Brand To Watch: GCLO Studios

Welcome to Brand To Watch, a style column from COMPLEX UK where we spotlight the very best emerging brands from out of the UK and find out what makes them tick and what their vision of fashion and the future looks like.

‘Community’ is the buzzword of the new decade.

If you look around, everyone from musicians to clothing brands are aspiring to cultivate a group of like-minded individuals who can rally around a shared ethos. While many aspire to achieve this sense of community, not everyone has managed to do so as meaningfully, or as authentically, as GCLO Studios (Global Culture & Lifestyle Observation), the rising streetwear brand founded by 23-year-old London creative Gam, who has steadily built a community of people who not only don the brand’s pieces but also embody its ethos of pushing the limits of what is possible.

Starting out in 2019 as a photography page on Instagram, with Gam platforming his friends engaged in a range of intriguing pursuits, GCLO was created to highlight people who push the envelope. By exposing these stories on IG, GCLO challenged its followers to think outside their immediate environment and consider all-new possibilities. The brand’s name, Global Culture & Lifestyle Observation, encapsulates this idea of presenting a variety of stories about different cultures and ways of life from all over the globe. Since its launch three years ago, GCLO has gone from being a platform for creatives to becoming a clothing brand known for its signature pieces, and can count everyone from musicians and painters to your everyday streetwear head as true fans of the brand.

Getting to know more about GCLO, and why they should be on your radar, we caught up with Gam to break down its early beginnings, influences, and goals for the brand moving forward.

“I’m inspired by everyday life. When it comes to design, I think there’s inspiration in everything—if you look for it.”

COMPLEX: Tell us a bit about your background and how your passion for fashion was born.

Gam: I live in East London, but I was born in and grew up around North London. Naturally, from a young age in London, you just see a wide range of things that influence you, but I remember my mum definitely used to dress me up a lot when I was young. I was her first child so I think she was just mad excited. There are loads of baby photos with me dressed up, or with us in matching outfits together. I wouldn’t really say a passion for fashion was born, but I know I started paying attention to what I was wearing around Year 5 or 6. My older cousin was probably my first fashion inspiration; he lived in Croydon but whenever he’d visit, I remember he always looked fly. This was around the time when stuff like ECKO and FILA F13s were big, and I vividly remember he had these see-through Air Forces that I wanted real bad.

Other early fashion memories in school include big pony Ralph polos, G-Shock watches and Balenciaga arenas. Between 2012 and 2017, I lived in Swindon and in the college I went to, there was a big contrast between people from urban areas and people from the countryside. Everything from music taste to party culture was different, but the biggest difference was in the clothes people would wear. You could tell where someone in the college was from by their outfits, and I think seeing people express themselves so strongly is what first sparked an interest in telling stories through clothes and photos for me.

What was the inspiration for launching your own clothing brand?

I had the idea for the brand probably early 2018 but never really thought I could do it. I would just customise clothes for fun and do random jobs on the side. At the time, I thought I wanted to work in music, so I used to work as a production runner—literally doing coffee runs, getting sandwiches and stuff. I’d sneak a camera on set to try and get a portrait of interesting musicians to show my friends and post online, but then I also started taking pictures and making videos of friends who were doing interesting stuff too. When I decided to turn GCLO into a brand, I always wanted it to be more than just clothes.

I mostly just wanted to tell friends’ stories to inspire other people to create their own stories. There’s so much more to life than your immediate surroundings, but if you don’t see it or hear it, how will you know? Sometimes, the catalyst to starting that thing that changes your life is hearing that someone from the same place as you did it, too. The brand photos, videos and interviews all exist to push people to explore life outside your surroundings and to live it with no limits. The clothes are just the physical version of that mindset.

What’s your creative process like when it comes to designing pieces for GCLO?

I wouldn’t say I have a specific creative process, but I’m inspired by everyday life. When it comes to design, I think there’s inspiration in everything—if you look for it. A lot of the more graphic tees are just a running documentary on everyday things and feelings, such as the Emotions tee or the Barbershop top. Usually, if I get an idea, I just write it down and spend time figuring out how to bring it to life in the best possible way. In a funny way, that’s all fashion is: bringing ideas in your head into the real world. It’s good to work in a team, too. You can only go so far alone.

The shoots for your drops are always super creative and unique. How do you go about putting the visuals together?

