The Fusion of Luxury and Streetwear: An Interview with Homage Brand’s Creators

With the influence of social media, the streetwear subculture, which has been flourishing for decades in the fashion world, has recently surged and led to the dominance of luxury athleisure. Luxury streetwear has swiftly risen in various forms to the forefront of clothing trends globally. Ultimately, an era of a cutting-edge fusion between upscale high fashion and sporty streetwear has been embraced by both designers and consumers in the fashion realm, and lucky for us, Canada has produced some enticing up-and-coming brands that embody this fashion synthesis.

Homage Brand, created by two Canadian 21-year-old creatives, is a streetwear label that transcends the domain of relaxed streetwear and, instead, gracefully combines comfort, elegance, and modernity. Homage offers collections of hoodies, t-shirts, vests, jackets, and cargos that bring composure to casualwear.

Today, the creators of Homage have sat down with us to answer some questions regarding the identity and future of the brand and the obstacles that small brands face in their early stages.

How would you describe your brand in three words?

Canadian Atelier-level Luxury.

Tell us about Homage. How is it a reflection of your own identity?

Homage Brand was founded in Toronto, Canada. We are proud and excited to be a Canadian brand for more than the reason that it’s where we come from and call home.

I believe that Canada, on a global level, is underappreciated for its diverse and rich culture. Beyond this, I think that many aspects of Canadian culture are misrepresented or misunderstood beyond our borders.

Countless prominent streetwear brands have originated from south of our border in the United States. Along with numerous other high fashion European clothing labels having transitioned to also curating luxury streetwear garments. Luxury Canadian streetwear is under-represented in global relativity. I think this poses why we are most grateful to be a Canadian brand. This has made it easier for us to build awareness nationally and infiltrate the Canadian streetwear market.

I see it as a comparable situation to the United Kingdom. The UK is filled with a generation of creatives, but again, I don’t believe it is fully recognized or appreciated on a global scale. A lot of our inspiration and favourite brands come from the UK.

However, many brands within Canada are powered by creative genius. Examples being Saintwoods, 3.Paradis, and or Atelier New Regime, to name a few. I believe they all deserve more recognition beyond our borders. I will always support other brands and believe in Canadian streetwear’s future, even beyond our own brand.

We are lucky to have the opportunity to showcase ourselves as Canadian creatives while using our platform to communicate our ideas through fashion, design, and visual arts. That is something I am genuinely thankful for. I cherish that I have the ability to use our brand as a creative outlet. It grants me opportunities to be introspective and reflect on what’s important to me and what I want to communicate.

Just like personal progression, we are dedicated to the continual evolution of our brand. Without the support we have been granted, it wouldn’t be possible for us as individuals or as a brand to continue developing Homage Brand in all of its aspects. I'm truly thankful.

Who is your top style icon and why?

Personally, Reese Cooper and his eponymous clothing label Reese Cooper Inc. is someone that I respect and admire immensely. Many of the garments he curates might be seen by some as simple, but almost all of his pieces are filled with intricate and re-worked design details.

I see Reese Cooper Inc. as an extension of Reese Cooper himself. I think Reese Cooper is unapologetic and authentic in the way he puts himself into his brand. He is an unbelievable storyteller, and he uses his clothing label to communicate his messages. I think that is one of the purest definitions of “art.”

Every seasonal collection he releases embodies a message. My personal favourite being Reese’s AW ‘20, “If a Tree Falls.”

To elaborate, the saying "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" is a philosophical thought experiment that raises questions regarding observation and perception.

This philosophical idea spoke to me personally. Many people don’t realize how much time, effort, and stress comes with curating a new collection or capsule. No matter how much you put into this industry, it doesn’t always work. That is just the reality of things.

I’d like to consider our projects to be more than clothing; I see it as art. Sometimes it can feel defeating to put months of time and effort into a project and then being left to wonder if anyone recognizes the time spent and effort exerted.

This philosophical question has changed my relationship with how I determined success within our label. It has emphasized the process and taking pride in my efforts regardless of how it is perceived or how fast it sells. That is the harsh reality of anything artistic; it’s open to everyone else’s personal interpretation. I think that is beautiful.

