← The Business of Fashion Podcast
The Business of Fashion Podcast
Coldplay’s Guy Berryman Says He Makes Clothes the Way He Makes Music
00:38:36
The founder of Applied Art Forms joins BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed to discuss the steep learning curve of building a fashion business, why quality and longevity matter more than hype, and how his creativity flows across creative disciplines
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- [00:00]
Imran Ahmed
Foreign. Hi, this is Imran Ahmed, founder and CEO of the Business of Fashion. Welcome to the BoF Podcast. It's Friday, March 28th. Guy Berryman grew up with an engineer's mind and a passion for making things. After studying mechanical engineering and architecture, he found global fame as the basis of Coldplay. But his love for making things never went away. And in 2020, he launched Applied Artforms, a clothing label that draws inspiration from utilitarian design, military garments and mid century modern aesthetics. Now stocked in over 50 stores worldwide, including Dover Street Market, the brand is growing slowly but deliberately with a creative process that Guy likens to making music.
- [00:54]
Guy Berryman
The way I make things is very much like we make songs, which is you throw ideas down and then you kind of listen to it, judge it, see what it is. Very sculptural process. And I think the way I make clothes is kind of based on just this inbuilt, ingrained process I have for making music. You have to understand, I'm on the studio floor on my hands and knees, cutting, sewing, gluing, stitching. I'm not backing someone else's brand. You know, this is absolutely hands on. This is kind of my baby.
- [01:26]
Imran Ahmed
This week on the BoF podcast, I sit down with Guy to discuss the steep learning curve of building a fashion business, why quality and longevity matter more than hype, and how his creativity flows across creative disciplines. Here's Guy Barryman on the BoF podcast. Guy Berryman, thank you for inviting me to Amsterdam.
- [01:49]
Guy Berryman
It's an absolute pleasure.
- [01:50]
Imran Ahmed
Thank you for having me talking about this. Maybe I think it's been over a year ago since we had breakfast in London.
- [01:58]
Guy Berryman
Yeah.
- [01:58]
Imran Ahmed
And I first learned about your journey into the fashion world, your obsession with all things vintage and design. So we're going to get there. But I always like to start these conversations with a kind of personal journey and where you grew up and how you grew up and how you ended up doing what you do. I mean, everybody knows you from Coldplay, but before Coldplay, before one of the biggest bands of all time, like, what were you like growing up and what were you drawn to?
- [02:32]
Guy Berryman
Well, I grew up in Scotland. I was born in a town called Kirkcaldy, which is just north of Edinburgh. And what was I like? Gosh, I don't know, just a normal kid, I think. I mean, it's funny, I spend a lot of time explaining to my kids now that, you know, when I was their age, there was no such thing thing as kind of computers or mobile phones or the Internet. And I mean, sometimes it Blows my mind trying to remember, you know, life back then. But to them it's just kind of incomprehensible. You know, we used to just go running across fields and we, you know, summer holidays, we'd disappear into the woods for like the entire day. And of course, you know, there's no way of parents knowing where you are or getting in touch with you or like having a, you know, there's no.
- [03:19]
Imran Ahmed
Air tags, there's no like GPS tracking and monitoring.
- [03:25]
Guy Berryman
Yeah. So I think life was very different back then. And, you know, I just don't think as a parent now, I just wouldn't let my kids do the kind of things I was able to do back then.
- [03:38]
Imran Ahmed
But at some point you were drawn to the world like you were creative or, you know, something happened. Right. You studied at ucl, which is, I think, where you met your band members.
- [03:50]
Guy Berryman
Yeah, so I moved from Scotland when I was 12 down to England. My father's an engineer and he was working on the Channel Tunnel. So we relocated to Kent so he could be nearer his place of work. I was at school in Canterbury and When I was 18, I went to UCL to study mechanical engineering.
- [04:10]
Imran Ahmed
Do you remember why you picked mechanical engineering?
