The Bite Magazine - Autumn/Winter 2022 - Issue 32

Jada Brookes is introduced to sustainable menswear L’Es- trange London whose ethos is simplifying men’s wardrobes with intelligent styles. bitemen L ’estrange is an old French word meaning ‘stranger’ for someone new in the village or parish, and William Green's middle name given to the menswear brand he and Tom Horne founded in 2013 after meeting at the University of Edinburgh. “We al- ways used to chat about starting a fashion brand,” Tom told Musotrees. “I grew up in that world - my mum was a buyer at Har- rods and worked for a brand called Marga- ret Howell for years. We used to chat about how the fashion system was broken, and we’d do it better.” Tom and Will were inspired to simplify men’s wardrobes with cohesive colours and trendy styles by producing apparel ‘with less do more’ aesthetics rooted in versa- tility. Its first effort was the ‘Hood’, a tai- lored take on the hoodie quickly stocked in stores like Colette in Paris, Saks Fifth Ave- nue in New York and Isetan in Japan. “The Hood opened the doorway to us asking [the questions] why the rest of the ward- robe didn’t function as easily [and] why couldn’t we have a range of clothes com- fy enough to be the first you’d choose for a coffee with friends, but also would look great at a nice restaurant?” He further explained, “Every item in the wardrobe is built for convenience and simplicity. As well as being versatile, every item is machine-washable, and the colours and styles work together without think- ing. We design for longevity rather than fashion trends. We’re direct-to-consum- er so that we can offer Italian fabrics and manufacturing at high street prices.” He described the ‘with-less-do-more’ concept as striping “away the noise and things that don’t matter in your life, to create more space for what we value.” The first step they identified is to become aware of the decisions we’re unwittingly making every day, such as the things we do, the people we see and the things we buy. “We see it as an evolution of minimal- ism. For us, ‘doing more’ is as important as ‘with less’ because stripping away allows you to throw yourself into things you love, are passionate about or make you a better person. You can strip back everything, but your life would be dull!"