Black Rabbit: the season-less men's fashion label

After years of working for labels such as Diesel and G-Star, fashion designer Leo Velimir Brancovich has enough of the fashion seasonal cycle and the endless stampede of discounting that followed. He launched his catharsis to these botches on the industry last November in the form of the timeless men’s wear fashion label Black Rabbit and now he has opened his first showroom/office/appointment only boutique in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. “We have our rabbit’s den.”

During the intimate opening celebration of the Black Rabbit’s new premises at the Wittenburgergracht, visitors were offered carrots to accompany their beer or wine. But that is were the references to rabbits stopped as Brancovich explains: “My mother in-law came up with the name.” The designer beams throughout the evening, is he proud of his work? “Yes I am. When you first start a business, you first just see everything on paper, but it’s very different to be here now. We spent yesterday evening hanging up paintings and the lights you see here, to make sure everything was ready for the opening.”

The British designer previously lives in Italy for fifteen years when he worked for Diesel, but has spent the past six, seven years living and working in Amsterdam. “I worked for G-Star Raw. And this,” he says as he spread his arms wide with a laugh, “is my midlife crisis. I never wanted to launch my own brand, make my mark. I just love to make things, it doesn’t matter for who but at a given moment in life you reach a point where you just want to do things your own way.” Which is where Black Rabbit stems from.

The label, which was inspired by a mysterious collection of clothing only identified by the initials “БЯ” in cyrillic script and “Series III” found in Eastern Europe and Russia, consists of re-issued pieces. Together with another avid collector from Japan, Brancovich gathered together clothing items which became the basis for his brand. Developing collections around the seasons is not a practice the designer follows. “Black Rabbit is timeless. I do not understand why something is worth a lot of money during one time in the year and then at other times much less.”

“I could sell this jacket for the same price for the next five years, because it is timeless. What I do not understand about commercial fashion is why you would throw away a good design so quickly. So what I would do is if I have a good design, I will keep it and rework it into something else,” he says, “My favourite designer is actually a women’s wear designer, Issey Miyake. And although he produces with the seasons, he does his own thing, his creations do not relate to what the rest of the market. It’s almost like a project, an experiment that has grown in its own way and that’s what I want to do.”

So, how do you decide when to launch new items if you do not work with the seasonal cycle? “When they are ready. If you do work with seasons, you sometimes tend to rush things off.” Isn’t the temptation to endless postpone a collection launch near without some sort of cycle in place? “That is a risk, yes.”

‘Pitti Uomo is going to change everything for Black Rabbit’

The garments that Black Rabbit offers will not always look the same during their years of sale, the collection is constantly being evolving. “Look, we lowered the crotch on the trousers I am wearing and added a large back pocket to update the look,” explains Brancovich. So will the collection look different in five years time? “Well, I see it more as evolve, the collection will evolve.”

The collections colours are dark and muted, peppered with browns and blacks. According to the designer, this is purely due to practical reasons. “We will produce, a shirt and a jacket out of the same material, for example, as we are still just starting out. But for our next collection we will have some pieces in bright blue. If the orders continue to grow, we can add more colour. And in the fashion industry, you often have conversations regarding colour with people dressed completely in black. Retailers are fan of colours. In a store people tend to select an item faster if the colour stands out.”

What sort of customer is drawn to Black Rabbit at the moment? “The most of men’s wear is fairly skinny at the moment, so anyone who is looking for a less tight silhouette could be my customer. The other day a gentleman came in and purchased two pairs of the trousers I am wearing because they are different from what you see on the high street.” At the moment there are three people working for Black Rabbit. Brancovich is head of design, his wife is responsible for product development and they have just hired a new member to oversee sales and marketing.

The currently collection is available online via three digital stores as well as the store in Amsterdam. “We wanted to start online, for practical reason, because we do not work according to the conventional fashion system. We produce things when we produce them, so we thought online stores might suit us better.” Yet the label is off to exhibit at men’s wear trade show Pitti Uomo in Florence this summer. “That is going to change everything,” he says with a laugh, “then it will become serious for us.”

Originally written by Yasmine Esser, translated and edited by Vivian Hendriksz