- [04:12]
Guy Berryman
Well, I've always had an engineer's brain, I guess, you know, I sort of have my father's DNA and I always liked to build things and make things. When I was a kid growing up, you know, whether it was fashioning things out of things I found or building, you know, Airfix models, I was always very creative and hands on with making things and art and design in general. So for me it was just logical to study engineering. My father used to work on classic cars and I used to help him restore them. So I went off to university to study mechanical engineering, thinking I was going to be building racing cars and building engines. But the reality was when I got there was very different. It was very much theoretical, a lot of maths, a lot of physics, and there was no kind of hands on creativity, There was no making. And I think I would probably define myself as somebody who likes to make things. I mean, for applied art forms, of course there's a lot of design process, but really I feel like I'm a maker, I like to work with my hands. And so I kind of realized that mechanical engineering was not really the answer. So I needed to switch course and find something which kind of corresponded with what I believed I should be doing, which is why I switched to an architecture course which gave me everything that I needed actually. But of course, an architecture course is a seven year long affair. And by that time I'd met my bandmates in the first couple of weeks of going to ucl. And because I always loved music, I was a musician, I was a bass player as a teenager and always enjoyed playing in bands. I had some hopes when I went to university that I'd be able to kind of connect with like minded people to make music with as well. But I suppose I never really felt that it was going to be anything beyond just an outside interest whilst I pursued my qualification as an architect. And then, and then we, we enjoyed loving working with each other as, you know, as a band. And we were excited about the songs we were writing and we, and we really dedicated ourselves to it. And by the time the rest of the guys were finishing their degree after three years, I was just really getting into the architecture course and we were signing a record deal with Parlor Phone Records. So I had a choice. I had a choice, okay, do I want to sign this record deal and go off and be a band or do I want to finish another five years of studying architecture? And of course, when you're that age, you choose the band.
- [07:02]
Imran Ahmed
And with retrospect, you would choose the band because of course it became a success. But were you at all worried about it? I mean, cause clearly it was a great choice, but you just went with.
- [07:15]
Guy Berryman
The band Because I just believed we were gonna make it. We just kept working and doing what we needed to do and we took one step at a time and I just had this great belief that we were gonna be able to turn our band into something successful. And of course it was a very different landscape in the music industry back then. It was before streaming and there was a much more formulaic way you could make a living as a musician back then. It's a little more chaotic now with the way that the music industry works. But back then there was kind of processes you could work through.
- [07:53]
Imran Ahmed
When did you know that Coldplay would be as huge as it is? Was there a moment you realized that where you're like, holy shit.
- [08:04]
Guy Berryman
Well, our first song was Yellow became a single and it was played on, you know, the national radio station. And that was an exciting moment. And all of a sudden everybody knew that song.
- [08:24]
Imran Ahmed
Yeah.
- [08:24]
Guy Berryman
And so that was a very big turning point for us. But you never know. We were just excited to be doing what we were doing, but we could never have predicted we would be still together 25 plus years later.
- [08:38]
Imran Ahmed
There's real endurance and loyalty and commitment that takes for a band to stay together for that long and continue to be successful, let's move into the whole, like, style quotient. So one of the things I've always admired about Coldplay as a band is, like, there's a style element to it, too, you know? So at what point did that. Stylish. Each of you has your own thing, it seems kind of.
- [09:07]
Guy Berryman
I mean, I think for the first couple of albums, if we had a photo shoot or a show, we would just turn up in whatever clothes that we put on that morning, and there was not really any care or love put into that. But now, you know, it's very different now. We have clothes that we put on before the show, and it feels like part of the ceremony of getting ready, and there's some kind of broad theme and ideas for, you know, for each album, and we try and make outfits which kind of play into that. But it was really kind of. I think on our third album, we decided, or we had a conversation. It's like, you know, maybe we should think about what we're wearing and how we look together. And you don't just turn up in a hoodie and you don't just turn up in jeans.
