We caught up with one of the two main men steering fashion label ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT in the right direction. Henry Holland tells Chidobang all about his denim journey with partner in crime, Josh Oldfield.
Most would say starting any business is risky business. What made you say #@$% it, let’s do it?
Alcohol. That’s all I can really put it down to. It was only a couple of years ago but that section of my life is all a bit of a blur to me now. Really we thought we had some good ideas and may as well give it a crack. Looking back now we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. It’s been a massive challenge but it’s also been a lot of fun and we’ve managed to push it further than I ever thought we could.
There are numerous references to music throughout your official website. Does this closely align with the overall label?
Absolutely, music plays a big part in everything we do. Music inspired each collection and we do consciously reference music in our design. We see music and fashion culture as being closely linked creative fields and it plays a huge role in the development of the Eleventh Commandment image, although none of us have any musical talent to speak of.
Logos are the core branding in fashion, particularly with guys clothes. How on earth do you settle on ONE?
Our symbol originally came to me when I was sitting in a restaurant in Mexico. I didn’t have any paper so I drew it on the tablecloth and took a photo of it. I then showed Josh when I came back to Australia and he made it good, because quite frankly I am shit at drawing and the original concept that I had sketched needed plenty of refining.
There was no other decision process for us to go through though, the symbol just fit in so well with everything that we were about as well as tying in well with the name. We call the symbol the ‘Questifix’ and it perfectly represents our irreverent take on conservative society.
Chidobang’s all about the boys. Do you prefer designing for the guys or the girls?
Personally I don’t really have a preference, they are both equally enjoyable. The only advantage of designing men’s clothes over women’s clothes is that I get to wear the men’s clothes (although a few of my friends would challenge that statement).
What are EC’s New Years resolutions for 2011? What’s next?
My new year’s resolution is to ‘Make the most of it’ (whatever ‘it’ is). It is the first time in a while I have made a resolution that I actually want to adhere to. For the last few years I have made ridiculous ones as I thought the concept of needing a catalyst to improve your life was ridiculous in itself. So last year my resolution was to make more baseless assumptions.
In terms of Eleventh Commandment, we have a lot on the cards for this year. Too much really – the cards are straining under the weight of all the things we have on them. At the moment we are producing our winter 2011 collection, which is due to hit stores in February. We are also developing our summer 11/12 collection, which I think is going to be our strongest yet.
Do it. Pick three words that best describe Eleventh Commandment.
Purple monkey dishwasher.
Daniel wears Garth's World tee
Check out all the goodness at the Eleventh Commandment website (including their recent collaboration tee with German duo Digitalism).
