Hey, starter! Read on for…

—Danny (tell me your biz dreams: [email protected])

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1. Home for now. For Starters subscribers Paul Firmin and Niko Dafkos, founders of Earl of East, have built an admirable company since 2014: retail shops across London, own-brand lifestyle products, candle workshops, collabs with the likes of Bon Iver and Sampha, and as of yesterday, the authors of their very first book: Home For Now, published by Gestalten.

It’s an “inside look at how the creative community makes borrowed spaces feel personal, layered, and alive,” and, in a slightly surreal and very cool twist, my wife Kim and I are the subjects of chapter one. The Earl crew swung by and shot our Barbican flat as we goofed around and posed verrry naturally. A few awesome For Starters friends and subscribers are also featured. Buy a copy and have a look! → Extra points for whoever spots my FS hat… 👀

2. A feelings company. Meanwhile over in Silicon Valley (a sentence we don’t write often…) is Justin Barber. Justin grew up in Tokyo, has been living/working as a designer in SV since 2014, and recently decided to start his own thing – “in the hopes that a non-VC backed ‘feelings company’ can thrive in the land of tech,” he tells us. The result is his lovely brand Glenwood.

Justin sent in this shot of him mailing orders of his first collection, last month…

So what are the major differences between working at a high-growth AI biz and growing your own non-tech brand? Justin:

3. Paper, pens & ink. And in Paris’s beautiful Palais-Royal, French-Moroccan creative director and starter Ramdane Touhami (he of Officine Universelle Buly 1803) has just swung open the doors to a pristine stationery shop. Dreamy. 😍

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In 2006, James Shaw cofounded Albam, a brand of high-quality, practical menswear that became one of the defining British clothing labels of its era.

Two decades later, he’s ready for his second act. Along with co-founder Simon Jobson, formerly of Lacoste, Dr. Martens and Aquascutum, the two are building a brand called Peace – and it involves jeans, a white t-shirt and, curiously enough, Portuguese salt and olive oil.

→ For Starters gave James a ring at his new home in Porto to get the inside scoop…

💬 James, you’ve been busy. Tell us what you’ve been up to…

Albam launched in December 2006, and twenty years on, we’re launching something again. I just realized that I’ve got another brand in me. I’ve got twenty more years of wisdom and it feels like the world’s in the right place for it – there’s been a return to more personal, authentic, connected stories in clothing.

💬 So you’re starting Peace. What is it?

Peace is a European denim brand. I’m based in Portugal now and European production is important from a craft base level. Our cotton is grown in Spain on regenerative farms, woven in Italy, and made in Portugal. We’re making jeans and a white t-shirt, which was really how Albam started, too. The genesis is the same.

💬 Can you walk us through your journey from Albam to now?

Sure. Me and Alastair [Rae, Albam’s co-founder] were in our mid-twenties when we started Albam in London. Super young, naive, full of energy. We hit the right city at the right time. It couldn’t have been better timing. Albam was a great success.

But eventually I could see something emerging – brands needed both a community element and a sport element. I was running a lot and I thought we should have people in for coffee in the mornings and go on a run with them. This was 2010-11. But again, we sold jeans… it didn’t really fit. I knew, though, that this was where brands were heading. So I left the day-to-day of Albam in 2012.

💬 That was sort of the beginning of the run club renaissance in London. Now you can’t throw a rock on Regent’s Canal without hitting a group of runners. So did you try to build a running brand after Albam?

Crews like Run Dem Crew were already there, but yeah, the broader scene wasn’t like what it is now.

I ended up developing an activewear collection. Then one day, while at the factory, I stood next to an enormous, 8-meter-high mountain of fast-fashion clothes – and it just really turned me off. I didn’t know how to reconcile it, but I thought: “I’m not going to make more clothes.” I just couldn’t do it – I questioned what I was doing, and then I turned my back on it.

💬 So no more clothes – what’d you build next?

I created a platform called weMove – a magazine where you could read about seasoned athletes, high performance coaches, experts on wellness, health and movement. It launched in 2016. We created lots of issues, did ~150 podcasts, and developed an experiential, expert-led program so our readers could realize their potential.

Then the pandemic came… and it just totally scuppered us. It suddenly felt wrong to be talking about our approach to health when many people were thinking, “I don’t know if the world’s going to end.” It was sort of chaos, right? So we went to ground. We drove from the UK to Portugal, right before the second lockdown, and we ended up moving there permanently.

💬 Did living in Portugal inspire you to get back into the clothes world?

Portugal is in such a sweet spot. It’s such a good place to live and create – it’s a way of being. And yeah, suddenly I was surrounded by factories again. People were like, “Oh, you’re in Portugal? Could you help us with this or that?” I also, ultimately, wasn’t at peace with how I left Albam. There was unfinished business. I was constantly sketching, ideating, developing, iterating. And we just found ourselves in the right place at the right time again – just like in London, twenty years earlier.

💬 Tell us about Peace’s products. Rather than chase that mountain of clothes and create 100 SKUs, you’re keeping it extremely tight.

We’ve got five products: jeans, a white t-shirt, a printed t-shirt, a pair of shoes, and silver jewelry made by a sixth generation family in the center of Porto. They’ve made rings for popes and bishops. Their history is phenomenal.

So it’s those five pieces, and I’m comfortable with myself doing that. We spend so much of our lives running away from who we are, but jeans and a white tee is me – and that’s cool. I like that feeling.

