NOTHING BAD MAGAZINE

19th August 2011

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StöökiPhotography: Nina Manandhar

Interview: Evie Jeffreys

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shoes - Adidas

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How did the three of you come together?

Q: I met Nadia at Uni, studying jewellery. Within our class we were like-minded in terms of our concepts and thoughts and ways of designing things. And we were into streetwear as well, whereas everyone

Quincey, Nadia and Luke comprise Stööki, the emerging lifestyle brand that marries

together jewellery, art, fashion, and music. They impressed industry insiders in May with the launch of their first collection, Make Your Mark, coupling T-shirts and

pendants in a jigsaw-like fashion, and are currently designing their next. We spoke to them about the original concept and

breaking into the jewellery industry.

else was going down a more contemporary avenue. We met Luke through an art collective called Plain Janes. I knew about Luke’s skills from ages ago, designing flyers and producing etc., so I thought it would be a good mix to add these two to Stooki and make it

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a lifestyle brand as well as a jewellery brand.

Where did the concept of slotting clothes and jewellery together come from?

N: We were looking for a niche. We just needed to think of the right piece of clothing to put the jewellery with and at the time T-shirt seemed like the easiest thing. So we applied it and something came out of it and the feedback has been pretty good. We thought maybe the reason it hadn’t

been done before was because it might not take well with the public, but that hasn’t been the case. Something that was always said to us at Uni is that everything has been done before. In the jewellery businesses, if you’re going to do something you need to do it with an edge so it creates a buzz.

What about the name Stööki?

Q: Stööki was a pet name that I had when I was a baby. I always liked the playful nature of it and then

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I Googled it and there were so many different meanings. In Glasgow it means headbutt, in Jamaica it’s a dance. It means different things around the world and it was interesting to apply it to the brand.

Did you intend to be streetwear brand?

Q: It was intended. Between the three of us we like streetwear and we didn’t want to go down a high fashion route. We wanted something more accessible and affordable to

people. It’s got so many different strands to it - the art element, jewellery, fashion. But streetwear is its foundation.

What part does each of you play?

L: For me it’s 50% graphic design, 50% music. One of the things I wanted to do with Stööki is involve both of them. And what we all wanted to do was make it a lifestyle brand, so we have started creating a Stööki sound which will be a style of music that goes with our collection. For Make

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Your Mark it was experimental, using unconventional sounds.

N: Even though Quincey did jewellery as well, I’m seen as the technical person, so I do all the small attachments on the jewellery. I apply my knowledge to whatever pieces we come up with and try my best to understand the best way to get it across to our audience. I’m an artist as well, but this is my chance to get out there.

Q: The main influence for me is anything

that’s interactive. Interactive art, gameplay… Before Stööki I was doing jobs within marketing, PR and television production and in most of those jobs it was about engaging audience, so that is an element that I wanted to apply to the brand and make sure that people fully immerse themselves within the world of Stooki.

There are so many different elements of the brand, do you do everything yourself in-house?

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L: I design the T-shirts but we screen-printed them all ourselves.

N: Which was a nightmare

L: We used a huge customised screen and customised squeedgie. It was unconventional but we wanted the designs to bleed off the T-shirt, so we had to do it ourselves. We didn’t make anything easy for ourselves, but we knew how we wanted it to be.

N: I do all the jewellery in my front room. I don’t have

a studio. Because I have my family there I can’t leave all my equipment out and let them trip over saw blades. But this is where the big names start, next to nothing.

So you’re working on your next collection - is there anything wildly different from the last?

N: Something that happened with the last collection is that people would ask for T-shirts, but we want Stööki to be known as a jewellery brand as well. The T-shirt and the jewellery

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are one piece. You can’t buy them separately. That’s the whole point.

Q: The two look better together. Buying one without the other would take away the whole concept.

N: This next collection is really jewellery-focused, we have a lot more pieces - rings, earrings, smaller pendants. Of course, we will still have the concept of the T-shirt with the pendant, but it won’t be at striking. The first collection, we wanted to shoot into the industry

and introduce ourselves as Stööki and now people know us a bit better we’re going to delve into bits that we didn’t with the first one.

Q: There will be more for girls. The first collection was a bit androgynous, which we did on purpose and did get a good response but we were asked if there would be any feminine pieces coming out, and anything a bit more niche. We really took on board all of the feedback we got at the launch and have started to design the next

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collection based on it. It’s using our community to inform what we do.

Where do you see Stööki in five years?

Q: I’d like to do one off limited editions with Dover Street market, Libertys, Selfridges - the stores that are really hard to get in, I’d like to prove a point that we can get in there because we have something interesting.

Stööki’s next collection is due to launch in September.

www.stooki.co.uk

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Lux

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Lux Sunbathing Bikini Bra & Bottom

LuxThe new collection from Loulou Loves You

Photography: Katie Coleslaw

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Lux Bra

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Lux Playsuit

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Next Issue26th August 2011

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