Live from CPH FW / Soulland AW20 Show
Leading up to Soulland’s AW20 Men’s & Women’s fashion show during Copenhagen Fashion Week, we caught up with the two founders for a chat about the past, current status and their thoughts about the brand.
Stay tuned as The New Order exclusively live streams the show right here /
Past, Status & Thoughts/
Silas Oda Adler
Founder & Creative Director
I bought some paper and a pen in Charles de Gaulle Airport; randomly killing some time before boarding the plane back home to Copenhagen. And then 5 minutes later lost my phone somewhere in the airport (CDG, Paris, Terminal 3 F).
10 more minutes pass and it was time for boarding, leaving the phone behind. The flight was over-booked, and I ended up being one out of four passengers left behind in the gate. This will have more relevance to the story as I get further along.
Back to losing the phone and not getting on the flight, my first reaction is: “okay, there is more to be positive about than negative”. A bit arrogant; I might think too highly of myself, I’m aware. A friend told me everything about my star sign a couple of weeks back. I’m Gemini and I don’t remember it all, but something about being an egoist that loves to talk about yourself. I guess these words are a testament to exactly that. I am guilty. My point here is that there are enough things that push you back, so why let a bad mood push you even further back? Easier said than done. But nevertheless, let's try.
Someone very clever told me: “Everything that’s not development is complication.” It makes more sense in Danish “Alt der ikke er udvikling er indvikling”. It brings me to the meaning of this text. To be fair, I understand that most people have stopped reading by now (if they even started). In case nobody is reading at this point, I will see it as a therapeutic exercise for myself.
When Jacob Kampp Berliner and I started to work on Soulland it was naiveté, opportunism and stupidity that pushed us forward. To be honest, our shared addiction to having fun was probably the biggest motivation. None of us had any knowledge about clothing or the fashion industry as such. There were more things we did not understand than things we did. It will sound like a cliché and it makes me feel old (I'm not old), but these were pre-internet brains. We didn’t have apps to control production or an overflow of information about how to succeed. It was very hands on. We were trying and failing and trying again. These years were some of the most valuable. It was our school. Our education. Or to be more precise, it was the beginning of our education. These years were spent on couches, floors and in cheap hotel rooms. In small shitty rental cars, discount flights and greyhound buses. Not unusual for us, having spent time in skateboarding and graffiti. This way of traveling was more or less the same. Production, sales, whatever it was. Not saying we did it all alone! Some beautiful people have been part of the company, also in the early years. What the pre-internet brains did, was to meet with an open-minded approach. A lot of the people we know, our long-lasting relationships were established in these early years and to see how we have all grown around the world is truly remarkable.
One of the first people I met was Wix from Amsterdam. He introduced me to Gee, who introduced me to Gary and Grace. Gary also knew Kyle and Jo and they bought some of our stuff. They were friends with Russell. Russell came to Copenhagen to do a show at Marco’s gallery. Copenhagen had a lot of energy. Karl, Biv, Djuna, Frederik Karl, Joachim... Svend was working for Vibskov, so was Maja and Rikke. Rikke introduced me to Katharina, who invited us to show in Berlin. David and Phil were also from Berlin. They opened a store and started buying Soulland, Phil introduced me to Stephane and Charaf, who let me work from their studio in Paris, when my computer got stolen and I had nowhere to go. Romain was also from Paris. Him and Cuiziner came to Copenhagen, and I moved to Paris. They introduced me to Thomas and Teki. Thomas helped me out a lot and Teki introduced me to Sarah and Guillaume. I met Danijel at the skatepark in Malmö. He later took me to LA and introduced me to Eric. There are tons of these connections and encounters and I could go on. The best of all this? The fact, that all of these people and everyone else I have crossed paths with, have the same endless connections and circles. It's all like an enormous yarn buckle.
Over the years as Soulland grew bigger and more established, our roles got to be a bit less like a spider web and more focused. Kids also came into the picture, and the dynamic naturally changed. This was not negative at all; it was just very different. The role of the provider, and the role of a dreamer sometimes have a parallel life; sometimes they feed each other and sometimes they collide and crash. As individuals we became more in search of the steady and safe. We never had our pockets stuffed with money, but business became a part of decision making. This was the second part of our schooling where my weaknesses often caught up with me. As a kid I battled with dyslexia and school was a big challenge. In the early years, I could work my way around it, but all of a sudden, the rope tightened. The most important lesson I have ever learned over the years was the worth of creativity and what happens when you don’t cherish it - things dry out. And for me they did. Things were not fun, but not sad either. It wasn’t hard or easy. To be honest, they weren’t really anything. When something was done, then something else was behind schedule. And the wheel was turning. I heard yesterday that the brain can physically only do one thing at a time. And when you are multitasking, you're just intensifying logging from one thing to the next. It’s still a battle, and I know that a lot of people feel the same.
I want to stop for a second and come back to the beginning of the text - the inspiration for the 2020 collections. The concept is about moving and about traveling. Not so much about the destination, but more the idea of collaborating with people you don’t know. The concept of joining forces in order to move and develop. The coordinated effort of filling up a plane or a train and turn them into friends and family - and meaningful tasks and goals. The travel is the journey, and we need to join forces and do the trip together. I am always amazed, when I sit down on a train how democratic an arena it is. All the stories that each person is carrying around.
