Against The Tide

The founder and creative director of men’s swim and resort wear brand, Orlebar Brown, explains what it takes to start a fashion brand from scratch

- Varun Godinho

AS FAR AS FASHION EMPIRE-BUILDING epiphanies go, a moment of rejection isn’t an often-cited catalyst. But in 2005, that’s exactly what happened when Adam Brown was on a holiday in Rajasthan, lounging by the pool.

When he decided to go to lunch at the restaurant in the hotel, he was asked by the staffto go to his room and change into shorts. “So the idea for Orlebar Brown was not swim shorts, but shorts that you can swim in,” says Brown who built the luxury men’s resort wear brand that was acquired by Chanel last year.

Back in 2005, Brown didn’t have any experience within the fashion-designing world. The late-thirty-something Londoner had spent eight years working in the voluntary sector, raising money for charities, before going back to college to learn photography. He then worked for seven years as a portrait photographer, commissioned by various publications like Harper’s, Telegraph, Daily Mail and Tatler magazine.

When Brown decided to launch his start-up, he hadn't worked a single day in the fashion or retail world. But that didn’t faze him.

“The fear of failing was very great, but I knew that I also just had to make this a success,” he says.

He started by tackling the basics. He enrolled himself in a one-week drawing course at Central St Martins and then in a three-day Start Your Own Business course at London’s Portobello Business Centre.

“I did 18 months of research, found a factory, a fabrics supplier, and then made a 1,000 pairs of shorts and started the company from the spare room of my flat,” said Brown who partnered with Julia Simpson-Orlebar (who later left the business) to launch the brand from his Earls Court flat.

The brand launched in 2007 as a digital-only brand. “The first lesson I learnt is that having a website is like opening a shop on the quietest street in the world.”