Image via Unknown
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.
Contrary to its name, Unknown is no stranger to the streetwear scene.
Founded by college friends Callum Vineer and Joe Granger, the London-based imprint launched in late 2015 when the duo noted a lack of affordable luxury clothing and demand within their local network.
Focused on bringing UK culture to the forefront and captivating the styles that Vineer and Granger would want to wear on a daily basis, the pair initially planned to sell to just friends, but soon began to develop their first collection which they sold through The Basement, an online streetwear group that has since evolved into a physical store and e-commerce site. The brand quickly gained traction via social media and soon garnered a loyal community of streetwear enthusiasts through active engagement and hyped physical drops.
Fast forward seven years, and the bedroom-born project is now an international staple that boasts a plethora of stockists and a myriad of celebrity fans, including Lil Yachty, Trippie Redd, Ski Mask The Slump God, and more. Last month, Unknown embarked on a week-long UK tour, which saw hundreds of people line the streets of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool and Leeds, all hoping to bag some signature pieces. The event was an instant success. “Out of all our pop-ups that we’ve done, the most recent UK bus tour was our favourite,” says Granger. “We hit six cities in six days and saw queues going round the block hours before the pop-ups even started.”
Unknown has just unveiled its Spring/Summer 2022 collection and campaign headed by Italy’s rising drill star, Rondodasosa. The new line—which is divided into two drops—features revised takes on the brand’s key pieces, including rhinestoned tracksuits and graphic tees, a lightweight padded gilet, matching shorts, and an asymmetrical shell-suit.
We caught up with Unknown’s founders, Callum Vineer and Joe Granger, to break down the brand’s early beginnings, influences and challenges, and they also share their goals for the company moving forward. Here’s why Unknown should be on your radar.
COMPLEX: What were your main inspirations for setting up Unknown originally?
Joe Granger: We initially wanted to make clothes for ourselves and our friends, stuff we can wear every single day, and this is still something we hold true. Today, whenever you see us or our friends, we’re head-to-toe in Unknown.
Callum Vineer: We started Unknown because we wanted to make clothes that represented us and what we wanted to wear. We then started selling clothes to friends, and as word got out about the brand, sales started picking up.
Do you both come from a creative background?
Callum: Joe and I met in college where I was studying graphics, photography, maths and economics. When I started college, I never actually knew where I wanted to end up, but I’ve always had a passion for clothing, sneakers and streetwear.
You launched in 2016 at a time where British streetwear was really beginning to grow. What was the research and development process prior to the lead-up?
Joe: We went with what we knew at the time; we didn’t second-guess ourselves too much and learned as we grew. For our first ever drop, we purchased 50 blank AWD, tan-coloured hoodies, and 50 blank trucker caps and then distressed them using a cheese grater in our garage. At this time, we also had a Facebook group which really helped launch the brand and spread the word.
What’s the inspo behind your designs?
Callum: The main inspiration behind our designs—and what has always been our inspiration—for the past six years, is to purely make clothes that we want to wear. There has never been a piece that we’ve designed and not worn the hell out of.
The name “Unknown” wasn’t always intentional, was it? Tell us more about the story behind the name.
Joe: The name came about by complete accident. We had the concept for the brand—the initial pieces were designed and the direction had all been pieced together—except for the name. As we started to build our first website, we temporarily filled the title section with “Unknown”, and as the next couple of weeks passed, the name just seemed to make sense. Nobody knew the brand at the time—we had low-key branded products and we had no idea where we were going to end up.
Give us a brief overview of how the brand has evolved over time.
Callum: 2022 marks six years for Unknown, however, it has really been the last year and a half where it’s really taken off. Our products are now stronger than ever and are produced in the same factories as A-COLD-WALL*, Yeezy and Alexander Wang. We’ve had some major issues with quality control in the past, whereas now we have a solid production line which is a major factor in our growth. We went from dropping one hoodie at a time to now creating extensive seasonal collections with 30-40 pieces per drop. Social media has also been a massive help, too. We really try to engage with our audience as much as possible by actively interacting. During lockdown, we started a weekly, running competition with our followers where the top scores to run 30k won a free Rhinestone piece.
So, tell us about your most recent collection. What inspired it?
Callum: Our most recent collection is SS22, which features five drops. This was designed over ten months ago in a tower we rented just outside of London. For five days, we secluded ourselves from the world to knuckle down and design. This is something we do for each design trip: for example, Fall/Winter 2022 was designed in a boathouse in Ipswich and, likewise, Spring/Summer 2023 in Egypt.
Joe: In between our seasonal drops, we always release a new Rhinestone colourway set, which has quickly become our hero product. This time, we’ve introduced a patchwork blue set as well as a grey set which we unveiled at our UK pop-up tour. We’re also experimenting with new fabrics to incorporate into the Rhinestone range: we have two velour sets and a cotton twill cargo set to add to the line-up, which we are really excited for.
Callum: Spring/Summer 2022 has a core Military theme with summer pallets and festival-ready fits, including zip-off shorts, gilets, hats and denim. We also shot our most recent campaign in Milan with Rondodasosa, who is one of the biggest rappers in Italy right now.
Whereabouts do you run the label from?
Callum: We currently run Unknown from Battersea in South-West London with a team of nine. We’re just about to move to a bigger studio in Vauxhall, as we’ve outgrown the current space.
How did your pop-up tour come about?
Joe: The tour inception came about during a design trip about six months ago. We’d travelled to Felixstowe to lock ourselves at an Airbnb to focus on designing our next summer collection. On the way there, we stopped off in Reading to see our first billboard, which promoted our Ed Hardy drop. Seeing Unknown in such a big format got us fully gassed and we started thinking of having billboards at all our pop-ups in the future. From that, the idea came of branding a big bus and using that as a pop-up station that doubled as a statement. Doing a tour of the UK just made sense. The turnout to our previous London event was more than we ever expected and it was sick to meet so many long-time customers in person. The love we ended up receiving in every city was overwhelming—not one city failed to turn out in crazy numbers.
What are your highlights since launching the brand?
Joe: One of my key moments would be securing our first ever international stockist, Innersect, in Shanghai. It’s wild to think our first stockist would be from China when we were really just getting started, and now we have over 30 stockists worldwide.
Callum: Pop-ups have also become a core part of our business. We’ve hosted pop-ups all over the world, including Tokyo, Osaka, Tel-Aviv, Berlin, Milan, Amsterdam and Paris. At the end of last year, we did our first pop-up in LA where we launched our Ed Hardy collection, which was one of the most successful collaborations so far.
You just mentioned your collab with Ed Hardy—can we expect any more collaborations in the future?
Joe: We’ve got some really big things coming up towards the end of the year, but we can’t give any details away right now. People are never going to expect it.
What’s the ultimate goal for Unknown moving forward?
Callum: We want to be the biggest premium streetwear brand, not just in the UK but internationally as well. We also want to be an inspiration for emerging brands who want to follow a similar path.
Head to the Unknown website to cop the brand’s Spring/Summer 2022 collection now.
