St. Petersburg brand E404: Training, T-shirts and Hoodie with inscriptions
IN RUBRIC "NEW MARK" we present young designers and tell them where and why to buy their things. Our release this week is dedicated to the Russian brand E404. Its founders, Artyom Bryukhov and Ksenia Cheremnova, are part of a new generation of designers who know exactly what their peers want.
If two years ago the phrase "he is just a good stylist" sounded like an insult to the designer, now, in the era of social networks, everything is exactly the opposite: the ability to stylize is a huge plus. The history of the brand, sewing and academic drawing skills, whatever adherents of the “old school” may say, fade into the background. With such a balance of power among self-taught people who are confident in their taste and vision, there are as many chances for success as graduates of specialized institutions.
Winning the race, those who will be able to recognize the request of the audience even before it has formulated this request. Namely - the younger generation of experimenters, such as the founders of the St. Petersburg brand E404. Artyom Bryukhov and Ksenia Cheremnova do very fashionable things in a sport-like style, with vivid illustrations and inscriptions in Cyrillic. It is noteworthy that foreign publications were the first to write about the E404, who, after the overwhelming success of Gosha Rubchinsky, are closely following the young talents from the post-Soviet bloc.
Unlike most Russian designers in this category, the creators of the brand Artem and Xenia do not have education in the field of design, but they don’t need it: the guys work with third-party full-cycle production, which provides test samples, and buys fabrics, and prints . Artyom was born in Ufa, where he received, in his words, "a very stereotyped economic education at a state university," and Ksenia in Novosibirsk, where she studied for an architect and became interested in drawing. The guys admit that the Lambada Market was the first impetus to create a brand for them: “We collected a lot of last money and started to invent a concept and search for production at a frantic pace. We did the project very quickly - we knew that we can recoup the investment, and did not think about the future. But then everything began to turn. "
The guys note that pricing is an important part of competent business management, even though it is not cheap to sew in Russia. Things are in the middle price segment: a T-shirt costs around 2,000 rubles, and a sweatshirt will cost 3,700 rubles. Perhaps the potential problem of the E404 lies in the “excessive” fashion: the brand appeared on the wave of interest in street clothes, uniforms and Cyrillic inscriptions. But it will be more interesting to follow its development - so far, judging by the purchase in the Japanese store GR8 and in other parts of Europe, Australia and America, they are doing more than fine.
Our identity is inspired by primitivism in art, favorite childhood TV shows and the most unnoticeable at first glance details of everyday life: the interweaving of wires, the way utilities paint over graffiti, like Rothko, scraps of multicolored ads that city service workers ripped off the pillar, and so on. We do not pretend to a complex design, for the basis we take the basic elements of the streetwear. Day of us E404 is a story about a special perception of reality, not overshadowed by prejudices and internal blocks.
Our most ambitious plan is to reach global retailers, since retail culture abroad is on a completely different level. If we can meet the demands of buyers with extensive experience in doing business, this will be our victory. We want our things to be sold all over the world - and we could become part of a community of guys who are engaged in a cool business, provide themselves, make plans and, of course, do not lose interest in life.
Photo: We are error 404