In Conversation With Jack Harper

Inside the mind of UK’s next experimental streetwear brand

Jack Harper is a multi-disciplinary artist from Brixton, London. After working with British streetwear pioneer, Dr Samuel Ross, Jack began dedicating his time and energy to his own brand Aeliza, alongside his business partner and best friend, Nosa, who is the brand’s lead strategist. Aeliza is described as “a dialogic study of the autonomous individual”; a mirror into living as a free individual in the society of today. One of STEELO’s devoted fashion writers, Sikandar Frydas, caught up with Aeliza’s founder in his studio ahead of the brand’s next collection.

Sik: You have collaborated with people like Samuel Ross and Virgil. How much have they influenced your work?

Jack Harper: Yeah, massively. I worked on a project with Virgil, so it was a little bit different. But working under Sam for 2 years helped me inform a lot of decision-making and just seeing how to get my things from A to B, which I’m currently in the process of. So, I guess it has made me feel capable of doing it. It also showed me what it took to do it, and that ultimately is my taking. I know how many hours I have to spend each day doing this. I know the steps, and everything so far is going in that trajectory. So, I really look up to how Sam, in particular, taught me to one day do it my own way. He gave me a lot of self-belief, and it was one of the first time where I felt like I was capable of doing something special when I felt ready to do so. But I also felt very special being a part of his project, and I was very proud to be a part of it.

Sik: You have spoken about putting together a runway show that really makes people sit down and think. Do you see yourself doing that anytime soon?

Jack Harper: I wouldn't say soon. We're going to release a collection in April and show a lookbook, but I think we're more in a space where we just want to show it in a real way via social media and maybe do something alongside it. We're doing things between parties and activations that go with the brand experience. So, I think once Nosa and I are happy with where the growth is at and where we're positioned, then we'll feel applicable to do a runway show. But I think as time has gone on, we've realized we're not actually in as much of a rush to do it as we once were because when it comes to doing an installation, a presentation or a runway show, there has to be an output. What do we get in return for it? And I don't think we would get what we want from it as of yet, but that's just due to the size that we are right now. However, we're very patient with it, and that goes without saying. We're extremely happy with where we are right now, and we're just excited for when the time is right for that to happen. If you were to ask me now, I would say in two years' time, but not right now. There's no need to. But hopefully, one day, that will happen.

Sik: I think that doing a runway show, it’s not just about the clothes, it’s about the clothes, the settings, and everything so it’s quite difficult to put together, I think.

Jack Harper: Well, it's quite an interesting one because it predominantly concerns the clothes. Because, well, first off, why do a runway show? And, yeah, you do get people watching it online and live-streaming, and so forth, but the people who are in the front row are mainly buyers. So what you're doing is delivering a brand message to people who want it in their store, and it ultimately creates a fan base. It's a really heightened experience of what your brand is about because it covers a lot of senses. But the thing is, runway shows tend to be very expensive, and people put a lot of marketing budget into them because they want to get into a mass amount of stores. However, when you're smaller, you can't just slap 100 grand on a runway show. Don't get me wrong, you can do something on a super small budget, but I know where my ambition is with that, and I know that ambition comes with expenses, and I need to remind myself to manage that and not go overboard too early, or else the ship will sink. So, yeah, I think they're very important, but I think the importance of a runway show isn't as much as it was prior to COVID, and I think that's been proven. I think installations and experiences are more of a thing right now because it changes the importance of it being about the brand, but it's actually about the people who view the brand. So, you know, Moncler Genius the other week wasn't necessarily a runway show, but thousands and thousands of people came to experience something that was a bit more interactive, and that, without a doubt, had way more success in terms of reach than a runway show would. So I think the next ten years will be about experiences more than runway shows. I think the difference between installation experiences and runway shows is that runway shows are like watching a film, whereas an installation is like actually being a part of the film, and I think that is a lot more of a heightened experience than a runway show.

Sik: You said that you plan to run with Aeliza for the next ten years. Do you plan to keep it going for a long time?

