Brixton Launches 1st Women’s Apparel Line: We Speak With Lead Designer & UK Marketing Director

For anyone following the progress of action sports lifestyle apparel brand Brixton over recent years, the news that they were launching a women’s line came as no real surprise and as music to the ears of their cult-like female following. Tasked with leading their women’s design division is Eunjoo Kim who previously designed for brands including DC, Sole Technology, and most recently Vans. Historically women have worn Brixton, via “boyfriend fit”, but Eunjoo explains just how they’re introducing feminine counterparts to their men’s collection and tells us just how she’s laid the foundations for the first ever Brixton Woman’s apparel collection.

Lyndsay McLaren is Marketing Director for the brand’s UK-based Out Of Step agency and we spoke to Lyndsey (formerly of Canoe and UltraSport) about their approach to the European market and how they’re launching the women’s line through key retailers with a string of activations.

Lyndsay McLaren and Eunjoo Kim

Please talk us through your background and what led you to designing the debut women’s collection for Brixton.
Eunjoo Kim: Most of my career has been in the action sports industry at companies like DC, Sole Technology, and most recently Vans. I had left Vans, and when I heard about the opportunity to design for Brixton Women’s new apparel line, I jumped at it. Thankfully, they wanted me too. All of the lessons I’ve learned led me designing this debut line for such an amazing brand that I see so much potential in!

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How much free license have you had to create designs?
EK: Designing for a brand is very different than designing for yourself. Brixton has its own DNA, brand heritage, and aesthetic that has been built over the years. I am excited to be able to lay the foundation for women’s apparel, but I am designing for the Brixton Woman. The Brixton Woman is someone that I identify with, and one we believe consumers will too. So creating designs has been really fun, and so many are styles I would want to wear myself.

Ladies have been wearing Brixton via the classic boyfriend-steal for years, how are you working with fits to ensure they’re different from the men’s while still being attractive to those women?
EK: We have a range of fits within the women’s line, but our relaxed “boyfriend fits” have feminine updates to their men’s counterparts. Our Vintage Hood, for example, fits like a slouchy men’s fleece on the body, but the sleeves and body length are shorter to more tastefully fit a woman’s frame. Another examples is the Astoria Flannel, which is the woman’s version of one of our all-time, best-selling men’s pieces, the Bowery Flannel. They share fabrics and pocket designs, but our women’s version has a straight hem, boxy body and drop shoulder, which, again, just creates a more women’s-focused fit.

FA19 Christina Overall

Could you give us a brief overview of the collection.
EK: Our AW19 collection features a mix of style staples like our Victory Chino Pant, Vintage Fleece, and Christina Overall, combined with a few statement pieces like the bold-striped Madero sweater, and plaid Merry Blazer. The Women’s aesthetic aligns with Men’s in so far as it’s vintage-inspired, clean, classic, but with modern feminine touches. We’ve always described our inspiration for Brixton Women’s as “Stolen from the Boys” – our first apparel collection starts with that notion as our foundation.

Which stories are you using to tell the Brixton Women’s story?
Lyndsey: For AW19 we launched our new ‘Done Proper’ campaign, which is all about celebrating creativity and individuality through personal style. We’ll bring ‘Done Proper’ to life through Threads, a video series featuring six unique, highly creative people who also happen to exhibit amazing style from around the world. The series, which launched this week, explores the past, present, and future of each person’s creative journey, getting to the core of why they show up the way they do through their stylistic sensibilities. At a global level we’ve partnered with photographer and model Nuria Val from Barcelona – Nuria has incredible style and is a really inspiring woman who we love working with and has been a great partner of Brixton’s for some time. At a local level, we’re working with other creatives in key regions across Europe.

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How have you activated the launch?
LM: We’ve hosted events with key retail partners around the globe – in the States we held launch events in Los Angeles and Chicago and later this month we’ll launch a Brixton Women’s pop-up shop in Tokyo as well. To launch the collection in the UK, we partnered with Surfdome to host an intimate brunch at our showroom in London with key influencers. Guests were treated to a special brunch, followed by a one-to-one walk through of the current and upcoming collections. The event also allowed us the chance to share the story and history of Brixton and delve into our new brand campaign, asking guests to tell us what ‘Done Proper’ meant to them. We loved how intimate and conversational this event was and it was great to see the buzz on social that came as a result.

How are you working with other retail partners to promote Brixton in the region?
LM: For AW19, we’re working with retailers to install some amazing new windows and in-store displays, which help tell the ‘Done Proper’ story and champion our ambassadors. We’ve also created a gifting suite around Women’s apparel. We have a few additional events planned for the season, inviting locals to come and enjoy ‘Beers with Brixton’ in key retailers. Finally, while order books for SP20 and SU20 are still open, we continue to put plans in place to support our retailers with elevated activations to bring the story to life in an even bigger way next year – very exciting times for Brixton!

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How has the brand’s DNA evolved over recent collections leading towards this launch?
LM: Women’s headwear and accessories have been a strong part of Brixton collections for a number of years now. That’s helped lay a great foundation for us as we considered a women’s apparel line. Based on the success of headwear and accessories with women, we knew there was a clear opportunity to connect with women in a very unique way for us, and so apparel became an opportunity for deeper connection with women who were already buying and loving Brixton.