Isn't it amazing what can come from being annoyed.
When I was 16 years old, I was encouraged by my brother to take more care of my appearance. To keep myself clean and to have a wardrobe that I can pull anything out of and it will look great. 0 stress, 0 decision making. Fast forward to being 20, I now had a wardrobe, but it was expensive and I had a very minor but irritating issue. All I really needed was a good, affordable long sleeved t-shirt in black and/or white. Yet, no matter where I looked, the issue was always the same. High-fashion, fast-fasion, there was no solution.
Long seeved t-shirts that don't have nearly long enough sleeves.
So, in February 2023 at 27 years old, I threaded my mothers old sewing machine and started to figure this out.
Day 0. My mothers machine and the first stitches.
I have always loved long sleeved tshirts. They are versatile, comfortable and they hide my arms. Since I was 20, I told myself I was going to fix one major issue with them. Sleeves that are just nowhere near long enough. It took me until I was 27 to actually try. I taught myself everything and made my first long sleeved tshirt with excessively long sleeves.
Since then, I have been designing and creating simple items of clothing that are exactly how I want them. Just t-shirts, hoodies, jumpers, jeans and joggers.
I never want to overcomplicate what I make. I hate excess faff or unneccesary steps. If it makes your life harder, then what is the point?
My first ever creation on the left, and my messy kitchen week 3.
I taught myself everything. YouTube and mistakes were my best friends at this point, but more than anything I just wanted to perfect this long sleeve t-shirt. Creat a pattern that was easy to make but also easy to wear. After the third version, I moved onto my next ideas and tests. Hoodies, sweatshirt materials, linens, zips, even magnets.
My first hoodie and the first present I made.
After about 9-10 months, I realised I needed something more specialist. All I really wanted to make were oversized clothes out of very comfortable fabrics. I needed something stronger. I needed a serger.
Me and my serger, and the first white t-shirt I made.
More and more test. You know, if you're actually reading all of this, I might as well say. At the time, I never realised I would look back at my life at this stage so fondly. It was all so new, everything was a mess but I was slowly making all my own things. No one else I knew could do this, and I have always wanted to create my own world for something like this. Finally, I was making progress. However I look back on this time so fondly because it was so carefree. Nevertheless. Onto the next chapter.
Jeans.
My first ever pair of baggy jeans.
July 31st, 2023. After two weeks of creating the pattern from scratch and cutting and sewing, I had made my own custom baggy jeans. It was at this point I knew I could do it. I could create clothes that solved so many problems for so many people, even if those problems are so small. It was incredibly hard work but over the next year and a half, I slowly created more and more pieces. I tried to photograph the most important parts on my phone, but then one day I decided to film myself making something. The fifth pair of jeans.
I started to document this journey.
One of the key parts of this whole process that intimidated me more than anything, and still does, is the actual process of physically creating an item of clothing. The pattern measuring, drawing, cutting, fabric choice, fabric cutting, sewing and finishing. It was a world that was so alien to me, I always saw clothes as there magical things created in some far off land by people more talented than I could ever be, but with each piece I made, it felt less and less complicated and clothes started to feel a lot more personal. I wanted to share this feeling with the world, to people who have no idea how one person can make even something as simple as a t-shirt. I wanted to open the eyes of my past-self.
Filming myself made me want to start using my camera again.
At one point, I was drastically running out of storage space on my iPhone 12. In order to try and save some of it, I quite literally blew the dust off my DSLR and used this as a chance to not only document what I was doing and why I was doing it, but also start to make little films again. It was also a great excuse to use my Instagram and TikTok account that I had avoided for 3 years. Finally, I had a reason to share my work, my music and my goals with a genuine world behind it. It all seemed to link together quite nicely. It was at this point I realised, I really need to create a world for these clothes.
He's more than a logo, and he needs a world to live in.
It must have taken me over a year to come up with a logo for this. I started with trying to come up with a name and typography for that name, but nothing worked. I realised no matter what name or font I used, it had no character. I knew I did not want it to be typography. I wanted there to be one character. A cool guy, cute but clean, something to immediately show you what this world is all about. After weeks of thinking and sketching, out came this guy. Then, many months later, it was time to try and make a website. I wanted it to all be a very personal expeirnce, "DM to order" sort of thing, but that ended up being a logisitcal nightmare very quickly. Before pursuing this, I had created a smaller test brand called FailSafe, and used Shopify to build the store. Turns out, Shopify is actually quite powerful. Inspired by old video game websites, menus from older PC games and Y2K inline skating VHS's, here we are. If you're actually reading all of this, and you want to see more of the sketchbooks, message me @rory.hq and I'll do something about it!
The next chapter is here.
If you look at @toebex and have a scroll, you can find quite a few videos of all of the different pieces of clothing I have documented making. All of this has been documented and I have thousands of pictures of the entire journey. I am glad you have joined me on this ride and I am excited to see where this takes us all. Even if I only sell one or two t-shirts, that will have been more than enough for me. For now, this is an entirely hand-made project, but who knows were it might lead?
I hope the simplicity of my clothes genuinely improve your life and you feel part of something straight from me.
