FEATURE: NAMESAKE "A FAMILY AFFAIR"
Generation gap is a common cause of friction within Asian families. While love, respect and loyalty are imbued in tradition, these values can also build barriers. NAMESAKE is a family-run label embracing internal differences in its paradoxical designs. Duality is at its core.
Local vs. global, agriculture vs. sports, day vs. night.
Founded by three brothers and their father, NAMESAKE or 以父之名 (which directly translates to “In the Name of the Father”) is a dialogue between three sons and their kin.
The story starts, geographically, a mere 220 miles outside of the city that never sleeps, Taipei. A burnt sunset reflects off the rustic basketball hoop overlooking Kaohsiung’s grass-fields and surging rivers. Raised in a fishing village, a boy showed enthusiasm for fashion and art at a young age with the dream of being an interior designer. In a post-war, developing nation, this option was quickly ruled out. “Stability is key,” his father would tell him. The opposing viewpoints drifted the family apart, but in honour, the boy was obedient. By day, the boy ushered into the world of business and trade. By night, he quenched his creative appetite with late-night reading of art books and fashion magazines by the fire light. These artefacts cluttered his shelf like ornaments, and were passed down to his three sons who continued the routine. Only this time, the neon lights of Taipei lit up each page, as the family departed from the village for city life.
Even when the three brothers grew up and went their separate ways to pursue fashion in Tokyo, Los Angeles and Seattle, the tradition continued.
The glossy magazines imagine a world where stability and structure is irrelevant. If fashion is an expression free of formalities, then it is the perfect tool for a band of outsiders who have something to say. Helping to fulfil their father’s dream, The Hsieh Brothers was formed — a bloodline creative powerhouse pivoted by comradery. “Always look out for each other,” the father told his sons while reflecting on his own remote relationship with his brother.
Family values are imbued into NAMESAKE’S modern ideas, as well as basketball: the brothers’ first love, and agriculture: Taiwan’s primary industry. As the three boys grew into men, mixing East and West have characterized their style. This creates another generation gap which challenges households beliefs. Rather than letting this separate the family, this time, the men are working together in synergy to redefine fashion through their own differences.
After a strong debut collection for FW20, the boys hit 2021 strong with a bespoke range for SS21. We caught up with them to learn more.
For those who don't know, how would you describe NAMESAKE?
We would describe NAMESAKE as a vehicle we use to fulfill our father’s teenage dreams, hence the brand’s name in the name of father. My dad came from a traditional agriculture/fishing family, our grandfather wouldn’t allow him to pursue his dream to become an interior designer. During the 70s century, art and fashion related business were not considered as a REAL business. They treat it as leisure, not a job. Thus, my dad is forced to go to business school and work in agriculture/fishing business. Fashion and art has always been in my dad’s DNA. Luckily, this DNA has passed on to us. NAMESAKE is a really family oriented business. We would like to use it to complete dreams that our father wanted to do. FAMILY MATTERS.
There's a duality in NAMESAKE, city vs. agriculture, sports vs. fashion, modern vs. tradition. How do these contrasting elements inspire the brand's designs?
Exactly, contrast ideas have always inspired us three brothers to design. Thru NAMESAKE we would like to introduce "FARMAL WEAR".
Therefore, we portray sportswear using agriculture-like fabrics to combine these two different worlds together. Our father is super into tailoring, so we incorporate tailor elements with sporty touch plus a little bit of agriculture textures. Also, we want to introduce a new term called “Gender Combined” , thus the silhouette is neither male nor female. Both man and woman can equally wear the clothes if they are intrigued by our concepts and stories.
Launching a brand in 2020 might be ludicrous to some, what made you guys take this jump in a market that's arguably struggling?
We actually decided to do this brand in 2019 after we signed with Seiya Nakamura 2.24. They are the home court for the upcoming designers currently popping in the market like Namacheko, Stefan Cooke, Kwaidan Editions, and Feng Cheng Wang. After a long talk with my brother Julio, director from SN 2.24, we decided to create a new brand together, and that is how NAMESAKE began. I think it’s an interesting time to do a new brand in 2020, because the worst timing might actually be the best timing if you view it from a positive mindset. This is what our father has taught us and this is another reason motivated us to explore this new opportunity. So far, the experience has been great and we are having great feedback from the stores we work with.
Family values are imbued in the brand. Can you share your upbringing? How has this informed your creative outlook as brand owners?
