When did you begin working together, and what did that first iteration look like?
Etienne Deroeux: We worked in similar environments with similar people, always supporting each other. But the real first project was Skepta’s brand.
Alex Sossah: We’d cross paths, exchange contacts, but just as friends. 10 years ago, I moved to London and started Metallic, a creative agency rooted in music and culture. We were managing Skepta. He had in his mind for a long time to launch a brand, but obviously, there’s a gap between having ideas and taste and translating your vision into product. That was kind of the inception of what SuperSolid is about: there is incredible talent from different realms that have an opinion, taste, are able to create a world – which is 50% of a brand, storytelling – but there is a big gap when it comes to creating garments. We were working with Nike. The first time Skepta had to engage with a design team, we wanted a designer on his side when he was communicating with the team. We brought Etienne on, and it gave us the foundation to understand something was missing in the market.
From there, when did SuperSolid become official or a more formal idea?
ED: It was this recurring demand to build brands and products at different scale. Covid hit, and that gave us time to really step back. We were like, ‘okay, there is demand, something happening – how do we actually think about this?’. Right after that there was an influx of projects demanding a structure.
AS: I was working with Mowalola on the management side. She had just finished her contract with Ye, everything from her brand had stopped, and she was ready to go again. She was like, ’I have the studio, the creative team, but I need an additional layer – product development, a structure when it comes to merchandising’. So we went for it, and at the same time Kid Cudi came to us via a friend with a 10-page mood board. Again, it was like, ‘We know your aesthetic, but turning that into an actual collection is something else’. So we started with our gut feeling and really cool projects, step by step.
“If we were just doing it for the money, it would be very different. Would we even work in fashion?”
Metallic Inc. and Etienne’s company Forma, both share a certain sensibility with SuperSolid, as platforms providing support and community. What do you think draws each of you to sharing and ultimately helping people? How does this inform what you do with SuperSolid?
ED: I started Forma as a design platform and creative playground, but I also have a practice as a freelance designer that I wanted to scale and use in better ways. There’s a virtuous way of doing things that’s rare sometimes in our industry, but we’ve proven to ourselves and others that, actually, helping each other is beneficial. We’re obviously a for-profit company, but a big part of our decision-making is, ‘how do we take projects that make us better, more intelligent, discover other things and do good’. Looking at our clients, we have institutions but also up-and-coming brands – there’s always a balance we try to find in our lives at large, then automatically as SuperSolid.
AS: It’s our natural modus operandi. We started in the industry to feel a part of something – I learned by interning, meeting people, collaborating. Working for fashion media, it was all about collaborating with photographers and young designers – hanging out with friends and creating cool imagery, telling their story. That’s what’s exciting to me, to co-create, push each other and bring some kind of dream into the world. If we were just doing it for the money, it would be very different. Would we even work in fashion?
SuperSolid is billed as ‘where design, production & commerce combine.’ With this in mind, can you speak on common misconceptions in relation to would-be clients?
ED: There’s a big, more theoretical misconception, but fashion is not art. It’s applied art, it has to include itself in an industry, and an industry manufactures and sells products. People come into this business – and it comes from different things – brand building as an art project. That’s where we try to exist and say, ‘Yes, artistic input is important, but there’s a whole layer of business and industrial perspective that needs to be central’. That’s where we intervene most, making sure there’s a point of view on merchandising, product, etc. We’re like translators. There’s lots of different people in this industry – CEOs don’t necessarily understand their production people, production people don’t necessarily understand the designers. We’re able to create tools for whatever the translation has to look like.
AS: People come to us because they’re really strong in a specific field, but when it comes to sustaining that, it’s important to have the right people to simplify it. It doesn’t mean it’s easy, but it’s streamlined.
ED: Also agility, and that works both ways. Some clients are multi-million dollar companies and not agile anymore, so come to us because we can offer that. Then, for young companies, they could be agile but they don’t have experience – we can offer shortcuts.
How does a company’s size inform your approach?
AS: We have a very bespoke approach because people have very different challenges. Some brands have the marketing and money, but the design team is still far from what’s happening, so they come to us because we’re closer to the culture. Then merging talents have that energy that’s really raw – so many ideas, but this needs to be organised. We did one of those WhatsApp chats with different creatives for 1 Granary’s Tencel Club, and questions were like, ‘How do I make my show?’. There’s so much more you can do, maybe you don’t need a show, maybe focus on one category?
ED: You’re in an industry that is about individuality at the end of the day. So we must approach it as everyone being different, having their unique point of view. Otherwise, it wouldn’t work. We see it on many levels in fashion; as soon as you try to create a formula…
AS: You have no longevity, it becomes outdated.
“When you do something that’s so bespoke, the biggest obstacle is people understanding what we do, how we work, and that with business, it’s not an easy game.”
What are the biggest obstacles you’ve had to navigate so far as SuperSolid?
ED: Brexit.
AS: That’s specific, but generally when you do something that’s so bespoke, the biggest obstacle is people understanding what we do, how we work, and that with business, it’s not an easy game. It’s not necessarily cheap either, when you do things at a certain level. We’ve been lucky to work with great entities and creatives so far, but each time there is a challenge for people to grasp the intricacies of all the services we can provide.
ED: Trying to stand our ground and not turn into a production agent or a sampling room. We can do that, but we do a lot around it. [As a] ghost entity, our aim is to empower a lot of different aspects but also keep silent. That’s a challenge, but it’s very precious.
