Introducing Xander Smit and Julian Golden, two McGill students taking entrepreunship to the next level with their clothing line I·n·t·r·s·t, which can be seen as the embodiment of the Montreal street fashion scene. Read on to find out more about their amazing work and upcoming projects.
Kapinga Kalombo for Her Campus McGill (HC McGill): Could you guys tell us what I·n·t·r·s·t is?
Julian (JG) and Xander (XS): I·n·t·r·s·t is a Montreal based clothing brand that is inspired by the lifestyles and cultures of urban city life and streetwear fashion. Blending simple modern day aesthetics with contemporary streetwear, i·n·t·r·s·t works to create everyday essential pieces, perfect for anyone and any occasion.
HC McGill: How did you guys come up with the idea?
JG: I’ve been really into streetwear fashion and skate culture for a long time. When I was 14 I started a skate brand and since then I’ve been really into graphic design and clothing design but to be honest, i·n·t·r·s·t wasn’t really started because of that. Sure it helped the process once we decided to give it a go but the idea was actually just something we thought of in class one day, creating cool contemporary clothes for people with our faces on it (laughs).
XS: Since coming to Montreal I’ve gotten a lot more into fashion. Just walking around you see so many different styles and niches. I’ve definitely gotten on the bandwangon and began developing my own style. When I was younger I was also really into skating, but because I grew up in Singapore where it’s so hot, the less clothes I wore the better! So Montreal is when I was really able to wear many of the styles I always wanted to when I was younger. The idea of i·n·t·r·s·t was formed when Julian and I were bored in class and started throwing ideas at each other about a simple yet stylish brand that neither of us really felt was done to our liking by other brands.
HC McGill: Where do you get the inspiration for the pieces?
JG: Living in the city is the ultimate inspiration. The blend of cultures and fashion styles that we see in the city of Montreal are a great inspiration for us. That and my hours of Instagram surfing on major skate and streetwear pages.
XS: I take a lot of inspiration from the idea of ‘simplicity is bliss’. I feel like wearing very loud clothing can be overwhelming and take away from your personal style. So we have tried to make eye catching design with our use of colour but still incorporate what makes us us, that is the faces logo and the word i·n·t·r·s·t itself.
HC McGill: Do each of you guys have distinct functions in your business or is it more teamwork?
XS & JG: It’s definitely a teamwork project but since I [Julian] am in Edinburgh on exchange I’ve been handling a lot more of the social media and design side while Xander works more directly with sales, inventory, production etc. That being said, nothing gets done without both of us working together on it.
HC McGill: What are your favourite pieces of the brand?
JG: I love our new long sleeve shirts! This one is something I designed inspired by a Thrasher Magazine x HUF Skateboards shirt that I own and I’m so stoked to have our own take on it. I love the colours we use. They really pop on both the white and black shirts.
XS: I love our hats. I was never a hat guy until we made them (laughs). The way the dad hat fits just makes me never what to take it off. But also the fact that it has both our logos on it makes it special because it’s almost a different style of hat when you see it from the front and the back.
HC McGill: What are some of the tools helping you grow your brand?
JG: I’d say networking is huge for us at the early stage. Just getting our product out to as many people as we can will help us grow. We have started seeding product to some artists and musicians in Toronto and Montreal to help us expand and get some exposure.
XS: There are a lot of resources offered by McGill that help startups like ours. These are so valuable because there are a lot of talented and experienced people providing mentorship to us and without them I think we wouldn’t have been as successful.
HC McGill: How receptive has the MTL/ McGill community has been to i·n·t·r·s·t?
JG & XS: The MTL/McGill community has been amazing! They’ve really gotten into the product and the idea of the brand which is so great to see. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to keep doing this and growing so thank you MTL/McGill!
HC McGill: What are some of the challenges that come with starting your own business?
JG: The level of competition is definitely pretty high because there are so many people that are creative and want to start brands. It’s super important to differentiate yourself as a brand to be successful and so we work every day to to so. Balancing the brand work with school can also be tricky sometimes. I’m currently supposed to be working on an economics report…
XS: Organizing the production and supply can be challenging because there [is] a lot of coordination and constant communication involved. Sometimes school can get in the way with that, especially during midterms.
HC McGill: What is the crazy objective you would like to achieve?
JG: I want to see some big name skaters or hip-hop artists wearing our stuff. Imagine seeing someone like Travis Scott wearing our long sleeve shirt or cap! That’d be crazy to me but who knows, all it takes is a bit of co-signing and anything is possible.
XS: I would love to walk into a streetwear store and see our products on the shelf. I think that’s when I will really be happy with our progress. But it’s also really exciting to walk around campus and see people wearing our stuff, especially because everyone wears it differently.
HC McGill: Do you plan on making a career in fashion?
JG: To be honest, something along those lines has always been in the back of my mind but I don’t necessarily see myself as a designer. I’m more into the branding and marketing side. That’s what I really like and what I love working on with i·n·t·r·s·t.
XS: Before starting i·n·t·r·s·t I never considered going into fashion, but now that we’ve got some momentum I think I would consider it. I look at brands like Frank and Oak and see the scale they are at and get excited, I think if we really took off I would maybe stay with it after graduating.
HC McGill: Any upcoming plans/projects?
JG & XS: We’ve got the McGill Synesthasia Fashion Show coming up on March 24th which will be really cool! After that, we are gonna work on a small capsule collection for the summer and try to look into getting involved in retail. Really though, we are just going day-by-day and seeing what we can do to really help the brand blow up.
Get you some i·n·t·r·s·t swag (or check out me rocking those pieces) on the website and don’t forget to follow the i·n·t·r·s·t facebook and Instagram pages for more updates.
Images provided by interviewees.