We were born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. We moved to Tokyo for our high school, then headed off to the US for college. We never study fashion, but it’s embedded in our blood because of our dad’s die hard passion for beauty things. Richard studied biology, Michael studied psychology, and Steve studied environmental design. We always feel like we are an outsider from fashion, but we enjoy being outside since we can always find holes in the system and break the mold. Family values are super important for us since we were taught like this by our parents. This enforced us to create a brand that can be worn by all family members.
Working as brothers but also coworkers - what's the synergy like in the studio?
The synergy is real. Since we are brothers and coworkers, we often say things straight. When one of the brothers is slacking, we will say it up front and remind him to come back a little. Debating among us about fashion, art, or even life is a common scene in the studio. We three all came from the same factory (our parents), so our aesthetics are really similar, but differ in each individual way due to our personalities. We do not even work together, we also party like best friends after work. Daily life will be like hustling in the daytime and drinking/eating at nighttime.
Upcycling is a method used in FW20 - can you tell us a bit more about this design process?
Upcycling is not only a method we used in FW20, it’s the core of NAMESAKE to represent the agriculture elements of the brand. Agriculture is an integral part of the brand because our dad came from the agriculture business. We mostly used sustainable fabric that we sourced from Japan. For example, using a stripped recycle tee to form a rice bag texture fabric and special up-cycle weaving technique passed down by elders. However, we do not want to market ourselves as a sustainable brand because we think being sustainable in fashion is a responsibility not something that needs to be enlarged on.
There's a heavy focus on print and layering for SS21, what are the highlights from this collection?
Due to coronavirus, we were forced not to travel, therefore this gave us the opportunity to reflect our favorite family trip on the dining table. Our creative director Steve decided that we will pay tribute to our favorite family trip to Hawaii when we were in high school. This is how SS21 “Muscle Memory '' is inspired from. Through this collection, we want to combine 3 elements together which are Hawaiian style + US casual way + JPN sophisticated tailoring. The varsity bomber jacket is definitely one of the greatest highlights this season. When we were in high school in Japan, receiving a varsity jacket would be the greatest honor. Thus, we spent a lot of time reinventing the varsity jacket from the patch work, silhouette, to the closure. In fact, the final design of the varsity jacket leads off to other styles in the collection. We transformed them into suits, jackets, and trousers. Another interesting item we created was our take on Hawaiian hula skirt. We extended the belt loop of our trousers into curly shape like to replicate the hula skirt. The hula skirt is a semi kilt like accessories. We think it’s quite cool since it’s our nod to early 2000’s style as well.
There's an array of fabrics and textiles used across the SS21 collection - how does these complement the overall theme?
We used various textiles through the collection to represent both the agriculture and basketball element of the brand. These will continue to be the core and focus of the brand. The fabrics we selected have to speak emotionally to us, we need to embark certain emotions on our viewer, so the fabrics will have various textures on them.
Allen Iverson sneakers are styled alongside other Asian pop sensibilities, nodding at 2000s Jay Chou swagger. What is it about these two icons for the NAMESAKE brothers?
Allen Iverson and Jay Chou have been our hero throughout our childhood, thus the icon of NAMESAKE is a 3 and the brand name is also inspired from Jay’s Chou’s famous song 以父之名. We’ve been watching Allen Iverson ever since we got introduced to the basketball world. The smooth crossovers and lighting speed instantly caught our eyes. Michael even tried to imitate every Iverson move when he started playing basketball in elementary school. He stopped watching the NBA after Iverson retired. That's how much he loves him.
The campaign videos and lookbook feature collaborators and others in NAMESAKE's network, can you share with us who these creatives are?
Our campaign is shot by our long time friend Alien Wang and the video is shot by David Witton Davis. Both of them have been working with us since they were freshmen in College. We enjoy working with family-like creatives that we can speak our ideas freely and debate back and forth to find the absolute beauty in each shot. In addition, one of the models of the campaign is Noah, who is PR of United Arrows in Taiwan. Our dad loves to shop at UA and that is how we met Noah. We think his vibe fits the brand, so we reached out to him and asked him to see if he can help us shoot. Another interesting model is Andrew, Taiwan and US mixed, who Michael found at a local Taiwanese restaurant. Andrew is a teenage artist who worked at a surf shop.
What does 2021 hold for NAMESAKE?
For SS21, we got picked up by 5 Dover Street Markets Worldwide (London / Ginza / LA / NY / Singapore). We are currently discussing installation plans at each DSMs. We are VERY excited about this as DSM was the first fashion store our dad introduced to us. We are also picked up by one of our favorite London stores which is Browns. For China, we will be working exclusively with Joyce. While we speak at the moment, we are working on AW21. It will also be a very interesting one as we are exploring two cultures that my dad loves the most which are Golf and Wine. VERY excited to see how it will turn out to be.