- [09:53]
Imran Ahmed
Yeah.
- [09:54]
Guy Berryman
I mean, we were just music nerds. We are music nerds. And for us, it was all about listening to music, devouring music, and focusing on writing and recording music. And, you know, we paid little attention to the style element of it, but, you know, now we have a little bit more of a coordination.
- [10:14]
Imran Ahmed
Yeah. I mean, I think you and I are about the same age. And, you know, when I think back to the music stars that I grew up with, like, fashion or what they wore was always such a big part of the image, you know. So at what point did you become a fashion nerd, too? Because, you know, we were just talking through some things in there that. In your showroom, and you were clearly deeply immersed in this world now, and you're like, you know, really knowledgeable about fabrics and shapes and cuts and things. Like, how did that. How did it go from being something you didn't think about at all as a band member to something that became strategic as part of the image of Coldplay, to something that you really wanted to pursue as a personal passion.
- [11:00]
Guy Berryman
At the end of a tour in 2017, we had decided that we were going to take a bit of time off a break. So 2018 was a year that I was looking at and just kind of wondering what to do with myself for a year, because we'd never taken a break since we started and you know, I felt like I wanted to re engage with a design process. I wanted to go back to engineering and architecture and, you know, some kind of design and manufacture process. And I think, you know, when I was studying, I always felt like I would end up being designing chairs or lamps or houses or some kind of industrial design, I guess, and certainly not fashion. I wasn't thinking about that when I was studying. But I've been touring the world for 25 years and whenever I go some to a city, I just kind of gravitate towards flea markets and thrift stores and vintage stores. You know, I've never really been somebody who likes to go kind of shopping on the high street. And I've always had a great fascination with things from the past and particularly mid century, 1950s, 1960s. So whether it's cars or lamps, furniture, architecture, clothing, this just seems to be this kind of era which I get really drawn to from a design point of view. So as I started traveling around the world a lot, I started building up kind of with no real plan. I started buying interesting garments, a lot of military garments and workwear garments, you know, so I wasn't really buying fashion, but I was buying things, garments from a point of, you know, objects of art. You know, some of these flight suits that I have, or technical jackets from the Air Force or the Navy, you know, they're just incredibly complex pieces. And so I just started buying and collecting and building up this library of garments just because I love them, not because I was wearing them, but just because I liked them. From a construction point of view.
- [13:08]
Imran Ahmed
What is it about mid century that you are drawn to that period of time? And there's so much talk about mid century modern furniture. And like just now when we were going through some of your pieces, a lot of them were from the 90s and 50s and that period. What is it about the design aesthetic or philosophy from that time that you're drawn to?
- [13:31]
Guy Berryman
Perhaps it was like a post war freedom that was kind of filtering through society. I really feel like it was the greatest era for design. And of course things were made very well back then as well. Things tend to be very high quality. But I don't know, it's a hard thing to pinpoint. But you know, everything that sort of comes out of that mid century modern era I tend to just been drawn towards.
- [13:56]
Imran Ahmed
So let's go deeper into the military aspect too, because obviously utilitarian styles and clothing have become a really important part of the fashion landscape. But it sounds to me like you're More drawn to it from the kind of what it represents historically, the functionality, the fabrics. Talk to us about what you've learned about, you know, what it takes to make good utilitarian clothes.
- [14:25]
Guy Berryman
It's an interesting business, isn't it, fashion? For me, the designing and the making is kind of quite straightforward process. The wider business and the marketing and the selling and, I mean, that's where I find the real challenges, actually. But what we do in the label is we tend to look at a lot of these interesting pieces, and we'll tend to combine ideas from one garment, from ideas with another, to try and create something which is a unique object. It's really important for me that I talk about utilitarianism and utility design a lot. But we're not a technical brand. I mean, I think I'm really drawn to, from a style point of view, I really consider applied art forms to be in line with, like, a Japanese street style. So it's a lot of wide pants. And, you know, we're not a technical brand. We're not selling kind of hiking gear or performance jackets or whatever, or the.
