Niche Brand Report

Elle Warren Fashion Branding & Communication Niche Brand Report - Bruta 1,540 words Blog: https://adidasxelle.blogspot.co.uk/?view=magazine Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user66428209

Arthur Yates is a London based artist, turned unisex fashion designer and founder of ‘Bruta’.

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Beginning in 2015, Yates had no previous fashion training, but a variety of knowledge from the art world, a wide range of cultures and traditional artisan crafts. His collections generally take one main focus and then venture out under an umbrella of meanings and using a classic long-sleeved shirt creates the perfect canvas meaning themes of inspirations reach far and wide. Taking the majority of his inspiration from travelling, mainly in Italy (while also knowing the importance of celebrating the present and past), he designs each shirt as a memento, like a photograph you can wear.

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Describing his style as ‘tourist shop swag’ would seem appropriate. The designs themselves are loose, non-formal, unisex and beautifully embroidered. They take on a 70’s style of shirt by using smart imagery and prints. ‘Refinement in the alley way’ and ‘Artsy Englishness doesn’t hurt anybody’ (Remsen, N, 2016). He describes his work as ‘athleisure’, a combination of baggy t-shirts and Oxfords. Accessorising with bold colours that contrast against the soft designs means they can be worn with tapered trousers or Nike’s.

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It all began with a small manufacturing business creating jersey for high street retailers: ASOS, Topshop and River Island, and creating denim forms. Even though this was successful, Yates lost interest and instead became inspired by his love for art. Combining his two passions, he took influence from the simplicity and season less styles of the Saville Row tailors, printing and designing by hand to produce bespoke and authentic designs. This influence is reflected in an interview with Business Of Fashion, Arthur says “Our brand is about taking all this heritage, punching it in the face, and waking it back up,” (Morency, C, 2016). Bruta’s ethos is also further explored in an interview with ‘Something Curated’ (2017) Yates talks about how important it is to know what you like when starting your own brand and to be clear from the start with what you aim to achieve and being clear and in tune with your ideas makes it more enjoyable to work on.

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His intention was to only release one type of product, but now his collections range from cotton poplin button downs to white viscose blouses. For the SS17 season, Yates intended to launch new product categories, including overcoats, leather goods and creations made for the home to build out each distinct category individually. More recently he has released a ‘Bruta Ale’ to co-inside his latest collection that is focused on every British – Brew-ta.

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The internet has changed things enormously for small brands with little or no overheads, so his revenue is currently split seventy to thirty percent across wholesale and own e-commerce. In a 2016 Business of Fashion article Arthur said “You have to do it all, but we can't open up a shop, so we need wholesale because people make it credible and they support you as well, we don't want to keep growing and growing it and have hundreds of agents on different territory, we want these few stores and then the rest is online where we can talk to our customer directly.” (Morecy, C, 2016).

During SS16 he sold one hundred and fifty personal orders through the Bruta website, because of impactful, aesthetic and accessible pricing, and Liberty became the first big retailer to take interest in the brand within this. “Liberty came in for a meeting – completely off schedule – and they picked it up, loved it and bought the whole thing” (Morency, C. 2016). Within a year he had attracted seventeen other international stock lists including Harvey Nichols and Dover Street Market, Singapore.

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Bruta is run by Arthur Yates and his company director, who is also his girlfriend, Phoebe Saatchi. The pair recently hired a sales associate to manage global wholesale accounts and Yates projected a 345% growth in revenue between SS16 and SS17 and in 2017 he predicted a revenue growth of another 294%. Although this sounds promising, Yates has worries of growing sustainability, “Cash flow is really difficult. You really need to make sure when you're manufacturing that you're making the right deals and try to get credit from your manufacturers” (Morency, C. 2016). Because of this, Yates is considering moving production from Hong Kong to Greece, so he can take advantage of more generous offers from his manufacturer, “I managed to get this deal where I get 60 days credit and that has transformed the business,” he says. (Morency, C. 2016).

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Bruta was chosen to be a part of the BFC and Boden collaboration to offer designers who participate a chance to show in the Future British initiative, a joint show space for London Fashion Week. Set up in January 2016, its purpose is to support emerging British designing in the first two years of business, as this is the time most brands fall at. This opportunity offers those selected financial support and mentoring in areas including product development, brand identity, PR and marketing from those who have been successful numerous times over. "Each designer is given a bursary, but more importantly the recipients have access to business mentors including my leadership team and the British Fashion Council’s extensive network. Even after twenty five years in the business I still remember how hard it is at the beginning, this is a really authentic way to give something back to the industry that I love." (Boden, J, 2016)

Being featured in Vogue’s trends of two thousand and seventeen gave Bruta it’s chance to shine in the spotlight, showcasing their latest, at the time, short film which captures the brands family portrait perfectly. A dancing photograph that is loved by Kings of Leon and St. Vincent and reminds people that your personality should always lead, in exactly the same way Arthur used his to build his business. “Twelve year old redhead Marcus Clarke’s dance moves were a bit mad but very loveable, from the way he styled his ribbon-tied collar to his hip wiggles – they’re both just as contagious, much like the spirit of Bruta.” (Saatchi, P, 2017)

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Within the personal website of Bruta, photographs of the collections are taken within the corresponding theme of each design. Taken artistically, perhaps on a disposable camera, the location, models and accessories have been chosen appropriately. Using a typical English setting of old castles, green fields with oak trees, ballrooms or in front of huge works of art, male models with long hair and pale skin have been chosen. The girls’ shirts are oversized and paired with a contrasting fabric, maybe a chord or a loose fitted denim type – keeping in time with the classic English feel.

