How was your trip to LA what did you get up to? Yeah great. A bunch of fittings. Went to a great summit in Utah which was basically a whole bunch of really inspiring people away for the weekend. Went to to Miami for a music conference and DJ’d as one half of Yolanda Be Cool while one of them had his baby. That was a lot of fun. Then just had time in my own head to do some designing. Went for lots of hikes. Spent time in the outdoors. It was nice.
What for you was the impetus for starting DAAN and going back to fashion? I was working consulting on couple of brands last year and then I was working on my own stuff. And just before Christmas General Pants approached me and asked if I wanted to start if off with them. Most of the year I had time off to work on it and at the last minute it all came together when General Pants asked if I wanted to do it with them. We had a great relationship with them when at Ksubi and they’re got an unreal time and they’re a great brand to work with.
What did you learn from Ksubi? A lot. I went into Ksubi without ever really having a job. So I learned everything I’ve ever learned in there.
Was it hard to walk away from something you had built from the ground up? Not so much. Like, I just left my day-to-day office job. I haven’t left the company or on any bad terms. I just had been there for thirteen years and we had a really good team of young kids that were designing and I wasn’t so involved in that anymore. That was always what I loved doing so I thought I should just go back to what I enjoy doing and let these young guys run that and start on something else. I’ve never done anything on my own either. I think it was time to be and do things by myself. That was part of the reason as well.
Where was the starting point? It’s a tongue in cheek poke at fashion. So a lot of it comes from luxury labels made with a tongue in cheek twist. A high fashion streetwear hybrid, not much denim. Pretty colourful. Lots of prints. Mix and match fabrics. The inspiration really comes from everywhere. It’s not so much one cohesive collection. It’s little looks and outfits which can go with anything. All together it looks jumbled but they’re all pieces which stand up in their own right.
Like statement pieces. Yeah. A bunch of statement pieces. Onesies, silk bombers, silk pants, sequin shorts, sequin shirts. They’re all kind of connected but not.
So Bang Gang are reuniting on Friday night? So excited. So
excited. I was in LA this week for a bunch of meetings I couldn’t get
out of but I wish I had came back sooner so I could get excited on home
ground. But we’ve been sending emails back and forth and booked flights
and accommodation for our Melbourne show so now it’s just a battle of
tunes, delving back into some old favourites and sharing a few beers
between us.
You were obviously all good mates with Adrian. Who put forward the idea of doing a reunion night? We
talked about it almost immediately. After Adrian’s funeral everyone was
together and it was just a natural thing that came up. It was almost
like everybody said it the same time. We looked into each others’ eyes
and knew that we had to do something together to celebrate his life. It
took no convincing from anyone.
The other big thing in your life is you’re getting married. How’s that going?
I’ve found the perfect girl for me. We’re very suited to each, we love
each other, we’ve had a great life together, we’ve been talking about it
for a while and I thought ‘why not?’. Couldn’t imagine doing it with
someone else and it’s just great to celebrate us being in love and
spending the rest of our lives together.
How did you propose?
Well, long story (laughs). On a beach in Thailand, the spot where we
swam when we were first together years ago. We had a romance in
Thailand. And we met this kid on the beach who was running things, being
our little drinks boy on the beach. And he had written in our travel
journal all these cute little love notes about being married and things.
You know, it was just cute and funny back in the day. It was awesome.
We talk about that kid all the time. Anyway, I tracked this kid down. It
took me the last half of the year but I found him, and he helped me out
with the secret and asking her on the beach.
DAAN’s pre-collection will be available in stores from Monday 15th April and retails from $59.95 to $129.95. The full collection will be available in July.