💬 Is there also a message in there about overproduction in fashion?

Fashion’s under scrutiny for overconsumption and sustainability, but above all we have a disconnection problem. We’re disconnected from ourselves and from the people who make our clothes, without whom, we can’t do what we do.

I’m nothing without the farmer who I might never meet. It’s all connected. Making clothes takes years, it takes hundreds of people, it takes families and villages. If people say there’s an overconsumption problem and then the effect is that people stop buying clothes – well, then the factory closes and people can’t put food on the table. People are asking the wrong questions.

💬 Will your second act be easier? You’re older and wiser now…

Definitely wiser, but I don’t feel older. I’ve got the same energy and feeling as when I started Albam 20 years ago! That worked out pretty well, I think, so maybe I can navigate this even better. I’ve got 20 more goes around the sun… 

💬 What lessons will you take from Albam and apply to Peace?

I’ve only ever worked for myself. All I know is starting from zero and going up from there. The first time you experience that, you don’t really know what to do. You kind of freak out a bit. Take money – it’s a safety blanket. Of course you need some. It’s nice to have a never-ending supply, but a never-ending supply doesn’t necessarily mean a better outcome.

Someone starting out might say I want £100,000 to start. And it’s like, what do you actually need to get going? They’ll say, I need a hundred quid. Okay, so have you got £100? Yeah. Then you can start! £100 can get you to the first bit, and then the next bit, then the next bit…

Over time, you’ll become a better sailor of the ship. You’ll become better at understanding what you actually need. The wins will eventually come. You just have to wait for them.

💬 Do you have plans for physical stores?

My vision includes retail stores including one here in Porto. And since the products are made closer to the source here, they might be less expensive here than in, say, London. Risk yields reward – so if you travel to Porto, the reward might be that the pieces cost less!

You might also get a fuller experience here – come out for coffee or a meal with us and leave saying, “I went to Porto to buy some jeans and I ended up having dinner with the team.”

We’ll also sell local salt and olive oil. They’re elements of Portuguese culture, and in many religious texts they’re peace offerings. When you buy something from us, first you’ll receive sea salt, then our printed manifesto, then olive oil which comes with your garment.

💬 It’s like a stack of experiences rather than a transactional “I give you cash, you give me jeans.” Love it. When’s launch day?

The order books open in May. Everything ‘s made to order in runs of fifty. It’s an eight week process, but I’ll keep you updated through WhatsApp. Each month we’ll open the order books again for the next fifty. We’ll also have a series of meals, where people can come together around a table. Brands are built on a human level like that. It’s about energy, conversation and connection. That’s what Peace is about.

💬 You’re back to doing what you love!

I love to make clothes. If I weren’t doing it, which I haven't in this way for years, then I’m not being true to myself. Many people don’t do what they should be doing and they’re unhappy.

💬 And doing what you’re passionate about compounds over time. It’s small daily steps and then five years later you’re like, “Holy shit, people in 80 countries are buying my jeans.”

Exactly. Everyone’s like, “How’s the launch?” And you manage underwhelm every day. But over time it compounds and you look back and say, “My God, that was amazing.”

We’ve only just announced what we’re doing. We’re having one-to-one conversations. I’m writing to lots of people, saying: “I’m doing this again, wanna join in?”

I’m basically looking to assemble a flotilla of small boats, with everyone loving what they’re doing and coexisting together, rather than building a massive ship. ☼

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Chief Taste Officer 🤌 → “No, mom… not chief technology officer; chief TASTE officer!” “That’s nice, honey…”

Whimsy 🤹 → “Gen Z's latest hyperfixation is an attempt to escape day-to-day stressors with playful innocence.”

Soft socializing 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 → I’m sensing a theme here: “Low-pressure, activity-based events where connection happens as a secondary outcome, not the main goal.”

FOBO 🤖 → The Fear of Becoming Obsolete. “52% of US workers now fear job displacement due to AI – nearly double last year’s level.”

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Signals — A new newsletter on ‘what resonates and why’ – issue 1 is about how storytelling is reshaping fragrance

Kraa — A digital writing space for building stylish pages, blog posts, manifestos, etc

A visual guide to getting out of a creative slump. Lenny’s

Imagine You’re a Restaurant. Self-Projecting Projections

‘Even more beautiful than I imagined’: The nifty Japanese printing gadget uniting artists worldwide. Guardian

British kitchen knife company Allday Goods raises €883.7k to turn plastic waste into premium kitchenware. EU-Startups (I love what Hugo is doing; been a customer for years)

A Day Inside Brooklyn’s Buzziest Underground Cheese Sale. Vogue

Sell up, not out. The Sociology of Business

The creation of instant coffee. Works in Progress

Makers are not factories, so stop treating us like one. Arts Hub

The feeling of the old world fading away. Dirt

1.56 million → Entrepreneurs in the US filed 1.56m business applications from Nov through Jan, the most of any three month period since at least 2004. That’s a lotttt of starters.

A book about French sign painters’ alphabets – and India’s street signs.

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Tomorrow in London, head to the first-ever Food in Print Magazine Fair. It brings together a very good lineup of food mags from around London and the world and is run by For Starters subscriber Chris O’Leary, of FatBoy Zine. (It’s also literally 5 seconds from my flat, which was mentioned at the top of this email, so we’re coming full circle, people…)

Hit me up if you’re heading over there and say hi.

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