but I can't tell you what is inspiring me right now.
Well, that's a nice segue to my next question. We've got a playlist of our guest selections, so I guess for you now that you’ve said that, which songs do you have on repeat now that you come back to when you are 25 and think, yeah, that really takes me back?
You Belong To Me, by Dean Martin. Mrs. Robinson, Simon and Garfunkel. Fire track. Cut Worms, Sold My Soul. Zakk actually stole that one from me! I showed him that song, and I’d never posted it. But then he went ahead and posted it, like he found that song! I never posted it because someone showed me that song and that’s their song, and I respected that. And then Zakk went ahead, and he claimed it. I let him know how I felt about it after that. Spencer showed me Wigwam, by Bob Dylan, and I really love that. It’s not mine- it’s Spencer’s! The Air That I Breathe is good. I used to really listen to albums, but I guess because a lot of this stuff is older, I’ll sort of pick and choose my favourite songs from these classic artists.
The final one I have for you today is: any words of wisdom, people to shout out, or things to promote?
My words of wisdom: ‘don’t grow.’ You know what’s better than telling people to grow? Gaslighting them and telling them not to. There’s a funny story about the other thing I always say. I was telling the boys one weekend a few weeks ago after the run there are people who always come to me looking for advice, and they never do anything. I told the boys that I’m just going to stop giving them advice and say, ‘you know what? Yeah, you’re actually f*cked!’ in the hopes that that will actually motivate them to do something, in the same way that I say, ‘don’t grow.’ My point being, if people are going to do something, they’re going to do it. It’s always nice to have encouragement, but I think if you’re going to do something, just f*cking do it, or don’t grow.
There are so many people to shoutout- it will be tough to keep it short. Firstly, Dyl from Garden State Journal is my sole collaborator. On anything that is credited with his collaboration or not, I’m very lucky that working with someone like him has allowed me to achieve dreams such as working with an AFL football club probably 10 years earlier than it would’ve happened without him. Zakk, who I’ve said enough about already, but our back and forth has developed both of us (him creatively, and me business wise). Spenser and Jackson both mild me out with an aura of South-East humility which I definitely need. They both work really hard and have achieved so much, but you would never hear about it from them.
More broadly when you speak about community I think of an extended group of peers. I’m still so young but I feel like I’ve been embedded in this little bubble of the industry for so long. There are relationships that started at vintage markets when I was 16 that have changed and evolved so much over the last 5 years. Most notably, Pat and Jimmy. They were selling vintage at the time, and going to UpThere Store and having big roles there was cool to see for the first time how skilled individuals could move from business to business and still have a strong impact and effect the culture.
I’m very lucky to be surrounded by a network of other brands now that are a similar age, all at different levels in business. Jasper from Mutimer and I have probably had the longest running dialogue. I tell people that often when making a business or product design decision now, I’ll think ‘what would Jasper do?’ The Dead Again boys too. When we met, I felt we clicked straight away. They remind me of a lot of the guys I grew up with. Another two boys that motivate me to be better are Keiren and Ferg from Dous. They make me piss myself- I always love running into those c*nts. They’re super personable, and I think that will continue to show through their work and community building. Also, Mass and Alessia from Observe Gallery, which I think is extremely underrated. Their branding is super refined and thoughtfully curated.
Sid and Henry are some younger boys. It’s been cool to see their growth already. They’ve already helped us all out on a lot of projects, and I’m excited to see what they end up doing.
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