- [15:19]
Imran Ahmed
Intersection of where those two things meet. Right. Because a lot of those more technical brands have been edging into the style or fashion space. But you're really. This is more, for you, a style brand than a technical.
- [15:32]
Guy Berryman
Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. Drawing elements from, you know, interesting design details. I mean, a lot of our outerwear is made from cotton, so it's. It kind of, you know, if you go out in the rain, you'll get wet, but that's just how things were made back then. And that's kind of what I like to use. The design language from a different era, but then update the silhouettes to kind of appear more modern. So our blocks tend to be much wider, boxier fits and drop shoulders and so forth and so forth. But I think the utilitarianism element of it just comes from more a design aesthetic point of view than a functional point of view.
- [16:08]
Imran Ahmed
Yeah. So 2018, you guys decide you're going to take a bit of a breather from touring and stuff. At what stage in that process do you say, oh, you know, I'm a hugely successful bass guitarist of a stadium rock band or pop band, and now I'm gonna start a fashion label.
- [16:29]
Guy Berryman
Well, it felt like a good idea, and I was passionate about all of the pieces that I'd collected. And I was wondering what the purpose of the collection was, and I realized it was just a big library of ideas and things to draw inspiration from. I mean, to Be honest. Nothing can prepare you for the reality of making and selling clothes. I mean, it's an incredibly brutal industry to be in, and I think you can only survive in it. This is what I've come to realize. You can only survive in it if you're completely passionate about the process and passionate about garments and passionate about what you're doing. It's a business unlike any other. You know, if I was designing a chair, I can design a chair and then I can sell that chair for 50 years if I come up with a good design. But what we're doing now is we're making, you know, 50 products, or approximately 50 products two times a year, working with a huge amount of factories and working with a huge amount of prototypes. And I can't think of any other business where there's that kind of cadence of product design and development and also.
- [17:39]
Imran Ahmed
The kind of built in cycle of making what was before kind of irrelevant or out of style or perishable in a way. Which is why I think your kind of visceral connection to things from the past is so interesting. Because I think we have an industry that's placed too much emphasis on low quality, disposable, ephemeral pieces, you know, and collections. So as someone who really appreciates old things, well made things, well designed things that last, how do you reconcile that with participating in this business model that forces you to like create 50 styles and in multiple colorways and then do that again every other season?
- [18:31]
Guy Berryman
Well, I think so. As I mentioned to you earlier, a lot of my archive, I would say probably 75, maybe 80% of the pieces I've been collecting over the years are jackets. That's where my passion lies. That's where all of our collections are built around the jackets. That's why I really struggle with spring, summer.
- [18:50]
Imran Ahmed
So do lots of British brands, by the way, because, like, it's easier to do the autumn, winter.
- [18:55]
Guy Berryman
Absolutely. I just, you know, everything kind of gets built up around the jackets. And what I found was with pieces in my collection, you know, some of the garments are, you know, 70, maybe 80 years old. And what makes them so beautiful is the fact that they've been worn and they've been used for such a length of time that they develop this kind of patina and holes that you just really can't fake. You know, there's a real authenticity to the way a garment will age over such a long period of time. And I think when we started our first collection, one of the most significant pieces was this quite elaborate coat system. Which we called the Modular parka, which we made from Ventile, which is a very kind of well known British heritage fabric. And it had different liners. You could zip in and zip out. And it had different colors. You could. So you could basically customize this jacket about 50 different ways. And depending on which season you're in, you know, you can take the liners out if it's warmer weather and just wear the shell and. And so on and so on. And it was really important for that first collection that I designed and made something which showed quite proficient, high level of engineering. You know, it was really important to me that we didn't just kind of come out with a hoodie or a graphic tee or something like that. I really wanted to kind of bite down on some real engineering. And when we were kind of designing this piece, you know, in the process, I was trying to figure out, how is this going to look in 70 years time from now? You know, is there going to be somebody who buys this in 70 years time and appreciates it for the same way I've bought something which is 70 years old and I kind of, you know, covet it. And we had this kind of idea of longevity in mind when we designed that piece and everything we do actually. You know, I always feel like clothes actually get better the more you wear it and the more you kind of. Or like in the way a pair of raw denim jeans. You know, you buy raw denim jeans and then you spend five years making them your own.
