FASHION
TOM CRIDLAND:
FIGHTING THROWAWAY FASHION
Rod Stewart’ s got a pink pair, Brandon Flowers got red, Stephen Fry has turquoise and Leonardo DiCaprio’ s pair are navy coloured. So are James Bond and Zoolander’ s.
Trousers that is. Tom Cridland’ s trousers.
25--year-old Londoner Tom has been donned " a tailor to the stars ", making clothing for a diverse range of high profile names, including Clint Eastwood, Miley Cyrus, Neil Young, Robbie Williams, Kendrick Lamar, Frankie Valli and even UK politician Michael Portillo.
The sustainable fashion brand was founded in 2014, with the aim of creating the perfect pair of trousers and affordable luxury clothing.
As a teenager, the ethically conscious designer sold nearly £ 3,000 worth of " SWINE 09 " t-shirts in a single week of school and donated all the profits to Médecins Sans Frontières.
Best known for The 30 Year Sweatshirt, which campaigns to fight fast fashion through a product guaranteed to last for 30 years, Tom believes that retail mark-ups are unfair on customers, who ends up paying higher prices for no reason.
His‘ buy less, buy better philosophy’ has rapidly grown in popularity, with The 30 Year T-Shirt launched shortly after the luxury cotton crewneck in 2015. A year later, Tom opening his pop-up shop in London’ s iconic King ' s Road until February. The same month, The 30 Year Jacket was released.
Tom Cridland also launched in the States during 2016, with a base in Los Angeles. While here, Tom even squeezed in time to record a first album with his band.
But the menswear founder appears grateful for where he started from. With a £ 6,000 government loan, the company focused on word of mouth and several Kickstarter
and Indiegogo campaigns to start up their online business. Since then, it has grown organically to reach a turnover of more than £ 1m.
Tom Cridland has continued to combine its business savvy with a spirit of being alive to helping others. August saw the launch of The Entrepreneur ' s Shirt, to support entrepreneurs around the world.
Tom wasn’ t afraid to pass comment and stand up for Kettering, near where he grew up, when Lindsay Lohan passed judgement on the town in late 2016.
The designer’ s threads are built to last 30 years and he may well be on the way to building a new kind of fashion trend that could last the course too.
If you want a fine pair of trousers, take your pick from 14 different colours at tomcridland. com.
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