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During history, those with paler skin were considered to be wealthier than the rest of society – mainly royalty.

To show the diversity of the brand, shirts are shot across male and female models, sometimes shot together, styled differently but still remaining within a soft and relaxed life style approach.

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On opening the ‘About’ page on the Bruta website a video plays in the background. A stereotypical English gentleman wearing traditional English attire is walking through a small old town, his hat then blows off and he follows it through numerous alley ways. Being met with 2 big brown wooden doors with gold handles, they open and he walks in. A naked lady walks past him and up a spiral stair case to meet a dwarf painting this lady half way up. Continuing into a bar seats five ginger hair girls with their hair plaited to each other, wearing blue eye shadow play what looks like a game of spoons and on the next table are four English bulldogs with young men drinking ale and playing chess. He continues around the bar and passes a fat man playing the harp in a Bruta shirt. Looking towards the front of the bar he is seen by 3 girls reading huge books with huge glasses all sat in a line, looking up as he walks pasted. Finally coming into the foreground he glances and smiles at a similarly dressed lady stood at the front of the bar. The video ends and does not repeat.

Perhaps this video is a way of representing the brand and what it’s all about.

An introduction to what you can expect and what the influences from art cultures are about. The rather odd characters that are seen throughout the film might represent the fact that these shirts are for everyone and anyone.

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Introducing a brand into the fashion market is difficult, regardless if you don’t have any previous experience or knowledge of that particular field you are wanting to enter. Bruta is a niche brand, something unique and maybe not to everyone’s tastes so this factor made it even harder for Arthur Yates to get his designs seen and recognised. However, a niche brand will appeal to retailers more due to it not being mainstream and customers will pay more for a unique, one of a kind product. This is proven by how successful he has been just by creating mementos from his travels that can be worn, something so personal to him now appeals to the masses and is recognised as a successful business.

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Bibliography: Remsen, N, (2016). Meet the New British Label Bringing Streetwear Vibes to Shirting [Online] Vogue.com. Available from: https://www. vogue.com/article/bruta-london-arthur-yates-interview-shirtingspring-2017 [Accessed on Sept 4th 2017] Morency, C (2016). Bruta’s State-of-the-Art Shirting. [Online] businessoffashion.com. Available from: https://www. businessoffashion.com/articles/spotlight/brutas-state-of-the-artshirting-arthur-yates [Accessed on Sept 6th 2017] Something Currated, (2017). Interview: Arthur Yates, Founder Of Bruta [Online] somethingcurrated.com. Available from: http:// somethingcurated.com/2017/07/14/interview-arthur-yatesfounder-bruta/ [Accessed on Sept 10th 2017] Morency, C (2016). Bruta’s State-of-the-Art Shirting. [Online] businessoffashion.com. Available from: https://www. businessoffashion.com/articles/spotlight/brutas-state-of-the-artshirting-arthur-yates [Accessed on Sept 6th 2017] Morency, C (2016). Bruta’s State-of-the-Art Shirting. [Online] businessoffashion.com. Available from: https://www. businessoffashion.com/articles/spotlight/brutas-state-of-the-artshirting-arthur-yates [Accessed on Sept 6th 2017] Morency, C (2016). Bruta’s State-of-the-Art Shirting. [Online] businessoffashion.com. Available from: https://www. businessoffashion.com/articles/spotlight/brutas-state-of-the-artshirting-arthur-yates [Accessed on Sept 6th 2017] Morency, C (2016). Bruta’s State-of-the-Art Shirting. [Online] businessoffashion.com. Available from: https://www. businessoffashion.com/articles/spotlight/brutas-state-of-the-artshirting-arthur-yates [Accessed on Sept 6th 2017] Boden, J (2016). Why new Future British Award winders Blake LDN and Bruta are the British labels to buy into now [Online] telegraph. co.uk. Available from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/brands/ why-new-future-british-award-winners-blake-ldn-and-bruta-arethe/ [Accessed on Feb 7th 2018]

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Image references: Figure 1: Young smiling girl in blue shirt - Anglo Tango (AW 2017) [Online image]. Available from: https://www.bruta.eu/collections/aw17/ [Accessed on Sept 6th 2017] Figure 2: Laughing girl in baby pink shirt - Fritto Misto (SS17) [Online image]. Available from: https://www.bruta.eu/collections/ss17/ [Accessed on Sept 6th 2017] Figure 3: Bruta logo and cowboy hat - Gaucho Zambo (SS16) [Online image]. Available from: https://www.bruta.eu/collections/ss16/ [Accessed on Sept 6th 2017] Figure 4: Noodles and white shirt - Fritto Misto (SS17) [Online image].

Available from: https://www.bruta.eu/collections/ss17/ [Accessed on Sept 6th 2017] Figure 5: Unisex maze - Anglo Tango (AW17) [Online image]. Available from: https://www.bruta.eu/collections/aw17/ [Accessed on Sept 6th 2017] Figure 6: Tongue to chandelier - Marco Polo (AW16) [Online image].

Available from: https://www.bruta.eu/collections/bruta-aw16-collectionmarco-polo/ [Accessed on Sept 6th 2017] Figure 7: Sofa sitting - Marco Polo (AW16) [Online image]. Available from: https://www.bruta.eu/collections/bruta-aw16-collection-marco-polo/ [Accessed on Sept 6th 2017] Figure 8: Bruta logo [Online image]. Available from: https://www.bruta. eu/store/menswear/ [Accessed on Feb 14th 2018]

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