- [21:03]
Imran Ahmed
Yeah. When you live in them, they kind of become yours.
- [21:06]
Guy Berryman
So I kind of feel that way towards everything that we're doing. And I like the idea that everything that people buy from us are going to be with them for a long period of time. So everything, fabrics are selected and things are made well in order for people to keep them for a long, long time.
- [21:24]
Imran Ahmed
So that all makes sense as a proposition. You mentioned just now that it's actually the business of fashion that you find the most challenging. Talk to us a little bit about the lessons you've learned about launching. Because I believe it started initially as a direct to consumer brand. You were like, I'm just gonna.
- [21:42]
Guy Berryman
Yeah, I mean, I came in completely naively. You know, I didn't study at St. Martin's I didn't have really any idea about how the business worked. I just kind of felt you could make great products, make an Instagram account, make a website, and your product would kind of fly off the shelves and it doesn't work like that. It was a pretty quick realization that we needed to start thinking about distribution models and having representation in stores and so on and so on.
- [22:16]
Imran Ahmed
And even with your platform as a band member of Coldplay and the reach you have and the visibility you have, like that wasn't enough to get people interested.
- [22:28]
Guy Berryman
It's definitely opened some doors. It's definitely closed some doors as well. I mean, I think you have to understand, I'm on the studio floor on my hands and knees, cutting, sewing, gluing, stitching. I'm not backing someone else's brand. You know, this is absolutely hands on. This is kind of my baby.
- [22:51]
Imran Ahmed
Right.
- [22:52]
Guy Berryman
And I've always been very keen to not try and turn it into a story about me as a musician or being in a big band because I'm so passionate about the garments, the collections. And the most exciting thing for me is when maybe one of our partners, maybe it's somebody Dover Street Market in Tokyo will speak to me about, say this person came in and discovered the brand and bought these pieces or whatever on face value.
- [23:26]
Imran Ahmed
Yeah. They have no idea who it's linked to or where it comes from.
- [23:28]
Guy Berryman
So that for me is the most important kind of discovery somebody can make for the brand is just purely on the face value of the garments and not because it's attached to any other story.
- [23:43]
Imran Ahmed
We'll be right back with more on the BoF podcast.
- [23:50]
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- [24:34]
Imran Ahmed
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- [25:04]
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- [25:38]
Imran Ahmed
So back to the business of fashion. So you launch as a DTC and clearly it doesn't drive the kind of volume we were expecting. So how did you go about rethinking the distribution strategy and building awareness if that awareness wasn't going to be linked to your day job?
- [25:57]
Guy Berryman
Well, we started doing a trade fair in Paris, the Man Woman show, which is kind of like a hall full of different brands, you know, smaller brands. So we tried that to try and get some interest from buyers from stores. And I would say that was a really pivotal moment for us because the Dover Street Market Ginza team were walking through one day and they discovered it and they really liked what they saw and they've been great champions of us for years now.
- [26:27]
Imran Ahmed
And we know they have a very discerning buyer group. I mean on my last group to Tokyo, I think I even wrote something about how just the mix of brands in there, it's like it's really special. So that's like a big accomplishment for someone who comes from outside fashion trying to.