I think the most potent form of art is left to be interpreted by others to see through the lens of their own experiences and opinions. That is the direction I want to take Homage Brand. It's more than just a brand or piece of clothing, but a safe place for one to see our creative exploration.

How would you describe your own personal style?

My style has changed a few times as I have grown up. I grew up as an athlete, so it was almost strictly athleisure clothing and Nike tracksuits as a kid. It was later when I grew an appreciation for design and fashion. I think I became fascinated with fashion when designer labels were finally embracing streetwear—embracing the culture pioneered in the ’80s and ‘90s by brands like Stussy, Bape, and or Supreme. It was more than the clothing per se; it was the whole culture and community tied in with it.

Today, to be honest, I have veered away from the obsession with global designers. Most of the designer pieces I had spent years collecting were left to hang in the closet. If I’m not wearing Homage Brand, it’s usually a cropped pair of athletic shorts, an oversized heavyweight tee, and light jewelry.

My priorities and what I value in fashion have changed over time. Initially, admittingly, I valued the brand name most when choosing what to acquire or wear. However, being a little older now, I appreciate quality, silhouette, and functionality over brand name.

That’s likely why it took us almost six months to find the right fabrics, silhouettes, and manufacturers.

Where do you see the brand in five years?

This is a question I think about a lot and all the possibilities of where we could be in five years. I believe that we have achieved a lot within the first calendar year of operating.

It’s been a lot of hard work, and honestly, most of it isn’t very fun or glamorous. But, with that being said, it is our passion, and we will pursue Homage Brand’s future relentlessly. We love doing it, and we have been lucky to meet some amazing people along the way from all different walks of life.

To give a more direct response to this question, I’d prefer to focus on what is controllable. In five years, I see all of our elements of design and production being in-house. We are suffering a lot of financial leakages right now because we are outsourcing everything.

For example, our fabrics are outsourced from Portugal to California by our manufacturer, then shipped internationally for the second time to Toronto, Canada. Design details are then implemented at a studio outside of the city, and then each garment’s final destination is at our tailor and or seamstress (depending on the project).

We currently spend a lot of time hanging around the studio and bothering our tailor with about a hundred very basic and likely embarrassing questions about sowing.

In five years, I believe our brand will still be making essential garments and streetwear. However, I see Homage Brand experimenting with and pushing the boundaries of what is perceived to be fashion while maintaining the functionality of each garment. My interests in fashion and design originated from streetwear and its culture, but I do not want Homage Brand to be confined to any boundary.

What makes you different from other rising brands?

I think what differentiates us from other rising brands is mainly two things: quality and presentation. It’s hard to explain fabric qualities with a written word, but I will try to for educational purposes.

“GSM is short for grams per square meter. All fabrics have a weight, and the standard measurement for the weight and quality of fabrics (including towels) is grams per square meter.”

To use our jumper hoodies as an example, they are composed in their complete entirety of 435 GSM French Terry Cotton. Using a size small jumper hoodie as a benchmark, it weighs 36oz.

To contrast our fabrics to a commonly used hoodie by many adolescent brands, the Gildan 18500 Heavy Weight Blend Hoodie is a 50/50 mix of cotton and polyester weighing in at 13.5oz.

This explanation was purposed for readers with less exposure to fabric terminology, not to knock other brands who might choose to use Gildan fabrics. Fashion and art are subjective; people are subject to their personal preferences of fabrics and materials.

The truthful reality is, our manufacturer works with prominent designers in both Europe and North America. We have seen the same fabrics that we use to comprise our garments priced at over $500+ CAD on other brands' sites. As an adolescent brand, we prioritize making our garments as inclusive in pricing as possible.

Our current approach is to try and make our brand as financially accessible as possible so that people can see our qualities first hand. Although our margins on each garment are heavily affected by this, we have found this has created a buzz and urgency around acquiring a garment at the time of a release. Over the past ten months, we have been sold out far more than we have had inventory available on our site.

