French brand OLOW, known for bringing the works of interesting artists and poets to the forefront, recently collaborated French graphic designer/illustrator Jean Jullien in a capsule collection that celebrates lazy Sundays. The collection is cleverly simple and packs a heavy punch with the right amount of quirk. This latest collaboration intrigued us enough to reach out to the brand to get deeper insights into their motivations. Below is an interview we conducted with OLOW interspersed with images (and a video) from the Jean Jullien collaboration. Enjoy!
Please give a little background on the brand OLOW?
For more than ten years now, OLOW has been creating menswear. Going beyond the world of fashion, we promote a true culture – a simple way of life influenced by travel. We offer high-quality products while still being ethical – this has always been at the heart of the OLOW project. Our entire production is based in Portugal, in family-run factories. We focus on choosing natural materials and high-quality finishing touches,while also making sure products remain available on a larger scale.
How did art become a part of OLOW’s essence?
OLOW has always deeply appreciated creativity. This was born from a love for graphic arts – OLOW showcases this passion through its capsule collections. To this day, each collection includes many graphic t-shirts (and sometimes other products) created by artists from all over the world.
But above all, the label cherishes its direct collaborations with world-renowned artists to launch capsule collections made up of limited edition clothes and accessories. Notably, the recent collaboration with acclaimed French illustrator Jean Jullien ( “Club Dimanche” collection), the collaboration with talented Supakitch, and the project with American artist Steven Harrington have all created great buzz.
What goes into selecting an artist for a collaboration?
Selecting an artist really comes from many avenues including – love at first sight, going to an exhibition, finding someone on Instagram, friends who are artists themselves… Mathieu and Valentin (OLOW’s founders) are really into finding new artists – they are passionate about offering these artists an opportunity to create art that can go on t-shit, shirt, sweater or even a jacket. This is great exposure for the artist and the brand.
How did Jean Jullien get on your radar and why was he chosen for the current collaboration?
Our collaboration with Jean Jullien goes back – we had already done a past collaboration with him called ‘Bronzette’ for summer 2015. He and Mathieu are actually friends in real life so collaborating is seamless.
Can any artist reach out to OLOW for consideration or do certain requirements need to be met?
Any artist can work with us, we work with designers, illustrators, painters, photographers, tattoo artists…
What in OLOW’s perspective is the definition of style?
Style for us is inspired by an urban lifestyle, mixed in with a good dose of poetry and stylistic freedom.
How can people keep up with everything OLOW is cooking?
We are very active on our magazine which is part of our website as well as on Facebook and of course on our Instagram – we are posting everyday.
Right now we are launching our new FW17 collection called HORS PISTE – we are soon releasing our new short film accompanying the collection, if you’d like, you can have an exclusive preview of the movie here with the password horspiste.
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