Greg Rosborough got philosophical during the height of the pandemic as he was forced to shutter his men’s brand, Abasi Rosborough, and was pondering his future path.
Things had been looking bright in 2019 as Rosborough and his partner, Abdul Abasi, embraced computer-generated 3D imaging to create their collection and sell it to customers, cutting down on the excess manufacturing costs of producing a line that might not sell.
“We were going full-steam ahead, but the pandemic was like a brick wall to our business,” he said. Closed factories meant orders they received couldn’t be produced, fabrics were hard to get and bills weren’t being paid. So they made the tough call to shut the brand.
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Abasi, whose wife had just had a baby, needed a steady paycheck and joined Nike as a design director, bringing his 3D experience to the sports giant. Rosborough wasn’t ready to take a corporate job and started reading ancient Roman philosophy to lift his spirits and gain some life insights.
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That led him to Nikhil Khosla, who had been vice president of strategy at Ralph Lauren for three-and-a-half years and was also looking for his next chapter.
“He had an idea that synced with what I was thinking,” Rosborough said.
The result is Seneca, a men’s brand whose name derives from the ancient Roman philosopher and which aims to offer a fresh take on hybrid dressing. “Our hypothesis is that business casual is dead,” Rosborough said. “Athleisure was a trend for 10 years, but is not work appropriate for the post-pandemic professional. The new world is completely hybrid and men want elements from sportswear and athleisure that they can wear anywhere.”
Seneca seeks to fill that niche with a tight launch collection of five essential designs — or “archetypes of men’s wear,” he said — a hybrid blazer, two shirts, a half-zip sweater and a pair of pants. The collection will launch later this week on its own e-commerce site and it has also been picked up by Nordstrom for spring, he said.
The line is being manufactured in New York using high-end fabrics from Italy and Portugal and will retail from $160 for a shirt to $340 for the blazer. Its ethos is: “Rooted in philosophy for the mind and responsible, conscious design for the body,” according to its website.
Khosla, who serves as chief executive officer, said before joining Ralph Lauren, he had consulted with other direct-to-consumer brands such as Warby Parker “and I always wanted to jump into that space. When the pandemic hit, it presented the opportunity to take the leap.”
They tested the product in the spring, which also helped raise private funding for the launch, Khosla said. If it connects with consumers, Seneca will expand into other products in the future, they said.