NEW BRAND PROFILE : HORAI ESSENTIALS
NEW BRAND PROFILE : HORAI ESSENTIALS
Horai is part of the high end brands selection we have store, but you can trust us, you really get what you pay for. Some will even say that prices are reasonable considering all the craftsmanship, smart fabric selection and technical design behind every single piece of the brand.
With top of the line constructions, trims and materials mixed with an Essentials approach, Horai clothing will last you years and won’t go out of style. These are made to be your next favorite wardrobe go-to.
Hi Oli! First, introduce yourself and the brand we're about to discuss. My name is Oli Van Roost, I’m a Belgian born designer based in Montreal with a long history of designing apparel, outerwear and accessories for the snowboard, skate and streetwear markets.When, where and how exactly did Horai first start? Horai has been brewing for a long time. Ever since I closed Bruxe (around 2015) I started thinking about my next project. The idea was always based around building a staples brand that could easily be worn by all. In 2018 I started to develop my fist styles and was getting ready to launch the brand when I took a job as Outerwear Director with a major department store. I never felt comfortable in typical corporate environments and so after a few seasons, I decided to leave. This was 2 days before Covid hit the fan. When Covid hit, everyone started doing essentials, which for most brands meant fleece, fleece and more fleece. Of course essentials or staples should encompass so much more than this. I wanted to do something different, something that made sense and something that the world needed. Somewhere along the way I had this idea to take everything I’ve learned in the last 30 years of developing technical outerwear and accessories and apply that knowledge, experience and techniques to building an essentials brand. It may sound obvious, but it took a while for that concept to click for me. Now it seems obvious.
Horai clothes are definitely among the high-end products in our stores. What makes your garments premium? Different things make each garment premium. One general difference from Horai and literally every other company I’ve designed for is each product brief starts with an idea and an answer to a problem as opposed to starting with the price point we need to hit. When you start with the price, every decision you make while developing the product will be influenced by costs. When we develop our pieces we choose the fabrics, trims and workmanships that make sense for the product without being influenced by price. In the end of course there are certain limits as to what people are willing to pay, but if we feel strongly about a certain fabric, construction, trim, etc we will push the style through and let the consumer decide if the price is worth the premium price. At the end of the day you usually get what you pay for in life. You take our simplest item which is our tee shirt, the minute you touch the fabric, you understand this is not your average tee shit, wash it 50 times and you will definitely be convinced as to what makes this tee shirt so special. It never loses its shape, and it never fades. Horai is all about great fabrics. What are you looking for in a fabric? Again this really depends on what we are looking to accomplish with the final product. We might be looking for a certain weight, hand feel, drape, color saturation, there are so many factors to look at when choosing fabrics, so usually we’re looking for a fabric to answer certain needs. A great example is the featherweight pant. We the temperatures rising year after year, we really wanted to develop a pant that felt ultra-lightweight and be breathable. We started looking at Poplin fabrics which are so popular in really hot climates, but these fabrics were problematic as they were not strong enough to endure a really active lifestyle so we started looking at different nylon blends. We sampled this pant in at least 6 different fabrics and put them to the test in different environments to see how they would age and how they held up to more vigorous activities. In the end we found that the weight, breathability and strength offered by our micro ripstop nylon as well as the drape to be exactly what we wanted.
The brand is also known for its functionality. What makes a garment functional according to you? For me functionality in clothing can be many different things but usually it’s what helps that garment answer a need or a problem. That could be something as simple as an extremely durable fabric which holds shape and color and can take a beating, or it could be more complex, such a s 3 layer fabric offering a lightweight pant with ultimate waterproofing and breathability. In short its every detail which helps add a certain technical property or function to a garment. Your garments are mostly minimalistic everyday essentials. What is the inspiration behind the brand's aesthetic? When I began studying design and was introduced to mid century design I immediately fell in love with the process and the products. For those who don’t know mid century design refers to the post war industrial revolution and the new design and building processes born out of the era. This era is here mass production was introduced to the world, Designers found ways and processes to build products with machines and new technologies. So instead of having a carpenter build one chair at a time, you had designers who designed products to be built using molds and machinery to reproduce the same products over and over with automated systems. The main rule of mid century design is that form follows function. This utilitarian design approach has always been my main source of inspiration. This is where the minimalistic aesthetic comes form, but as the brand grows you will see a lot of military and athletics influence which will add more energy to the pieces. Athletics and military garments follow the same utilitarian principles as mid century design and have played a big role in my aesthetics throughout my life.
You have a rich background in design and development and worked for iconic brands before launching Horai. Please name a few other jobs you had and explain how this experience helps with running your own brand today? I started designing right out of high school and had great opportunities to work with some great brands very early on. I first started with the Gordini/Kombi glove companies just drawing flat designs for them, and I would get paid per design. From there I had the opportunity to work for Lithium Manufacturing Co. Which was making a lot of noise in streetwear and rave circles. I learned a lot about the process of making clothing as well as marketing it and selling it. I also got to design for Stussy and Triple 5 Soul through connections made at Lithium. The Gordini guys offered me a job as Creative Director / Brand Manager for a new snowboard glove brand, which at the time was called Drop Zone. They had started putting the ideas together and were missing key design and snowboard people in their mix and felt II was the perfect guy for the brand. This is where Drop was born and we built it into one of the biggest snowboard brands at the time with one of the best teams in snowboarding. I also had a chance to work with so many other big brands doing private label programs for some major brands which allowed me to see how they work also. I burned out after about 7 years and needed change so I started my agency and spent the next 5 years years working with some amazing brands building collections, I’ve worked with 686, Rome, Orage, Nomis, I-found, and a bunch more. This is when I started my first brand called Bruxe. We were doing cool streetwear inspired accessories, and opened a store selling our goods beside a bunch of montreal designers, and we got a lot of attention and had a great run but without hard financing it became to hard to stay a float so we closed the store and brand. And I started a new agency Ateliers OVRD/.
I was working with more fashion brands this time around and was offered a contract with Howl Supply to take over the design and development of their glove collection. I’be been doing that for the last 6 years and we have introduced technical apparel to the brand as well as a complete outerwear line hitting retail next season. A lot of the sportswear and outerwear I design for most of my clients is developed through my factory contacts. This has been crucial in launching Horai as well as my other new brand Souvenir, as I have a great relationship with the factories and have also brought them so much business throughout the years, that they are always willing to go that extras step for us.
What can we expect for Horai in the next few years? Season one was really just the base, most of these styles will move forward and continue to be offered as part of our core essentials. Season 2 goes a lot further, with a great mix of technical and fashion pieces including a 3 ply trench coat, some recycled down pieces, and some wool pieces. You can expect the same attention to details, extraordinary fabrics and pieces that mix and match with your current wardrobe with ease. After that you can expect to see some more focused drops and collabs answering more specific needs while our collections will continue to focus on answering the needs of the every day commuter.