- [26:45]
Guy Berryman
Yeah. So I really, you know, I've got so much love and respect for the whole Dover Street Market family and it really feels like a family now. And you know, there was just, just one small anecdote which is, you know, the kind of anecdote that you need every now and again to keep you going. But one of my colleagues from Dover Street Market, his name's Dickon, works in the London Dick and Woden, who's brilliant, he actually bought one of these modular Parker systems and was wearing it in Paris one day and walked into a meeting with Ray Kawakubo who insisted he took it off so she could spread it on the, on the table and inspect all the details and wow. And he reported back that the jacket got a big thumbs up from her. So he. That's the kind of story that you really need every now and again I think in this, you know, in this industry which, you know Just feels like an uphill battle most of the time.
- [27:39]
Imran Ahmed
She doesn't give praise easily, Ms. Kawasaki, so I've heard. And she usually communicates in very short. You know, sometimes when you go backstage after a comm show, she just has one word, and the whole show has to be interpreted through that word. But, yeah, to get the thumbs up from Rei Kawakubo is a big deal. So tell us about the state of applied art forms today. You know, as a business, what's your distribution? What's the customer that it's resonating with? And then maybe a bit about where you think it's going.
- [28:14]
Guy Berryman
Well, I think it's still relatively small. I think we have about 50 doors open now around the world. I think the most concentration of stores is in Tokyo, which I guess it doesn't really surprise me because, you know, that's kind of, you know, this kind of Japanese street style that I refer to as, you know, is what we play into. So it doesn't surprise me. This kind of Americana, oversized, wide leg trousers, boxy fits, works well in Tokyo. But, you know, we have probably great representation in most major cities now. The volumes are still small. We need to grow. We need to kind of figure out how we can increase our distribution strategy. And of course, that's never a straightforward thing because you want to grow at a rate which is organic and meaningful, and you don't want to kind of go too big, too quick, if you could even find a way to do that. So there's constant challenges on that front. I mean, I would say we have a new strategy coming up, which is for autumn, winter 25, we will be launching two collections with slightly different styles and slightly different price points.
- [29:32]
Imran Ahmed
Oh, yeah, I saw that at Antonio when we met up in Milan Fashion Week.
- [29:36]
Guy Berryman
Yeah. So we have a kind of what we're calling Atelier collection, which is more sartorial, premium, Made in Japan, Made in Italy, which is kind of following on from what we've done so far. Because I think one of the most common discussions I have and the feedback I get from people who discover the brand is it's that they can't afford it. And, you know, we're not the most expensive brand out there, but it's definitely not a price point which is accessible to everybody. And I kind of carried that around for such a long time. And I just felt, well, this isn't cool. I want. I want more people to be able to engage in the brand. So we're launching the Atelier Collection and the AAF Collection, which so atelier collection is kind of slightly more sartorial and the AAF collection is more playing into what I call this Japanese street style. So graphic T shirts, for instance, will live in the AAF collection and suiting and shirting will move into atelier collection. So we have a slightly different strategy coming up. I have a new business partner who is kind of bringing more grown up business sensibility into the mix.
- [30:51]
Imran Ahmed
Who's that?
- [30:52]
Guy Berryman
This guy called Rob Schilder.
- [30:54]
Imran Ahmed
And does he come from the fashion world? He does, yeah.
- [30:57]
Guy Berryman
And so I'm very excited about that partnership. He has great experience. And the main thing is it frees up my time to spend in the design studio just being creative because I felt for a long time I was doing the photo shoots, I was doing the styling, I was running the Instagram account, I was launching kind of marketing campaigns like through Facebook business tools. I was doing the organizing. You know, there was just kind of. I was getting spread so thinly across the whole business that I was. I was kind of losing touch with the whole reason that I started it in the first place, which was to be creative and to make things.
- [31:36]
Imran Ahmed
Yeah.
- [31:37]
Guy Berryman
So I'm very excited that we've got this new direction. We have new expertise and we have a fairly. Not all the details have been finalized, but we're working on a very good plan, I think, to increase awareness of the brand, because awareness is still low. So I think we'll increase awareness and we'll start opening up more doors within the next kind of 12 to 18 months.
