Collect - Summer 21 Collection Preview and Interview
This Wednesday 4th of November, Melbourne based brand Collect (@collectclothing) are dropping their Summer 21 collection. The range is the brands first full summer release, we had a chat with Ben, the man behind the brand and got some insights into Collect and their Summer 21 collection.
No problem at all, thanks for having me! Collect is a Melbourne streetwear brand that was founded in the house music scene of Melbourne, making clothing for people who understand quality of design and the true message behind what streetwear means.
I started Collect as a project platform in 2017 while in school to start making the clothing I liked. Although this year is our first collection, I’ve been making tees since 2015.
College Tee - Green, Purple, Blue
$50.00 AUD
What inspired this collection and is there a general theme/brand message that Collect stands for?
The idea of having a collection come out as one piece instead of individual releases was something that I liked and decided to do only about 6 months ago. After we released our RedSea hood in winter I wanted to showcase this summers aesthetic as a collection of tees instead of releasing different designs individually.
Collect stands for culture and community, I love when streetwear is something that brings all kinds of people together and that’s the message Collect is all about.
Putting a full collection together is something I always wanted to do but didn’t want to rush into. Collect has been my project platform for over three years now, I used it to learn and put out the clothing I was making along the way so people could be part of the journey from the beginning, but this Collection was going to be the first of many to come.
After completing the designs I wanted and colour pallet for the season, I got in contact with Roman Jody, a New York creative in Sydney to help me out with getting a shoot done for the campaign itself, at the same time I was organising production down in Melbourne.
All that done and more, and here we are a few days out from the November 4th drop.
There’s a lot of pieces to put in place when putting together a full range. Could you tell us a little bit about your process in putting everything together?
At the start of the planning I thought I would be able to plan out everything that I needed to do and step by step make those things happen. I had a pretty good idea of what it is I wanted and how it was going to be done, but through the process there was plenty of new things popping up that I didn’t think I would do or plan for.
That was half the beauty in doing this, being able to really learn how something like this would come along and learn from things that went wrong.
This is the first Collection with many more to come and they’re only going to get better every time in my opinion.
Vintage Smile Tee
$50.00 AUD
How did you go about finding contributors for the collection?
In today’s day and age, we are so lucky to have the access we do to so many people around the world at the click of a button. Finding people to fill roles that were needed in making this collection wasn’t hard at all.
Using social media is a great way to get in contact with other creatives, share you work and work together on new projects. It’s really a great time to be alive in that sense. Many people out there have heaps to offer and can really help with what you need, and sometimes, you just happen to come across it by accident!
In my opinion, streetwear is actually more about Culture and Community then it is actually about clothing. Representing your favourite independent brands graphic tees or hoods to show that you believe in the same qualities as they do.
At Collect, we push for community, we strive to bring people together and share our story along the way...
We just happen to make great clothing.
Space Man tee - Blue and Pink Colourways
$50.00 AUD
