Aug/09
All eyes on: Eio Clothing / Rakes & Strays
You may remember the last 'all eyes on' feature we did with Ben Thomas of Kneedeepinsleep - an indie clothing company. Here we're continuing the 'all eyes on' series with an interview with James Lee, the creative director of both ExcessIsOk and Rakes & Strays. I'm sure you've all at least heard of - if not are familiar with - Eio clothing; they're a cutting edge, limited edition brand which has been worn by the likes of Calvin Harris, The Klaxons and Cansei De Ser Sexy. And they've recently gifted the fashion world with a sister brand - Rakes & Strays.
Read the interview after the break!
Most people will only know Eio as a fashion brand - however there's also a creative agency which shares the same name. Which came first, Eio as a clothing brand or Eio as a creative agency, and what were the reasons behind each?
Eio Clothing was the first to be started. I started the company about 5 years ago. After a couple of years I joined forces with a talented web designer called James Hyatt. Through the quality of our own website we were approached by various individuals and companies to work for them. Through completing several successful jobs we decided to form another company and expand the Eio brand to include Eio Clothing and Eio Creative. This is a graphic and web design agency.
Why the name 'ExcessIsOk'? Does it have any meaning with regard to your branding or make any deeper references to modern culture?
The excessisok term refers to the bold designs and colours used whilst also partly applying to cultural ideas of living for the moment, enjoying life and generally making the most of it. The brand is heavily inspired by music and this has been a big influence on the designs produced and the philosophy behind the brand.
When did you first have the idea to launch a sister brand for Eio and why did this idea come about? What's the reasoning behind the name 'Rakes & Strays'?
We found that some of the artwork and garments that we wanted to produce didn’t quite fit with the idea behind Eio. We were interested in producing a range of more tailored garments with hand drawn and painted artwork. However we knew this may compromise the ethos behind Eio and so we decided to create Rakes & Strays in order to keep Eio’s identity as distinct as possible. The name Rakes & Strays basically means what it says, a Rake is a ‘fashionable person with dissolute morals’ and a stray refers to a person who deviates from the established or normal route taken by others. We wanted to create a name that almost sounded like an established or traditional company whilst containing references to modern culture. We see that the person that wears Rakes & Strays is someone who isn’t taken in by all the shit that’s out there, is an individual with their own ideas on what style is, music they’re into etc etc. I hope you get where we’re coming from?
What are your aims for Rakes & Strays, and to what degree have they been achieved thus far?
I don’t think we’ve gone anywhere near where we would like to be with Rakes & Strays yet. We’ve set out a philosophy behind the brand and released the first range of Tees. However the brand will properly be distinguished once we start to release the garments that we have in development. Eio and Rakes & Strays may seem a similar to some at the moment but they will be more distinct as time goes by. We’ve really just set out the idea and are now developing it.
Do you consider the market you are targeting with Rakes & Strays to be completely separate from that which Eio targets, or do you expect most Rakes & Strays customers to also share an interest in Eio?
No I don’t think so. The brand is really just allowing us to continue to develop our own interests in design and garments without blurring what Eio is about. I don’t think they’re a different market necessarily. It’s similar to music; you can be into band based music whilst still liking electro or drum and bass, whatever really. We know we’re interested in a multitude of different things. We see Eio as being more inspired by electro music and a bit more towards, clubs and DJ’s. Whereas Rakes & Strays is rockier, has a more distressed and vintage look and leans more towards bands.
You have a pretty big gallery of some rather well known celebrities on your site. How do you feel about bringing your clothing to the mainstream, and would you ever consider distribution on a larger scale (even on the high street)?
We’ve tried distribution several times before and on each occasion we’ve had a bit of a bad experience. There can be some unscrupulous people in the fashion business! We now try and keep it simple, keep control of how our products are framed and create something that is more exclusive, limited and higher quality. I couldn’t say whether we would ever do distribution again. Regarding bringing the brands into the mainstream, yeah why not. Eio was started so I could get more people to see my artwork, the more people that can see your work the better in my opinion. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to change what you’re about or compromise your philosophy. Having a lot of celebrities wearing the designs is great, they must get sent so many pieces of clothing that to pick ours out and wear them on big occasions onstage etc. is a great endorsement that we’re doing something good.
What's been your biggest challenge so far?
I think it’s really difficult making a brand work when you start from quite humble beginnings. So many brands have a huge budget and to compete in the market requires a lot of visibility. I think it’s difficult when you compete with a multitude of different online stores, high street stores etc. There’s so much choice available that you have to have quite a distinct brand personality to stick out from the shelf and in people heads. I think that’s just something you always struggle against, but if you can get to a certain size then I think the task becomes a lot easier. I still don’t think that many people know about us yet, so we’ve got along way to go.
Another struggle is people actually recognising the quality of the materials that you use and the attention to detail in the garments. We don’t want people to see us as just another T-shirt company that only puts regurgitated prints on bad quality Tees. As we design all our garments ourselves with the highest quality materials possible and a huge amount of time is invested in the artwork.
Can you give us any idea of what to expect from the new collections and when they might be available?
We launch a new collection for each company every 6 weeks. This means that there are new products coming all the time. The best way to find out when new designs are available it so sign up to our mailing list, then every time we launch a new tee, you’ll be the first to know!
What about even further into the future? What's in the pipeline for both Eio and Rakes & Strays?
We don’t like to rush into things too much. We like to make sure if we’re going to add or extend our product range that we can do it without compromising quality. At the moment, although we’re testing different products and requesting samples, nothing is set in stone. But once again, it you join our mailing list you’ll be the first to know of any additions to the family.
We really dig both Eio and Rakes & Strays threads and can't wait to see more of them in the future! The look, fit, styling and values involved in the brands' designs are really appealing, and we hope they continue to produce more excellent designs for a long time to come. James has done great work in developing two very successful brands which we're certain we'll see continuing to grow for the forseeable future!
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