- [31:59]
Imran Ahmed
So on the awareness side, I mean, now that you've got some real momentum and got some great stock, is there any way for you to leverage the Coldplay platform? Like, do you wear applied art forms on stage and is that something that you do? And like, how do you think you can kind of merge those two without making them?
- [32:19]
Guy Berryman
No, I don't want to. It's two very separate parts. I mean, I do wear our garments. In fact, all of us wear our garments on stage.
- [32:26]
Imran Ahmed
Oh, really?
- [32:27]
Guy Berryman
To different degrees. But for me it's kind of. I just want to roll my sleeves up and build this as a sustainable business for the business, for the products. And I want, if it's going to be successful, it needs to be on its own back.
- [32:42]
Imran Ahmed
So as we conclude, I'm curious to go back to this idea of the value of old things. For all those young people out there listening, what do you encourage people to think about when it comes to acquiring and building a collection of things that last?
- [33:04]
Guy Berryman
Well, I like there's the term, you know, buy less, buy better, which kind of goes around quite a lot. And I. I think that's the simplest way of putting. I mean, what I think is really great is somebody who likes to buy. I mean, I don't just buy vintage, you know, Air Force and military and stuff like that. I do buy a lot of kind of vintage designer labels as well. And I think one thing that's. That's really great, which is just getting more and more popular, are used fashion platforms. So, like, grailed and vinted. And I think gone are the days where you have to walk into kind of like a dusty thrift store to go and find a cool piece of vintage fashion. I think, you know, these new platforms are. Have really opened up a world of, you know, used designer clothes. And I think that's a really great way of, like, building up a wardrobe.
- [33:51]
Imran Ahmed
Do you buy stuff on there?
- [33:53]
Guy Berryman
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
- [33:54]
Imran Ahmed
And eBay, too.
- [33:55]
Guy Berryman
EBay?
- [33:56]
Imran Ahmed
Yeah.
- [33:56]
Guy Berryman
You know, thrift stores, charity stores, flea markets.
- [34:00]
Imran Ahmed
Favorite vintage store in the whole world.
- [34:03]
Guy Berryman
Oh, my God. That's a tough one. I mean, the last tour we did to Australia and New Zealand was insane for me. There were so many great stores in Sydney and in Melbourne. I can't remember their names, but I came back with, I think, you know, 10 bags full of vintage clothes there. I mean. I mean, the Rose bowl flea market, I think, is probably the source for a lot of the kind of cool vintage stores, you know, all over the world.
- [34:33]
Imran Ahmed
Where is that?
- [34:34]
Guy Berryman
Los Angeles? Yeah.
- [34:36]
Imran Ahmed
Have you ever been to Janteaks in Tokyo?
- [34:39]
Guy Berryman
It rings a bell.
- [34:40]
Imran Ahmed
So I probably have near Nakameguro, a Daikonyama area.
- [34:45]
Guy Berryman
I'm pretty sure I've been there because I recognize the name. But, I mean, in Tokyo, you've got this whole area called Koenji.
- [34:51]
Imran Ahmed
Yeah.
- [34:51]
Guy Berryman
Which is where I spend most of my time, because that has just the, you know, the largest concentration of these, you know, vintage stores of all kinds. So I think it's cool that kind of young people are feeling it's kind of more acceptable to buy used garments.
- [35:08]
Imran Ahmed
Even desirable, because you get something different.
- [35:11]
Guy Berryman
I mean, it's crazy. I mean, you know, I think the famous Raf Simmons. It's just a crewneck sweater. It says Nebraska on the front. I can't remember which collection it was from, but, you know, I think that's like 25,000, really US dollars. Of course, that's, you know, that's an outlier, but I think it's super cool. You have, like, cool platforms now where you can go shopping. And you don't need to go and buy something new with a big branded logo on there from the high street.