Back to it...me and Jacob were starting to question our methods and the way we worked. Especially what happened behind the curtains. Eva's vision about sharing information and trying to find common ground; bringing the biggest companies in the world and the smallest brands into a forum for a serious on going talk about the state of things. At a point you realize, that you have gone so far up the ladder that you can’t go back. The only option is to continue. In our case, we were back to level 1. Back to the naiveté and the opportunism. And like when we started, it was clear: the only way to change is by trying and failing. That energy is pushing and motivating us today. Our goal with the collections - both menswear and womenswear are to only use recycled, certified and biodegradable labels, hangtags, polybags. Only use biodegradable, recycled, organic, upcycled or biocell fabrics, textiles and fibers. 100% of the collection. The honest answer is that we have failed. We did not reach 100%. We got very close, but we did not reach our goal! The defeat has sparked a motivation telling us that 100% is doable - and should be reached. Try and fail, try and fail.
Jacob Kampp Berliner
CEO & Co-Founder
The endless pursuit of being small
I don’t recall the first time Silas and I met, but I recall the period. Copenhagen really had some buzzing years, where everything seemed possible and nobody really cared about doing business but more about making cool, inspiring good stuff, parties, dinners, shows, festivals, shops, magazines, records, art shows etc… What really stood out was the commitment to share, learn from each other and the willingness to appreciate what people did.
In that period we decided to make Soulland something more than a t-shirt company, a brand with our vision and our dreams.
Soulland is the story of creating a brand where we could take our own decisions, where creativity is supreme over anything and where there’s no direction, unless it’s our direction. Creating something unique where the end goal should be to push fashion forward for inspiration of all. Growth is not a parameter for our success; the real drive is in the outcome of our work.
Skateboard and graffiti can take you everywhere, or nowhere.
(or making impact through powerful connections and collaborations)
We both grew up with divorced parents, living in communes and with Dad’s that faded out of our lives. Silas found his freedom in skateboarding and I found mine in graffiti, the way you connect when you obsessed with a subculture, travel and connect and support your friends in the communities while growing.
First time we ever went to a factory to produce was in Portugal, I have no idea, why Portugal, maybe there were cheap plane tickets or it was the shortest flight. We had decided that we would produce in Europe, so we could work in the same time zones and visiting the factories would be easy.
We landed in Lisbon, rented a car and drove up north where the textile production is. The feeling was the exactly the same we both knew from looking for a new skate spot or a hidden train yard, this time it was just finding someone that was willing to work with our quality demands and small production.
We succeeded in setting up meetings with different factories, and after a long night celebrating that we were now able to actually produce clothes, we flew back to Copenhagen.
From that day, the endless travels have been key to Soulland, we always have focused on building relations, the only way we know, from a ground of common interest. Whenever we collaborate with someone: a retailer, an artist or a garment supplier it’s because we can see a common background or belief in the same future, we never focus on the smartest move, we focus on the most honest move.
Failure is Freedom
Building a brand where the appreciation of failure is everyday present is not easy, I push Silas and he pushes me back, I really believe our strongest victories is when we have been in way over our head, when we have worked for days and nights and we suddenly see the light, that the impossible plan we set out is forming. Even before the plan is executed, to the endless frustration of the Soulland team we will pop one or two new projects, pushing the team closer to the next failure and success.
A New beginning or the endless battle
We came from an inner drive to create our own destiny. Every day we question our direction and always strive to rethink it, we have created the brand we dreamed about including the good and the bad, our friendship has moved into a family relation, where we know the thoughts on behalf of the other part, even before we know ourselves. It’s powerful and seldom.
The success created an everyday work life for ourselves and we have created an office with a strong team that all play by the rules that they define their own rules.
One man’s trash another man’s treasure
Soulland’s goal is to be in the forefront of the ongoing revolution towards a cleaner fashion industry. We have small financial funds but big dreams and a strong drive. We believe that the future belongs to the companies willing to sacrifice profit for doing better, or at least that’s our hopes. To speed up our process toward a greener Soulland, we decided that picking to lowest hanging fruits first made most sense, where can we drive change now and from that learn where is the next small or big leap we can take. The move to a truly sustainable company doesn’t come from a pre-made plan but from what we all as a whole do every day. It’s not possible to be a genuine sustainable brand, but what is not achievable now, we shall dream up. We have started our journey towards a greener Soulland, a Soulland connected to our personal views and ways of living.
The plan that is the guideline for every decision we take is:
1_ First, all our products should partly or fully consist of 100% certified fabric
2_ Second, all products should consist of 100% certified fabric
3_ Third goal is that all trim (zippers, buttons, tape etc) should be of 100% certified material. Finally we will end up with a 100% certified product, from fabric, trim to labels and packaging.
We have communicated very little about it. We are not where we should be, we want to be transparent, but we have moved fast and sitting here in the office and counting style by style for our AW20 collections we reached 83% of our menswear and 62% on women’s
No direction unless it’s our direction
The endless numbers of demonstrations I have been dragged to has made me truly believe that if you don’t speak up, it’s your own fault.
I believe small enterprises will be the ones defining the future and be the inventors of new solutions, to later be adapted by the big corporations. Soulland, as a whole, have a small impact. We strive to push our agenda and belief, we show both the successes and failures we make towards being a zero impact brand and an inclusive brand where everyone can speak up.
Thanks to /
Soulland
Silas Oda Adler
Jacob Kampp Berliner