David Obadia and Nelson Hassan launched Brooklyn We Go Hard four short years ago, and in that time the brand has dominated arrived at a level of success most designers can only hope attain a fraction of. From purist streetwear heads in London to the street style stars of Milan, BWGH's gear has traversed between different genres, but Obadia's focus is now on the higher end of the spectrum.
Next month, he will launch Harmony, a sophisticated counterpart to the more streetwear-centric BWGH. The vibes seen in the first images of the collection are definitely more European and elegant, but don't deviate completely from a vision that is first and foremost about comfort, wearability, and being absolutely on point no matter how you choose to style the goods. We sat down with Obadia to discuss why he decided to launch Harmony, where his two brand diverge, and why streetwear will always be at the soul of his creative endeavors.
It seems like Brooklyn We Go Hard has a strong fan base and a lot of momentum and stuff was selling out. Why start up Harmony?
The idea of BWGH was—and still is—a big success to me, because I started the brand when I was still a student. I’m super proud of everything we’ve done. When you’re a designer, you don’t evolve as the same pace as your consumers. I love streetwear and I was born with it. I was a fan of James Jebbia and Shawn Stussy. I was the intern of Stephane Ashpool of Pigalle. But everybody knows, my whole life I have wanted to do high fashion, and BWGH is not what I would call "real fashion."
BWGH is based for a streetwear audience, and it is exactly what I love in streetwear. But I have another part of me that loves high fashion and contemporary designers. So, I thought if I brought high fashion to BWGH, it would lose its identity. So I decided to have two different types of brands. Also, Harmony has women’s designs, because it was a big goal for me to do women's. To me, if you’re doing fashion, the real "fashion" is women's wear because it’s more difficult. You have to work in cuts, materials, particular shapes, and it’s more fun.
You see a lot of brands that change their whole philosophy and vision to fit with what’s trendy right now or what the designer wants to do. You didn't want to do that. You wanted to keep BWGH in the same lane?
I think that too many brands have lost their DNA in the past. I would say BWGH was never, in my mind, strictly streetwear. It was what I call "streetwear plus plus," like Norse Projects or Our Legacy. It was never a contemporary or a high fashion brand, like Philip Lim or Carven or Proenza Schouler. Those are for a different audience, but I think we have a following and the success was achieved thanks to this following. I have to keep and respect the consumers that have supported me from the beginning.
We’ve seen a few images, but what is the vision behind Harmony? Are there any brands that you aspire Harmony to be like? Or that you would want people to mention Harmony in the same sentence as?
For the women's wear, I would love for people to say it’s close to Céline because Phoebe Philo is one of my favorite designers. But, it’s maybe too high-end for us, so maybe Acne. Acne, Céline, Jacquemus, would be great.
For men's, the idea is that the collection I’ve designed is 100 percent for me, so it's what I would wear on a day-to-day basis. And I like super simple stuff; super minimal. So if we can be in the same vein as Acne, A.P.C., Our Legacy, Philip Lim, Public School, and stuff like that. Super simple, but with a high fashion twist.
Was it tough to go from streetwear staples like crew necks and sweatpants to suiting?
It was not that easy. That’s why I made sure to work with a really good pattern maker. But, everybody told me Harmony will be a 180 from doing BWGH. It was not easy, but as I say to people, "I can die for fashion." All my life I loved that more than anything. For streetwear, I know what to do. I’ve done that for 4 years now. As a contemporary designer, I think I have a really good eye and a good vibe and a good vision. But, I’m not the master, so…
Not yet.
[Laughs] Hopefully. I just do what I can and what I think is good. I’m just focusing on my vision. Making super simple stuff, super minimal, monochromatic, and at the same time really colorful because I love color.
1.
Harmony launches this month or in September?
We are opening the e-commerce platform and the retail store in Paris on the first of September. So, the images online are just the preview of the lookbook and the whole vibe of what we’re going to try to do. We open in the coming days.
When we first met like four years ago, BWGH was just starting and you had the full support of Pigalle and the Pain o Chokolat crew. In terms of these guys who are already established and cemented this whole culture, what have their words of encouragement or their advice been to you with Harmony?
I would say all the people who know me a lot are very encouraging. Ronnie [Fieg], for example, yesterday he told me, "Everyone knows that you are not supposed to just do streetwear your whole life, because you want to be a real designer with a contemporary brand." They have all been very encouraging and telling me right now my future is not a streetwear brand; it's going to be a high fashion maison.
When you compete with Céline or Acne or Proenza Schouler, it’s not competing with streetwear, so it’s ten times more difficult. In the past six months, lot of people have told me they haven't see a lot of people do all this so quickly. Just after fashion week in this winter in Paris, I said, "I want to do that with my life."
2.
Harmony’s only been around for six months?
I started designing a logo and everything in a new office on the first of February. So in six months, I think it’s pretty good. I will not say it’s incredible, but I believe in what I’ve done. It’s my vision. I'm super proud of these six months, but I’m also scared too since it’s more of a long term brand, competing with the likes of A.P.C., who have their own following. When I started BWGH—to be honest, I didn’t know anything about anything and I made something kind of nice. Hopefully, [Harmony is] going to be good.