Jack Harper: Yeah, what's the worst-case scenario? We don't sell for a bit and lose money. The idea itself is so sustainable that, if it were to change, it would be at worst a rebrand. However, the concept will maintain itself because, for me, fashion is a facility rather than an endpoint. We cover music, writing, and journalism. We are constantly researching things, but we use fashion to facilitate that research into something practical that people can experience themselves. Aeliza is based on my dissertation at university, and I could have continued writing and maybe published something like a research paper. However, it wouldn’t have the same amount of spread as it would via this route. It's actually interesting because, since we've been doing open days and showing our faces more, people are actually engaged and interested. They start looking at it themselves, and that is fundamentally the power of having something engaging like a fashion project.

Sik: You've got the discord server, the open days, the various Instagram accounts and they provide a lot of transparency and I know in the past you said that that’s because brands didn't have that when you were younger. Would you ever take a step further and invite some of the young creatives that engage with your brand to a studio visit over an extended period of time to see how a collection comes to life?

Jack Harper: you can do that but at the end of the day there's always going to be a restriction cap on how many people can have it so you know the internship is definitely like an entry point to that and the open days, I can give a lot of insight into how things are made, from the sketch to the outcome. I can show you every bit in-between on how to do it. But at the end of the day, whatever information I give you, it’s down to your intuition what to do with it and that I can't teach. We're in a time really where I'm not trying to show people how to do things, I'm showing them why to do it because ‘how’ is very obtainable on Google. Virgil literally made a website showing you how to do it called "Free Game" and it’s absolutely amazing. But I think the next step is why do you do things. My aim is why do you want to do it? why do you want to print a t-shirt? Why has it got that image? Why has it got that message? And don't get me wrong, some people don't care and that’s fine, but I do. What I'm trying to deliver is the importance of reason and meaning through creativity which I think adheres to this idea of responsibility. I feel a lot of responsibility through my practice. I don't see my form of creativity as this urge to express myself, it’s more about giving something that can positively contribute to people's lives and I understand people will be like "ugh ok, how does a t-shirt do that" and I understand the scepticism because no one follows that route but you can really put a lot of message behind a product if you have someone behind it that really fucking cares and we’ve had a lot of positive feedback on the things that we write about, you can’t just judge clothing on the singularity. To judge clothes, you’ve got to judge the image, you’ve got to judge the caption, you’ve got to judge it all as one package rather than one thing and that’s something we heavily concentrate on doing. Like we’re doing a release next week and in the video, there’s two of my mates hugging each other very naturally and it’s more a documentation of real life rather than an imaginary story. Everything I do is very real and there’s no bullshit attached. I mean everything that I say and show. I think that’s what separates us from the others, that I can actually live what I do and so can you. I’m not even trying to build a community, it’s more about building a mindset that you can take to your own community, because the biggest gift we have is that we’re different and that’s something to appreciate and make us closer rather than not connect with each other. That’s the whole point of diversity, it’s amazing but do we truly embrace that? Diversity can go deeper than skin colour and gender, it can be about morals and ethics and belief, and a big part of the studio open days is getting people in the room that don’t even know each other that well and they end up actually getting on and it progresses like that. It’s a really nice thing to see.

Sik: I think it’s definitely becoming more important to have a reason behind what you’re doing, especially in the social media age, where everyone wants to make music and make clothes, so it’s important to have a unique message instead of doing it for the sake of it.

Jack Harper: Yeah, having a message is important, it’s what separates one t-shirt from another. Ultimately, you dig deeper and it will be stuff like reason and ethos that’s integral. We’re still aspiring until we can full-time live off of this, it’s still an aspiring project. A massive take from A-Cold-Wall* when I was there, was there was so much reason behind what they did. Reason built rules and rules allowed them to express themselves in a certain way. Whether that would be using industrial materials to make a shirt to spray-painting puffer coats. Those rules informed the outcome and that is something I massively took from there. That’s a massive trait of graphic design, that it’s your role to communicate a message to a mass audience, that’s what the whole point of advertising is. So I guess instinctively I think of things that way. I have a message but I’ve got to think about how that will be portrayed when I put a product forward.

Sik: As you get bigger, what role do you see Aeliza playing in the broader fashion industry and what impact do you want to leave?

