Mention luxury and our minds immediately conjure up visions of famous and powerful fashion conglomerates and groups, visible logos and celebrity studded runway shows. Yet luxury can be a quiet and humble affair, an experience revolving not around the interests of shareholders, but focused on a few core elements - that is crafts, timeless designs and high quality products. This is actually the lesson that comes from London-based brand Silent Goods.
The brand was founded by Volker Koch, a 4th generation master craftsman, Oliver Ruuger, an experienced designer, and Markus Vihma, an environmental scientist, and boasts a team of craftspeople who have been working behind the scenes for famous brands in the fashion industry.
The pictures that accompany the promotional materials put emphasis on the craft aspects of the brand: in Silent Goods' portfolio there are still life images of tools, leather samples, bag patterns or artisans at work as the process to make a design takes centre stage in the life of this label.
Silent Goods launched today a Kickstarter campaign to manufacture 7 styles of bags - a mini-handbag, two handbags (one soft, one classic), a tote, a backpack, a briefcase and a holdall - dedicated to both men and women.
Excellent materials and perfect construction are two key points behind the bags: the team employs tanned leather and uncoated metal fittings for the pieces, and guarantees to their customers that those elements that will fail from years of wear and tear will be easily disassembled, repaired and replaced.
The team promises indeed they will keep on servicing their consumers, a lesson that came from their own friends who often asked them to repair designer bags produced by companies that do not guarantee any additional services.
Yet don't think that their passion for sustainability, longevity and repairability means that this brand is an old style one with no interests in technology: the products contain a tech feature, a RFID tag that allows people to track the manufacturing processes behind the items.
Silent Goods' Kickstarter page also feature a very interesting luxury comparison: the team broke down the production cycles into stages showing the difference in price points between their retail price and the traditional retail price of a similar product, highlighting the dramatic discrepancy between the real cost of a design (calculating materials, fittings, craftsmanship, duties and transport) and the actual price that consumers pay for it (being an independent company Silent Goods does not have artificial revenue goals to hit or retail partners' target price points to follow).
The team also seems to have a penchant for informative newsletters that tell real stories: in their latest one Volker, the son of a German leather goods manufacturer and the head of craft at the London workshop, tells consumers about his education in Germany followed by his training in Paris at Hermès.
The newsletter closes with a picture of a 1959 notebook that belonged to his father and that opens with the word "Denken" - "think" in German - a verb that became a mantra for the team at Silent Goods that came to consider it as the most vital ingredient in making things better. Maybe there is a different way to make luxury and produce fashion, a sort of calmer and quieter way, after all, as the artisans behind Silent Goods say, good things don't need to be shouted to be heard.
When did you start working on Silent Goods?
Oliver Ruuger: The different ideas behind the project have been slowly accumulating for quite some time, but we started working on the bags approximately 2 years ago.
Can you tell us more about the ethos behind it?
Oliver Ruuger: Luxury without the ego of the brand. If I were to sum it up, I would say that Silent Goods is created as a counterbalance to the speed and noise that seems to be prevalent in our industry at this time. So we create premium bags that are designed to be completely neutral and say nothing, free of labels and design clutter. And when things around you do not shout for attention, you can focus on what actually deserves your attention.
How many products are included in the Kickstarter campaign?
Oliver Ruuger: The initial offer will consist of 7 bags for men and women. There will be no choices or options - only one singular option per style - the point is that we have done it the very best way we can.
At Silent Goods you seem to have tackled a series of key themes and issues and you have put emphasis on the materials as well. How long did it take you to find the proper suppliers?
Oliver Ruuger: With handmade products, material is the first thing, the most important thing that has to be considered, even before design. We have set three criteria to follow: sustainability, beauty and, most importantly, long lasting quality. Fashion is rarely concerned with all three at the same time, let alone on equal footing, but we strongly believe it would be short-sighted to create something long lasting and beautiful if doing so had a negative effect on our environment and our workers. Equally, if the life expectancy of the material is low, we risk creating beautiful landfill. There are 7 materials used, naturally tanned organic leather, a tencel based lining textile, uncoated, hand-polished stainless steel hardware, recycled zips, recycled thread and water based glue. The material pallette is limited but we have a deep understanding about the journey each material has taken from source and you can discover more about it on our Kickstarter campaign page. One thing we are working on is digitally tagging this information into each bag.
Behind the label there are also a 4th generation master craftsman and an environmental scientist, can you tell us more about your roles at Silent Goods?
Oliver Ruuger: Volker runs our London based workshop. Something that is so important to get across is that the relationship with the client does not end once the bag leaves our hands. We really want people to keep our bags for life and therefore we have to do everything to help make that happen. So there's materials, there's design, but also there is care and repair. So our goal is to see our consumers coming to us in 10 years down the line, when a handle might need restitching. I actually think this is how we can promote sustainability most effectively. Markus is an environmental scientist and his job is about finding the most sustainable solutions across the business. Materials and manufacturing processes take priority here, but of course it does not stop there. There are so many things that we can get creative with. For instance, we have developed a bespoke typeface that uses 50% less ink when printed. It was designed to be used for our shipping labels (just about the only thing we actually print), but our friends loved it and wanted to use it so now we are giving it away for free for everyone. Also we've sourced used boxes from supermarkets for shipping our goods in. I love the idea of sending out this incredibly high quality bag to a client in a used box that has a familiar chocolate or washing up liquid brand logo all over it! It's because we only want to invest in what matters, and I personally think fancy throwaway packaging can flatter you only so many times.
As a craftsman how do you reconcile your skills with the highy technological world in which we are living in? Do you sometimes feel we have forgotten how to appreciate hand-made things?
Oliver Ruuger: I actually think new technology offers something fantastic. If the craftsmen of old had technologies such as 3D printing and digital cutting at their disposal, they most definitely would have taken full advantage of it. So I think the role of the craftsman is to use the tools that are available to them and get creative. The way I see it, the role of the craftsman hasn't changed, just the tools have and therefore the products that are being made have a different feel about them. I think that's great. I am not so nostalgic about old craft.
How difficult do you feel it will be to re-educate a younger generation of people to quality rather than quantity?
Oliver Ruuger: Honestly, I do not think it is a question of re-educating, I think it is almost the opposite, I feel the younger generation is more concious about the issues of waste, sustainability and personal impact. I think it is a result of being born in a time where critical issues about our world are a daily news item. However, my personal attitudes towards my role in an industry built on bringing more and more stuff into this world have gone through a radical change in the past decade. This requestioning is what became the basis for creating Silent Goods actually.
All images in this post courtesy of Silent Goods.
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