IF YOU HAVE HIGH FASHION GARMENTS AND THE ENERGY OF STREETWEAR, YOU HAVE THE BEST BRAND IN THE WORLD.
Do you think that BWGH fans, who are looking for something a little beyond streetwear, a little bit more high fashion, can easily make the transition to Harmony? Is there a synergy between both labels?
I hope so, because I think we have a following who wants more sophisticated streetwear and who doesn’t think right now BWGH is sophisticated enough. Even if they think it's one of the top streetwear brands, it's not a contemporary brand to them. So hopefully, we’re going to get both, but the idea is that it's not competing with BWGH.
What are some steps that are already happening with Harmony?
We have signed with a worldwide distributor, and it’s the same company that's taken care of Off-White and Marcelo Burlon, so the guy is really good. I told him it’s not like BWGH. I don’t want to do massive wholesale. I just want stores like Barney’s and Opening Ceremony in America, Paris and Colette and Bon Marché in Paris, and Très Bien Shop. The idea is very limited wholesale because I think right now the better brands, they do retail directly. They speak directly to their consumer. If you don't speak to the consumer directly with the message you want you give them, they won’t get it properly. So, super limited and super quality wholesale with really good accounts and doing our own retail. We plan on opening our first retail spot hopefully the first day of women's fashion week in Paris.
Do you have a location?
Yes, it’s going to be in Le Marais. It’s nearby Galerie Perrotin and it’s 15 meters from Acne. 100 meters away from Ami, so it’s a really good location. The spot used to be a laundry, so it’s going to be fun because we’re going to try to keep the laundry system in the design.
Do you see Harmony just focusing on clothing or is it going to branch out into art or music?
We’re going to be focusing primarily on apparel. Secondly, I want to do a lot of accessories right now. Since I’m deep-rooted in art and passionate about that, it would be cool to collaborate more with artists than brands. I’ve done a lot of collaborations with Opening Ceremony, Kitsuné, and Collette, but if we can collaborate with artists and do special projects, it would be even more interesting. The stuff that you see Supreme doing with artists, I think they’re the best collaborations in the world. So if we can work with them, make special projects, and promote to people around the world, it would make sense.
What is your favorite piece from the men’s Fall/Winter collection?
The boiled wool bomber, because it’s one of my favorite materials. It’s a Yves Klein Blue bomber because Klein is my favorite artist. Everybody knows, blue is my color. So, we did a lot with Yves Klein Blue in the collection and working with boiled wool. I don't see that many designers working with that for menswear, so it’s a piece that I really like.
For women's, it’s the oversized trench. With BWGH, I was—and I’m still very influenced by—American culture. But with Harmony, it’s what I like in French culture. BWGH feels less Parisian I would say. So when you see the oversized trench on a girl, it’s 100 percent Parisian.
3.
You were mentioning A.P.C, Acne, Ami, so is there a more European and French vibe and sophistication to Harmony?
Right, exactly. Parisian vibe I would say. I see Harmony not as a cool brand, but as something elegant and sophisticated.
What type of guy would wear Harmony?
I would say if we could have Cyprien Gaillard or Spike Jones or someone culturally-minded, and clever and a little bit intellectual...
So like an educated, sophisticated, creative type of guy?
Yes, but also all types of guys. The idea with that brand, I will not say I want to be the coolest brand in the world. I just want to be the guy who makes the best clothing in the world. So if you want the best shirt at a fair price and you just want to look good, it’s perfect. That was the whole idea. I have a lot of friends who are designers and painters, and when you see those guys, they’re dressed in a way that’s so simple and so minimal. It’s not like guys during fashion week who are wearing impossible stuff. The idea is just super simple stuff for guys who want to be on point.
If you could sum up the end goal of Harmony and your endeavors as a designer, what would they be?
It’s providing stuff I’m 100-percent proud of, stuff I would wear on a day-to-day basis. When you see my style, you know what I want to do. It’s doing stuff super simple—super minimal but super elegant, I would say. The women's wear is done. Everybody knows that I’m crazy in love so everything is done 100-percent for my fiancée. The way I want to see girls. Super simple, elegant, monochromatic, and minimal and sometimes with intense colors. A lot of blue, a lot of orange, pink for girls, and super simple.
You grew up rooted in streetwear, with the Pigalle crew running around the streets of Paris. Do you ever think you’ll be able to completely let go of that streetwear influence?
Never. If I left that influence, then I will lose my DNA. When you see high fashion brands, they’re missing something. They don’t have energy. You mentioned Stephane [Ashpoole] from Pigalle, and Ronnie [Fieg], and all those guys. They have something really specific. All those guys are not meant to do high fashion garments, but they have the best energy in the world. So if you have the capacity to have high fashion garments and the energy of streetwear like Patta, you have the best brand in the world. Because all fashion brands they just focus on, "Okay, I have to do beautiful garments." But, my goal is high design and providing good garments, but if I have good people with me and a good tribe of guys, we’ll have both energy and fashion. If I lose that, I think I will be 100 percent stupid. I don’t want to do that.
