Musicians launching fashion brands is nothing new—Beyoncé, Gwen Stefani, J. Lo and Hilary Duff all dabble in design. But in London, fashion scenesters are turning the trend on its head, nurturing music labels under their fashion umbrellas.
By weaving the two worlds together, musicians get exposure to fashion’s tastemakers, and the apparel brands can tap into the underground, word-of-mouth exposure that musicians generate through live performances and the Web.
“It’s a very English approach—people have to sniff around to find out that the fashion and music label are connected,” says Rupert Meaker of Buddhist Punk, the ready-to-wear brand that quietly launched its own record label last year.
Fellow rtw label PPQ entered the music business in similarly low-key style. “It was never a conscious decision to start the music label, more of a natural progression,” says Percy Parker, who is half of the design team behind PPQ and directs the brand’s record label, 1234. “PPQ started out as a collective of people operating in music and art and experimenting in fashion.”
Buddhist Punk’s music venture came about when Tracey Bennet and Alfe Hollingsworth sold their London Records label, a division of Warner. They reopened under the fashion brand last year, after meeting Buddhist Punk founder Nick Morely in Bali. (Morely has since left the company.) “We were looking at what we, as an established name, could add to a new business that had no brand,” Meaker says.
This article will appear in WWD’s Music Issue, found in tomorrow’s WWD.