CHRIS RAEBURN

We sat down with Christopher Raeburn, founder of RÆBURN, the London-label which has been transforming surplus military stock into fashionable pieces for years, way before ‘up-cycling’ was even deemed a trend. A pioneer in the conversation of eco-conscious design, Christopher has seen the narrative around sustainability and fashion transform around him, making him the perfect person to ask: what’s next for the industry and how can brands incorporate future-focused values into their retail spaces?

Isil: Thank you for having us at your beautiful studio in Hackney. Obviously, we’re big fans of you, but for the people that might not know you that well, can you please tell us about yourself and how you started your brand: RÆBURN?

Christopher Raeburn: Well, first up, my name’s Christopher Raeburn and in 2009, after spending a bit of time here in London kind of freelancing for other designers, I started my own company with actually quite a simple concept, where I took one military parachute, and I deconstructed it and remade it into eight garments. This idea of not made in England but remade in England was really the kind of concept behind my brand. We’ve been really fortunate now to have grown over the last 14 years to be a pathfinder really within responsible design.

We don’t talk about sustainability; we talk about our responsibility. It’s been an amazing journey.

Isil: Well, I was going to ask you, what’s the difference between sustainability and responsibility? Because I don’t see you talk about sustainability all that much?

Christopher Raeburn: The dictionary definition is to endure at the same pace, right?

To sustain. When we just think about the environment and the damage that we’ve done for the world in terms of us as humans, that’s not enough if we now just sustain, right? We at the very least need to regenerate. We need to think about things in a much more progressive way.

Isil: You have this brand signature... Reduce...

Christopher Raeburn: Close... no....

Starts with R. Yeah. No, no, no. I’ll give you a clue.

Isil: Reduce. Remade.

Christopher Raeburn: So, we start with the first one. We start with Remade.

Remade, yeah. Okay, the reason that, you know, hopefully I politely corrected you is that the way that we always talk about RÆBURN, we call it the three R’s and we start with Remade, because actually it’s the driving philosophy for the whole company.

We take things that already exist, and that might be silk maps or parachutes, life rafts or Eurostar seat covers, all this incredible stuff that already exists. We deconstruct it right here at the RÆBURN Lab in Hackney and then we remake it into completely new wearable pieces. Now, if we only did that, our business would be tiny. The first five years, that is all we did, and it was a terrible business model. We then introduced two further parts of the collection. One we call Reduced and one Recycled. And really with the Reduced products it’s all about natural materials. So organic cotton, merino wool. It’s products that in theory, you know, you’re making things at mono-fibre that can go back to the earth, right? Then finally, Recycled items, so, predominantly recycled nylon and polyesters that we use for outerwear and accessories. We always like to explain Remade to begin with, the driving philosophy and aesthetic, which then filters into those other tiers.

Isil: How do you balance being responsible and being commercial at the same time? Because most brands are curious about that, they sometimes think that they must choose one or the other.

Christopher Raeburn: When I first started the company back in 2009, 2010, if you wanted to buy recycled materials, invariably it would be 30 to 50% more expensive than a virgin cloth. Now, you often have parity in pricing and sometimes the recycled materials are more affordable than the virgin materials, right? We’re getting to the point where sometimes there’s no reason not to make the right choice because even if you are just looking at things purely on the financials, the innovation and the technology is caught up to the point that, again, the material’s there, allowing you to do things in the right way.

Isil: You have this amazing studio here and you also opened your first standalone store in 2021 in Carnaby, Soho. How do you see the retail experience within that store impacting your brand and product story?

Christopher Raeburn: When I took on this space here in Hackney… we’re in a building with real history. This is the old Burberry textile building, so, for me, it was really important to be somewhere in a building that had a bit of soul to it. The big windows here are all about transparency as a business because our business isn’t normal and so much of what we do is about craft, creativity, and community.

Then the vast majority of what you see is old either military kind of furniture or things that we found and reused, so again it’s all part of the same philosophy. When we started to think about our own, standalone retail in Marshall Street, Carnaby, we focused a lot on elements that we have here in the RÆBURN Lab as well.

So, everything’s flexible. You can move all the rails. Most things are on wheels. We’ve got screens. You can change everything out. I’d like to think it’s then, you know, an agile space that if you go back say two weeks in a row, it will look different. And I think that’s really important for retail today, you know?

How do you keep people engaged? How do you, you know, constantly make sure you’re able to tell and then retell the story, right?

Isil: You’ve worked with a lot of big retail brands globally over the years. How do you see those brands changing, what is different or what is their perception of all this?

Christopher Raeburn: Over the last 14 years, we’ve probably worked with about 20, really significant global brands, and that’s everyone from Victoria Knox, where I worked as the artistic director for a number of years to more recently Timberland as Global Creative Director, which we have now an ongoing partnership. We’ve then also run up with Moncler, Umbro and even the Victoria and Albert Museum. We’ve been fortunate that they all came to us because of the way that we work and the clarity of our message and the communication. It’s been really encouraging and empowering for us to work with truly global brands because then all of a sudden, you’ve got this opportunity to really make a difference on a global scale. And I’d like to think we’ve seen, you know, elements of the RÆBURN philosophy, back to the three Rs and things, deployed in some pretty big brands that now have started to really change the way that they think and importantly operate. Right? Because that’s where it gets really exciting.

Isil: Yeah, so, established brands, where do you think they should start from?

Christopher Raeburn: For me, the first thing to do is look upstream. You know, what are you making and how are you making it? And as an industry, unfortunately one of the worst things that is being done and a lot of big brands are doing is mixing natural materials and synthetics. You’re making a fantastic garment, you’re wearing that garment, but at the end of its life, you can’t break that garment back down to a fibre level. You can’t extrude those materials in any kind of scale. I would say to big brands, the first thing you should be doing is looking upstream and thinking, can I be making things that are, again, in pillars, so natural materials that in theory can go back to the earth? Synthetics that are recycled and then recyclable. Or do I need to be making anything? Does it already exist? Can I challenge things in different ways? Right. Yeah. At Raeburn, you know, the journey begins when you purchase something from RÆBURN, right? It’s not where it ends for us as a brand.

It’s actually: “Thank you, your journey’s starting now and we are going do everything that we can to make sure you not only enjoy that journey, but it’s going to last for the longest possible time.” We’ll offer you free repairs for life on any RÆBURN garment, we’ll work with you in whatever way to make sure that thing is continuing to be worn.

I think there’s no reason why big brands, small brands, all of us, you know, things are changing, so how can we learn from each other to improve things basically?

Isil: Well, I think I’ve got one last question left. Which is for the upcoming designers, for the upcoming brands that want to make a difference, what is your advice?

Christopher Raeburn: How can we challenge what we’ve been doing and how can we simplify an incredibly overcomplicated fashion industry? What can you do from the very beginning to make sure whatever you are designing, step one, do you even need to make it? How can you make sure that the thing you are making is going to be done in the best way for both planet and people? This is important and ultimately leads to the most reduced impact. The more companies, big and small working together, we’ll then really have this opportunity to change things. We need to work better, we need to work smarter and we need to work more transparently.