The most frustrating component we have encountered with Homage Brand is seeing people’s opinions online that our pricing is too expensive. I get it. A lot of people might see us as two kids selling $100 CAD hoodies. I have never once asked someone to acquire one of our garments because I understand $100 CAD can contribute to someone’s groceries, rent, or gas for the month.

I touched on it earlier, but what I don’t think people understand is the reality we face as an independent brand with only two full-time employees.

“For example, our fabrics are outsourced from Portugal to California by our manufacturer, then shipped internationally for the second time to Toronto, Canada. Design details are then implemented at a studio outside of the city, and then each garment’s final destination is at our tailor and or seamstress (depending on the project).”

Using this statement from earlier in the article as an example, it costs us a lot for each garment we make- to say it lightly. We currently are financing the costs for up to four professional services for every project (solely for the design and production of each garment). This leaves every other expense we incur as a company aside and exclusively focuses on the garment in itself.

We face significant expenses for every project we undergo. On multiple occasions, we have had to take loans out to upscale our inventories, just hoping in faith that we will sell out another capsule or collection. Our biggest issue currently as a brand is that the process of putting out a project takes months. So to come back with another capsule or collection promptly, you have to start financing the process months in advance. More often than not, we are beginning to fund our next project before we have had enough time to collect the revenue from our current project. That is always the most stressful aspect of Homage Brand for us personally.

Going into our fifth season, we have sold our garments to the US, UK, Europe, and in our home Canada. However, without our family, friends, and all of the people we have never met, our season five project would not be a reality. That is what leaves me genuinely thankful at the end of the day. Humbling.

Secondly, I believe the way we present each garment is just as important as the garment itself. I think a big step our brand has taken is how we showcase an upcoming project or release. Initially, our emphasis and focus while presenting new garments were on making sure you could see all of the details in each piece. Sounds sensible; however, I felt as if it doesn’t communicate our projects in their entirety. Felt like parts of our project’s message were being lost.

I realize this sounds counter-intuitive, but our emphasis now is not on the details of each garment. Instead, our focus is on presenting each garment while maintaining the project’s purpose and message. We do that using visual arts. Beyond each project, we believe this makes our platform like an interactive gallery of our work. I think it also builds our identity as a brand.

If one is looking to acquire one of our garments, they will look on our site. Our site contains our product photos and detailed descriptions for each piece.

Someone I need to give credit to is Alexey Tattersall. As people and as a brand, we have been lucky enough to cross paths with Alexey in the summer of 2020. She is a talented creative from Ottawa with an impressive resume of experience within the fashion industry. I feel obligated and privileged to say that she has been very influential in guiding the direction of our brand’s success.

What is the greatest obstacle you’ve faced starting a clothing brand?

I’m not quite sure where to start in terms of the biggest obstacle that we have encountered as a clothing brand. But I am sure that anyone in this industry could tell you that almost nothing goes smoothly or precisely as planned. Or maybe it’s just the stage we are at as a company and as a brand. Hopefully, in the future, it gets better. However, I believe that the number of unimaginable expenses or mishaps within a clothing business would shock most people. It can be frustrating sometimes.

Personally, the biggest obstacle I have had to overcome with a clothing business is that it is very vulnerable. We, as people, put parts of ourselves into all aspects of our brand. You are putting yourself and your art out there to be public with other people’s opinions and scrutiny.

It is something that I struggled with in my career as an athlete. It ruined a lot of aspects of the sport I dedicated my life to. I inevitably ended up walking away from it. Frankly, it makes me a little bit emotional to tie it together, but I’d like to think that Homage Brand has allowed me to let that go a little bit. Earlier in our brand’s existence, I was consumed by how much of what we did would be interpreted. So I stressed simplicity and believed I was reserved with the things that I wanted to communicate. Today, I think personally, and as a brand, we will continue to let what we want to express flourish.

We have already done things that most people might see as a little bit outside of the box of normalities. But, honestly, that is what I love. I want Homage Brand to continue pushing the boundaries of normalities and expectations for a fashion and design label. I think that will be what separates us.

Follow Homage Brand on Instagram @homagebrandca, Twitter @HomageBrand, and website thehomagebrand.com.