Black Rabbit: the season-less men’s fashion label
After years of working for labels such as Diesel and G-Star, fashion
designer Leo Velimir Brancovich has enough of the fashion seasonal cycle
and the endless stampede of discounting that followed. He launched his
catharsis to these botches on the industry last November in the form of the
timeless men’s wear fashion label Black Rabbit and now he has opened his
first showroom/office/appointment only boutique in Amsterdam, the
Netherlands. “We have our rabbit’s den.”
During the intimate opening celebration of the Black Rabbit’s new premises
at the Wittenburgergracht, visitors were offered carrots to accompany their
beer or wine. But that is were the references to rabbits stopped as
Brancovich explains: “My mother in-law came up with the name.” The designer
beams throughout the evening, is he proud of his work? “Yes I am. When you
first start a business, you first just see everything on paper, but it’s
very different to be here now. We spent yesterday evening hanging up
paintings and the lights you see here, to make sure everything was ready
for the opening.”
The British designer previously lives in Italy for fifteen years when he
worked for Diesel, but has spent the past six, seven years living and
working in Amsterdam. “I worked for G-Star Raw. And this,” he says as he
spread his arms wide with a laugh, “is my midlife crisis. I never wanted to
launch my own brand, make my mark. I just love to make things, it doesn’t
matter for who but at a given moment in life you reach a point where you
just want to do things your own way.” Which is where Black Rabbit stems
from.
The label, which was inspired by a mysterious collection of clothing only
identified by the initials “БЯ” in cyrillic script and “Series III” found
in Eastern Europe and Russia, consists of re-issued pieces. Together with
another avid collector from Japan, Brancovich gathered together clothing
items which became the basis for his brand. Developing collections around
the seasons is not a practice the designer follows. “Black Rabbit is
timeless. I do not understand why something is worth a lot of money during
one time in the year and then at other times much less.”
“I could sell this jacket for the same price for the next five years,
because it is timeless. What I do not understand about commercial fashion
is why you would throw away a good design so quickly. So what I would do is
if I have a good design, I will keep it and rework it into something else,”
he says, “My favourite designer is actually a women’s wear designer, Issey
Miyake. And although he produces with the seasons, he does his own thing,
his creations do not relate to what the rest of the market. It’s almost
like a project, an experiment that has grown in its own way and that’s what
I want to do.”
So, how do you decide when to launch new items if you do not work with the
seasonal cycle? “When they are ready. If you do work with seasons, you
sometimes tend to rush things off.” Isn’t the temptation to endless
postpone a collection launch near without some sort of cycle in place?
“That is a risk, yes.”
‘Pitti Uomo is going to change everything for Black Rabbit’
The garments that Black Rabbit offers will not always look the same during
their years of sale, the collection is constantly being evolving. “Look, we
lowered the crotch on the trousers I am wearing and added a large back
pocket to update the look,” explains Brancovich. So will the collection
look different in five years time? “Well, I see it more as evolve, the
collection will evolve.”
The collections colours are dark and muted, peppered with browns and
blacks. According to the designer, this is purely due to practical reasons.
“We will produce, a shirt and a jacket out of the same material, for
example, as we are still just starting out. But for our next collection we
will have some pieces in bright blue. If the orders continue to grow, we
can add more colour. And in the fashion industry, you often have
conversations regarding colour with people dressed completely in black.
Retailers are fan of colours. In a store people tend to select an item
faster if the colour stands out.”
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What sort of customer is drawn to Black Rabbit at the moment? “The most of
men’s wear is fairly skinny at the moment, so anyone who is looking for a
less tight silhouette could be my customer. The other day a gentleman came
in and purchased two pairs of the trousers I am wearing because they are
different from what you see on the high street.” At the moment there are
three people working for Black Rabbit. Brancovich is head of design, his
wife is responsible for product development and they have just hired a new
member to oversee sales and marketing.
The currently collection is available online via three digital stores as
well as the store in Amsterdam. “We wanted to start online, for practical
reason, because we do not work according to the conventional fashion
system. We produce things when we produce them, so we thought online stores
might suit us better.” Yet the label is off to exhibit at men’s wear trade
show Pitti Uomo in Florence this summer. “That is going to change
everything,” he says with a laugh, “then it will become serious for us.”
Originally written by Yasmine Esser, translated and edited by
Vivian Hendriksz