Successfully getting a new clothing label off the ground takes a lot of work. Over the past few months we’ve been helping Franck, creator of Courant get his range of t-shirts screen printed. We thought the designs were really original so decided to find out a little more about them and how he plans to progress his brand.
For anyone that hasn’t heard of you, can you tell us who Courant is?
Courant is a clothing label with a sub-cultural approach, designed and manufactured where possible in London. My style takes inspiration from vintage fabrics, music decades, pop art and underground creative scenes. I would describe Courant as a retro-cool-futuristic modernism. Forget the hype: be active, dress, go out and dig stuff, be cool to people!
And how did you come up with the name?
I had a few names in mind, originally it was Ebb and Flow but I quickly found out it’s been used quite a lot. My friend Tom Shaw from Plastic Crayons helped me out by drawing the different logos I had in mind. Then I went back to art, music and literature and came across “Courant” which is French for current/genre/stream.
Did you collaborate with anyone on your collection?
Even if it’s been very DIY a few top people contributed to making this happen. Finding manufacturers for super good quality T-shirts with embroidery was difficult, so thank you 3rd Rail. Lucy working there was very helpful.
As a massive music fan I enjoy record artwork and came across Ben Montero Sketchbook. Ben has worked with cool bands that I like from Pond, Ariel Pink, Connan Mokasin and Mac De Marco so he was commissioned to represent “The Courant Vision”.
With regards to the jacket everything has come together thanks to Renee Lacroix who is a pattern cutter/designer, she helped make this jacket real and with an amazing fit! Elva Rodriguez helped with shooting the products for my web store and I ended up doing a short story photoshoot of the capsule collection myself at friend’s restaurant called Klub Trop in Clapton starring a good pal, Thomas from The Parachute Collective. It’s an amazing and inspiring place with ace cocktails and food too.
Who would you like to collaborate with in the future?
I would like to collaborate with Renee again, she seems to get all the design ideas. I love the work of this Californian artist called Robbie Simon, you should check him out. Or possibly reconnect with Ben and see if we can design a new collection at some point.
The heart shaped sunglasses feature heavily in your designs, can you tell us where they came from?
These sunglasses are part of the landscape/fresco created with the dog character that is part of the embroidered badge t-shirts. I think it’s a lovely fashionable symbol reminiscent of Dali’s melted watches and clocks.
Who would you most like to see wearing your clothes?
I’d like to see anyone wearing it really. People in music, sports, actors, retired people! Haha – I really aim to invite anyone to have a look at the range, get a t-shirt and see how lovely and high-quality the make is – especially the all-over print and the denim jacket.
What’s next for Courant?
Well my company is registered in the UK now! I never believed a French guy from Bordeaux born by the vineyards would ever do it.
I really want to create Cuban/Hawaiian shirts with cool patterns for the summer. I have an idea for a souvenir jacket and battle dress jacket and want to do some shoes too. Also making the t-shirts in full embroidery like the high end designers would be nice! A longer term project would be to open Courant as an independent market place.
It’s never too late to be what you might have been so let’s carry on! Onward!