- [35:40]
Imran Ahmed
Yeah. Lastly, you know, as someone who I guess we could call a multi hyphenate creative, now that you're not just a musician, you're also designing and creating this collection, two elements that I'd love for you to just address. One is like, what benefit does it have as a creative person to have multiple creative outlets? And then secondly, how do you juggle everything and balance everything?
- [36:07]
Guy Berryman
It's a really good question. And it's something that I think that since I've been working on and building up applied art forms, I've become a better musician and a better band member. Because when you're kind of putting all of your eggs in one basket creatively, I think you can overthink over process. Having a creative outlet elsewhere has allowed me to not feel like I have to impose myself creatively into the band scenario. So I really feel like it has great benefits to be working on, you know, using different parts of your creative brain. And I think, interestingly, I think a lot of the processes that I've just become used to in making music are processes that I'm using to design and make clothes. And I think sometimes when I'm working with people who have been working in different fashion labels or whatever, I think they sometimes look at my process and kind of their head kind of tilts sideways and it's kind of like, what? What's he doing? And I realized that kind of I don't design something on paper. You know, I don't like, design a pattern, design a garment, and then it goes off to be manufactured. The way I make things is very much like we make songs, which is you throw ideas down and then you kind of listen to it Jud see what it is. Very sculptural process.
- [37:38]
Imran Ahmed
Yeah.
- [37:39]
Guy Berryman
And that's the way I think. The way I make clothes is kind of based on just this inbuilt, ingrained process I have for making music.
- [37:50]
Imran Ahmed
It's like you're editing.
- [37:52]
Guy Berryman
It's like you're kind of constantly sculpting and constantly editing. And it drives everyone crazy because I just keep changing details all the time.
- [38:01]
Imran Ahmed
I heard that about Kanye west, too, when he was working on his fashion label. Interesting that maybe that's the same way when he was creating his music, because as a musician, you can keep editing everything. You can keep trying, you know, you can keep trying.
- [38:13]
Guy Berryman
And I think, you know, we. I definitely burn through quite a lot of prototypes, which is probably expensive, but I think there's definitely benefits to, if you're a creative person, to be working on, you know, different outlets at the same time, for sure.
- [38:29]
Imran Ahmed
And the juggling.
- [38:30]
Guy Berryman
And the juggling. Well, I think, you know, again, people say to me, well, how can you, when you go on tour, how can you work on the label? And, you know, for me, when I go on tour and go to cities, I'm just straight into the vintage stores. I'm picking up, I'm collecting, I'm thinking, you know, I'm kind of building up new ideas for new collections in my mind. So actually going on tour and traveling is. Is hugely beneficial to the label. And of course, the other thing about being on tour is there's a lot of downtime. So, you know, you spend most of your day waiting for the show to happen in the evening. So there's so much time to. I mean, we launched the brand at the beginning of the pandemic. So I was living in the UK at the time and the design studio was in Amsterdam. So we had to quickly develop a kind of a working relationship over Zoom, where I was kind of fixing and checking prototypes over Zoom.
- [39:25]
Imran Ahmed
So that's because I was allowed to travel. Now that you're back on tour and out in the world.
- [39:30]
Guy Berryman
So for me to kind of run the business part of the time from my computer screen is something I've done since the beginning.
- [39:37]
Imran Ahmed
Well, Guy, it was so nice to have a chance to hear your story. Thank you. And by the way, I think the product is great.
- [39:46]
Guy Berryman
Thank you so much.
- [39:48]
Imran Ahmed
It's like very, very well manufactured and well designed and well made. So it's not surprising to me that it's striking a chord, especially amongst the most discerning store in the most discerning country, in the most discerning city in that country, which is Tokyo. And so if it's making it and resonating in Tokyo, then that says a lot. So congratulations.
- [40:11]
Guy Berryman
Oh, thank you so much.
- [40:13]
Imran Ahmed
The BoF podcast is edited and produced by Olivia Davies and Eric Brea.
- [40:25]
Unknown
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