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Interview with Empiyah clothing: "Whose world is this? The World is yours."
Tuesday 28th August 2012 | Osh
The two ladies behind the London based clothing brand Empiyah have talked to us about the vision behind their unique designs, their inspirations and how they capture history and culture in their fashion. One thing is certain: out of hundreds of prints you'll see every day, Empiyah's are memorable. They tell a story - and an oh so fashionable at that!
Check out what they had to say to The Guestlist Network's questions:
- Your prints and slogans transport a very liberal and open-minded worldview. How important is it to you to get a message across with your fashion? And, pinning it down to one sentence, what do you want your message to be?
The ethos of our brand Empiyah, really can be summed up in our slogan "Whose world is this? The World is yours." inspired by the legend that is Nasir Jones. We were listening to his song The World is Yours from one of our favourite albums, Illmatic, and it just clicked with our brand name and our vision.
It’s a very empowering lyric and I guess that’s what we are about - empowering people to do what they love. With each design we try to promote the idea that there is so much to experience and that there are so many cultures to be inspired by across the world. We try to continually do this by highlighting examples from different histories, cultures, places and inspirational people.
- Is there any particular city, place or street that most influences your fashion or does the creative variety the internet offers shape your ideas?
For us, there is no one single place that inspires us as we are all about exploring the world. Having studied at such a diverse university like SOAS, we've been exposed to so many different cultures and histories. We've also travelled a lot, so things that we've seen in countries such as Morocco, Sri Lanka, Egypt and Spain are where some of our designs originate. For example in our first collection two tshirts featured photographs from our trips to the Alhambra, in Granada, and Luxor, in Egypt.
Our tumblr, where we blog photos of people/designs that we love, is where we share our inspirations. www.empiyah.tumblr.com
- Which celebrities would be most suitable to your brand and why?
We are constantly inspired by people whose styles we admire, especially Va$htie Kola, Nick Wooster, Melo X and Nina Sky. Therefore these are the people who we would love to don Empiyah. The kind of celebrities that are passionate about their craft, and whose styles are ever evolving through experiencing new things.
- To which extent are fashion and music connected, in your eyes? Or rather: To which extent are YOUR fashion and music connected?
For us, they are intertwined. As we mentioned earlier, our slogan - which is what really brought our vision to life - was a lyric from a hip-hop track. So music has definitely played a huge role in our designs. We are constantly finding that fashion is connected to music, which does wonders for our design process!
- Your designs show a large impact of graphic design, they meet the eye in a very direct and straight forward manner. How would you comment on fashion that only works with textiles, colours and cuts? And how do you think these two takes on fashion could be combined?
Fashion that works with textiles, colours and cuts may be a different craft from that of graphic design, but at Empiyah we have plans to merge both. Like the guys over at The Brooklyn Circus did, whose brand ethos we really admire, we want to evolve each Empiyah piece - and we can’t wait to explore different ways to do this.
- How did you get started doing what you're doing right now and how did your interest in fashion emerge?
We both have a love for street-wear and we found there was this niche in the market for a brand which draws on not just what’s relevant at the moment, but also historical and cultural influences from around the world and inspirational figures like Malcolm X. We wanted to create pieces that we would love to wear daily, so we put our heads down and started designing and it sort of rolled on from there.
- What are your wishes and plans for the future and where do you want to go with your fashion? Any collaborations, any new projects on their way?
We are really excited about what is in store of Empiyah in the next few months. We will be adding a few more pieces to the collection and introducing accessories in time for A/W 2012. Make sure you keep up to date with what’s going on with us over at our Facebook page! http://www.facebook.com/empiyahclothing
Monya Beutelspacher
