INTERVIEW: YUTHANAN FROM SILLAGE

I first met Nicolas “Yuthanan” Chalmeau a few years back on one of my early trips to Tokyo. It was one of those insta meets ups where we had been chatting for a while via DM, mutually interested in each others creative output and love of oversized silhouettes. He was kind enough to show me around his neighbourhood and as we ate yakitori in a smokey local spot he frequented, he began to tell me about his plans to launch his own label “Sillage". A project based around core oversized items made in ltd numbers and  exclusively sold online to the community he had rapidly been building. Fast Forward to 2020 and “Sillage’s” heavily oversized aesthetic is being hailed as one of the most prominent new labels to come out of Japan. We caught up with Yuthanan to chat about his background, work life balance and trajectory for the brand /

TNO: Nico its been a crazy year so far… I don’t think any of us would have in our wildest dreams imagine such a global situation where we all have to simple stop and pause what we are doing, like waiting for a storm to pass or something. How has this effected you personally and what do you think the take away from this "great reset" will be? 

NYC: Yeah, this year isn’t a usual year so far, the global situation is alarming, not only related to the virus, I hope things will get better soon. Here in Japan the situation is critical too for a lot of business owners. But even in this sensitive situation, you can take some advantages, for both my brand and my freelance jobs things have been quite fine.

My contract with foreign brands/magazines has been canceled of course but a lot of local brands started to focus on online business, so for me, it was fine. Sillage is exclusively online, and since people are home most of the time it’s busy too. 

The Take Away from this situation will be a bigger consideration for online businesses, as some ways of doing business will change in an irreversible way. 

Suit_ Sillage, Shirt & Hat_ Vintage (stylists own), Eyewear_ Ace &Tate
Scarf_Story MFG, Boots_ Marsell

TNO: Since we first met and you took me to that dope little yakitori spot, a lot has changed for you. The idea for the label you were telling me about back then has blown up, and it been a crazy couple of years of travelling and launching capsule collection after collection. Whats been the biggest challenges and the most rewarding elements? 

NYC: A lot of things happened since that time, I’ve been through a lot. But all my experiences were very interesting. The biggest challenge is to be able to keep releasing new products every week. To design, amend the sample, style, shoot, edit, prepare online, prepare the visuals, and launch. The rhythm this year was crazy. But the community behind the label is bigger every day, we are maybe the purest form of independent brand. Nobody is financing the brand, we don’t have any bigger brands supporting our business or any collaboration yet with big names. It’s nice that Sillage is self-sufficient. The most rewarding element is to see people’s reaction when teasing new products and see the actual impact on the purchase when it’s released. 

“There is a lot of inspiration behind Sillage, a lot of cultures are involved, I’m myself half French and Thai living in Japan, so already 3 cultures are part of the brand identity”

TNO: For those that don’t know you, how would you describe yourself, your philosophy toward clothing design and what you set out to achieve with Sillage? 

NYC: Ok, so first I like to be called Yuthanan which is my Thai name, Nicolas is my French one. It’s not a nickname, it's my actual name haha. I'm born and raised in Paris, I’m 25 years old. I’ve always worked in the fashion industry in many ways such as shop staff, luxury shop staff, shop manager, wholesale agent for Japanese brands, buyer and managing a showroom in Japan for a famous concept store. To finally being a freelance photographer, social media consultant and brand designer. Sorry to list it like this haha, it’s just to highlight that I know only this sector and I love it. 

My creative process is simple, just create what I want to wear now. For example, it’s very hot a the moment so let’s create a very light collection and let’s launch later this month. This is exactly what happened for this Essential Collection you just shot. The goal is to create clothes for my community, create clothes people can easily wear and interpret. Sillage is known for its big silhouette pants and jackets, only available in One Size because I want people to wear it big and wide, I don’t want to give any sizing options since people usually buy their size only. Sillage is made in a way that every type of body can wear, the body is never too long or too short, shoulders are raglan, the pants waist adjustable. 

There is a lot of inspiration behind Sillage and a lot of cultures are involved. I am myself half French and Thai living in Japan, so already 3 cultures are part of the brand identity. Music is also a big inspiration, Hip Hop is in Sillage’s DNA. That’s probably why I like to design wide clothes, some of the items have taken direct inspiration from Hip Hop in the naming like the Baggy Trousers. 

Big silhouette clothes are also related to my body, I’m 185cm living in Asia, it's very hard to find something at my size, I understood quickly that I had to create a brand focusing in big silhouettes. What I want to achieve with Sillage is that it’s possible to create a brand and uniquely selling online using social media. Sillage is 100% based online, Instagram and our online store.

Shirt & Pants_ Sillage, T-Shirt_ Nanamica
Hat_ Snowpeak, Sliders_Suicoke x Needles, Eyewear_ Oakley, Bag_ cote&ciel, Ring_ Models Own

TNO: Whats the spring board for your design.. what drives the approach you have to core product and the auxiliary products you curate? 