Jack Harper: Something that really touched me was when Virgil passed away, at his show in Miami, they played a voice note of him saying how he wanted people to use their imagination more and that was really inspiring, and I guess if I was in that same position what would I say. I guess I just want people to be asking “why?” more. I want people to have reason attached to what they do because I think that’s the most important thing to have. I think if there’s no reason, I just question why it should exist. Not everyone’s going to like me saying that but that’s just how I think. There’s people that start t-shirt brands and shit and they’re like “it’s about lifestyle and being cool”, real layman’s things like that and I’m like is that what you’re truly putting into the world? And for me the message you’re putting out impacts you the same as you putting out a book. It can build a framework in your life to do things a certain way. I guess I want people to ask why more. I aspire for people to be more accepting of one another, which I think the fashion industry absolutely suffers from, a high sense of judgement. I’ve definitely experienced and experience that to this day to some degree because I’m not like a model. People shouldn’t judge that. People need to embrace that and embrace context, they need to look a little beyond what the eye sees. And so, I aspire to that change. I think we attract a really diverse group of people whether that be physically speaking or mentally speaking. I’m very humbled by the people we attract, who are all ultimately lovely people. I’m really open to others and I think the fashion industry needs to take note of that. When you step out of the creative industry, no one cares about fashion and why is that? It’s because it has this reputation and people like to ignore it, but it’s not a club. It shouldn’t be a club. It’s something that should exist every day for the regular person as well as the creative person.

Sik: How do you ensure your focus on vision and ethos is reflected in the garments, the installation and the DNA of Aeliza and how do you get this through to the consumer and stop them from seeing it as just another brand?

Jack Harper: At the end of the day, there’s multiple entry points. For example, I asked you how you found out about us and you said through Instagram. You might’ve just liked it because of what the designs looked like and that’s a good entry point but there’s multiple entry points. People follow us because they like our stuff but others follow us because they like our message. They all at the end of the day work with one another and I can’t force people to follow it for the reason I intend them to. But what I do is I try to cover as much ground as possible so I make sure what I write makes it into captions and product descriptions and the way I shoot things is done a certain way to portray a message that matches the brand ethos to then having things like @aeliza.truth and having the open days. All these things touch base on how I can get people to experience the brand but it’s impossible to cram everything into one product. You have to experience it as a whole, as a package to make the most out of it but I can’t force people to do it. I’m always going to have my critics in the same way Virgil did even to the moment before he died. I’m a football fan and you still get Lionel Messi getting criticised even though he’s the best footballer that’s ever lived. You’ll never be able to escape the sceptics, that’s just how it goes.

Sik: Do you have any advice for young people just starting their creative journey?

Jack Harper: I think it’s important to be continually curious, so don’t say no to things too quickly and don’t have an opinion on things. Just be open to it and be the judge of it afterwards. So don’t say you don’t like shooting for example, shoot first and then tell me after that you don’t like it. With creativity, some things you have to learn to love over time. I can tell you that there’s certain things about this that I didn’t love at first but I had to learn to love it and that’s just being persistent and having discipline. Have a great sense of discipline and pursue creativity, not just when you’re in the mood to do it but no matter how you feel, it’s crazy how creativity can reflect your mood and that’s pretty important. So, don’t just pursue creativity when you’re happy, pursue creativity when you’re sad. You can get work that really reflects who you are, and for me at least, the clothes that I make really reflect the questions that I ask right now. I think the main point of that is to be curious and disciplined.

Sik: Where do you see Aeliza in 5 to 10 years and what will we see next?

Jack Harper: Jokes. I love this question. I don’t really think about it in ten years’ time. I would love Aeliza to be in a lot of stores globally, I have stores that I would particularly like. I think I would love Aeliza to be experienced globally. Even though I’m born in London, the brand isn’t for just a Londoner, it’s for everyone. Aeliza’s message isn’t specific to the boundaries of this country, it’s very boundary-less and so I want it to spread so Aeliza can be personified in Japan, China, South Africa, America, in Brazil. It’s crazy how the appropriation of the brand changes when you’re in a different space and I’m really fascinated for that to happen and I guess through the medium of installations, hopefully, a runway show, parties, meet-ups, that’s where I really want it to be. I guess at that point, we’ll probably have a book or a thesis that really has an impact and gets people to think a bit more. No pun, but hence the message on our tops.

You can find Aeliza´s collections here.