I mostly shoot with my friends and we tend to keep it pretty relaxed. The idea is for the photos, collectively, to look like those big albums your parents would make. Now and again, we’ll do a more serious shoot but, for the most part, we just keep it fun. Whenever I travel, I’ll try to shoot something to tell a story of the lifestyle and culture there too. I think seeing new places is the easiest way to start thinking bigger than your surroundings, so if someone sees a photo in another country and feels inspired to maybe travel or do something new, then the brand is doing what it needs to do.

What pieces would you say capture the brand’s essence?

Anything with the OG classic logo captures it because the text tells a story of what the brand is. But back in the very early days, I released a hoodie that said ‘Tha Underdogs Always Win’. I think that probably captures it the most. When you’re starting something, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by what other people are doing, but the truth is being the underdog is the best position to be. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. If you believe in what you’re doing, you can only win.

There’s a certain air of exclusivity to GCLO, for sure. How do you go about making sure your ideas aren’t rinsed?

I think there’s a fine line between putting something out and bringing it to its full potential and something becoming oversaturated. A lot of the time, things might get rinsed from laziness or fear—I think the key is to trust your gut and keep innovating. Staple pieces are essential, but creating other new and exciting stuff to take the forefront keeps things fresh and makes something that may have otherwise been rinsed more of a classic instead.

What are some challenges you’ve faced as the owner of a rising clothing brand?

Well, as I said earlier, fashion is basically just executing ideas in your head. But I never had any fashion training and I didn’t go to fashion school, so in the early days—and even now, we might get ideas and not know how to execute them. But, naturally, that’s how the game goes and the reason why even at the highest level, companies like LV will have entire teams dedicated to research and development of pieces. More recently, I’d also say that as the brand has expanded, I can’t always keep track of when a friend purchases an item in the same way that I used to and that’s something I miss. At the start, the only people that would buy my stuff were people that I know, and although I used to pray for randomers to actually take me in—in hindsight, those were some of the best times because everything was personal and close to home.

What have been some highlights for you?

I’m from Zimbabwe, so doing a shoot with family in Zimbabwe and Johannesburg was special. Everyone involved was family and some of the photos were literally in the same house my mum grew up in. There’s a lot of unreleased material that will come out at another time, and I’m excited to tell that story. Another constant highlight is seeing people wear my clothes, to be honest, and hearing stories of how people met or bonded over the brand. People performing in the clothes or using it in music videos is always dope to see, too. Whether it’s friends I’ve known for years or a stranger on the other side of the world, it’s always nice to see.

Fast Fashion is a constant topic of conversation these days, and while GCLO is on the other end of the spectrum, do you ever feel pressure to hop on trends?

I don’t think trends are such a bad thing. Fashion is typically a reflection of how a certain group of people may be feeling at a given point in time, and with streetwear typically being very community-based, I think it’s important for people to have a way to express themselves in current times through the stuff that you put out. So I don’t think it’s such a bad thing. It only becomes bad if you base your entire brand identity on that trend because once it goes, you’ll go with it. I think you should stick to what’s true to you but be aware of how people are feeling and adapt accordingly in a way that maintains your brand’s integrity but also caters to what your community wants.

As the brand continues to grow, how do you plan on maintaining the sense of community that’s at the heart of it?

I think the internet is moving so fast that it’s easy to forget moments that are solely online. You can remember a real-life event or experience for years, and more often than not, it’ll be documented online anyway. So the main focus now isn’t even really growing a wider community but doing more stuff for the existing one with more pop-ups, parties and just generally creating more shared experiences. It’s cool seeing new people join along the way, too, as we grow our community.

In the midst of the brand’s success, what helps you stay grounded and avoid “getting lost in the sauce”?

I think what keeps me grounded is knowing I haven’t even really started. There’s still a very, very long way to go. Like, I’ve only just done a pop-up and party for the first time a few weeks ago, and I only got an office to ship from this year. Before that, I was just doing it with my friends from my house as a side project. A good example is if a kid finishes nursery school, would you say they’ve had great success in life? Sure, they’ve done good for where they’re at, but there’s so much further for them to go, and I see it the same way. For three years, with no background in fashion or any outside help, it’s been cool but there’s a lot more that can be done and I think knowing that is what keeps everything grounded.

What does the future look like for GCLO?

Honestly? Just more stories, more clothes—expanding on both, and continuing to build.