NYC: I’m always thinking what’s the best for my customers. I want people to buy things they never found before, items they can’t find anywhere else. That's how you will create a certain aura around your brand and have people buying your new items every week. I have some customers who have every single piece since the creation of the brand 2 years ago.

We do collaborate with some artists and small brands, usually, it's very random, for example, I would go to another city in Japan and find a cool pottery artist, painter, brand, and just ask them if they would up for a project. Simple as that. 

I did collaborate with more famous brands like Story mfg, since their crochet muffler was iconic to my instagram and was a huge success. Again it's just about working with people you like and respect.

I started also the #whatwewear store directly inspired from my instagram’s popular #whatwewear hashtag. It's my online store where I’m selling curated accessories I buy from all around the world. We have items coming from South Africa, Ghana, Amish in the USA, France, Singapore, and Japan. 

TNO: For me the way you have approached each capsule drop with a ltd amount of product and a “get it while it's here” mentality, is part of a movement we have seen in recent years from younger more mindful designers and brands who are actively limiting production, waste and educating the consumer to know that are buying product that is part of a whole philosophy. Which of course is great… but what are the hurdles in this approach when it comes to creating a functioning business that can support itself and a team?

NYC: It’s all about managing the production and schedule, and we need to always adapt to the consumers reaction. In our case we launch only successful drops, « made to order » business is not that common and still not very popular in a market where people want to buy now and receive now their products, so we had to find a way where people buy even if there is a month of production lead time. The key is to the create iconic products that people can’t find anywhere else in a limited time offer, usually 3 to 7 days, after that period it’s impossible to buy.

Sillage is a team of 2 people full time and some interns who do the packing. Yes we do ship by ourself too. Our philosophy is to do everything by ourselves, that’s how you can progress and keep being innovative.

TNO: With travel off the menu for most of this year, how has this effected how you conduct the brand? As I know traveling to different countries and doing pop ups has been a huge part of your growth? 

NYC: It affected our pop-up’s yes. Pop-up was a way to connect directly with the community which is very important. Even for an online-based brand, people like to see who’s behind the brand so they can identify themselves even better. More practically it was also a way for people who are not used to buying online to try on the clothes and create some future online customers.  In 2 years we’ve done about 15 pop-up’s all over Asia, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya Fukuoka, Kyoto, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei, Bangkok…

TNO: You became a father last year, how has that changed your outlook in terms of how you approach the balance between family and work? 

NYC: The balance is very important, being a freelancer helped a lot in managing my time between work and family time. That’s why I will never work for a company full time anymore, I've tried for years, it’s over for me.

TNO: Some would say you are a bit of a polymath with not only the brand, your photography and consultancies. Which element gets you the most hyped and how do they all exist in your work eco system alongside each other? 

NYC: You need to find a balance, each client might be different, with different requests but you still need to create following your mindset. Some people would say that you have to adapt to your client, but I would say the client should adapt to you. The reason I can do so many things is because I enjoy it, and people I work for are all trusting me. If you think you are making the right choice then your client will follow. So the advice I can give to anyone starting to work as a creative is to just follow your heart, your brain and just follow your first intuition.

“Some people would say that you have to adapt to your client, but I would say, the client should adapt to you”

TNO: Rather than try and do everything yourself, you seem to favour the collaborative approach with brands who specialise in certain elements. Has this come about naturally or was it always part of the plan? 

NYC: Collaborative projects are never planned, it’s the result of a random situation. When you have an opportunity its important to have the idea very fast and decide quickly too.

Shirt & Pants_ Sillage, Waistcoat_Snowpeak, Scarf_ Our Legacy
Hat_ Snowpeak, Shoes_GH BAss, Eyewear_ Ace & Tate, Keyring Bag_ cote&ciel, Backpack_ Flagstuff

TNO: Your NB incense chamber was a huge internet / insta success. How did NB feel about it? And will we see more of this kind of left field product coming through? 

NYC: Haha surprisingly some of my followers working for NB in the USA and Asia liked it a lot, I shipped some incense chambers to some NB people actually! It was a very positive reaction because I do it in a respectful way. It was a tribute to my favourite shoe and the shoe we used for the mould was my actual shoe which i had worn for about 3 years. The project was a bit deeper than just make a brand new 990v3 incense chamber, the shoe we used had a real story. And yes another shoe ceramic is coming later this year, I think people will be surprised haha

TNO: If you could work with one brand, who would it be?

As a shoe lover, I would love to collaborate with a shoemaker. At the moment I have some eventual projects coming so the dream brand project might happen one day soon!

TNO: So whats next for you and Sillage? 

NYC: Sillage will keep following the same path, we will keep creating and making interesting projects and it will stay online. For me since I like challenging myself, I will always try to find new ways of creating content. And why not a new business, I have ideas and it’s in process, you will have to wait a bit but you will not be disappointed /

Photography - Mikey Massey
Words & Styling - Graeme Gaughan
Model - Max at Supa