Formerly known as is a label run by Bernard Andrew & Gavin Parry & Kris Small and they have entered this years Fashion palette excellence awards, so we decided to ask them a few questions.

How did you all meet, and where did the idea for the label come from?

well it all started when…
10 years ago in their teens… Kris and Gav meet through mutual friends… Gav was running around with what some people call ADD, while Kris was the complete opposite and would chill and chat. The first encounter was far from smooth… Kris disliked Gav and Gav felt the same…

Anyway several years past and somehow they became friends. Kris started to “get into” fashion, while Gav was still running around with ADD. Gav sat still long enough one night for Kris to pass on some of his fashion advice…The next day GONE were the joggers and the quicksilver jeans…replaced by skinnies and ankle high cons.

They continued to grow there wardrobes, until one day…
The paper came out, as did the pens and they began to draw. Okay! Was started and Okay! finished up 2 years later.

A couple of months break the new ideas were flowing and Formerly known as. was born.

The end…

Where did you study or learn your trade?

Ha-ha Study…. Well we didn’t. Kris and Gav learnt heaps with the previous label. We far from know anywhere near enough. We still make stupid mistakes and fight about the right and wrong way to do things.

We have other skills though Kris is a graphic designer which is great and Gav studied business which works in really well.

Fashion or Function?

I would like to say fashion… But when a label is so new and still getting some type of following…Fashion really needs to be balanced with function.

Where and how are your garments made?

Everything is made in Brisbane… The material we grab from a local wholesaler, the material is dyed within Australia and everything is made by a small, hunchbacked, old, angry Vietnamese lady who literally works for nothing… She is great, we love her.

Will we ever see 80s wrestlers adorn your garments?

ha-ha well… funnily enough yes. I could see Andre the Giant or Hulk
Hogan throwing on a FKA scarf, maybe even carrying a coin purse.
Anything is possible. If we could jump in the DeLorean we would like to even attempt to make a t-shirt big enough to fit the 2.10m, 256kg Giant that was Andre…
In all honesty our next range is based on the WWF….

How did you find out about Fashion Palette?

We were lucky enough to win the first season of the General Pants bubble competition. They emailed us last month to tell us that fashion palette was on and yeah that’s it.

Tell us about why you wanted to enter the Fashion Palette awards?

You mean apart from it being free??…ha-ha. We guess the chance for one of the judges to see our work is great. It is not every day you get to show Jessie Hill, Peter Morrissey or Alex Cleary some of your range.

We guess you ask why…. and we reply with one of the most clesha lines We could think of…why not…

Oh Ruby Rose hosting may have something to do with it also…and something about 2gs as well $$

Where do you want the label to be in 5 years?

5 years…We are still working out what we wont for the next range.

5 years is so, so far away. If we have learnt anything from past experiences, it is to focus on now and maybe a day or two ahead…ha-ha…but really in 5 years we would be happy to still be doing what we are doing, making clothes and enjoying it…Goals can be good but goals can wreck a good thing…

Where can we purchase the goodness?

You can grab our winter range at…

QLD
Violent Green
Shop 9 Elizabeth Arcade
99 Elizabeth St Brisbane

NSW
Mish Mash
11 Curlewis St Bondi

VIC
Lenko
Shop 308, Level 3 Melbourne Central
211 Latrobe St, Melbourne

The summer range which we entered in Fashion Palette is still being
shown around the place….so not sure where we will be for summer…

And finally, What’s the story with your website!?

The blog?
After wasting a considerable amount of money on previous websites,
that were fancy, took ages to load, ones we could not update and sites
that really did nothing. We made an executive decision to use our
blog as our site. The upside is it costs nothing and we can update it
whenever we want without relying on anyone. Tell me where the
negative is?

We pretty much just post up anything that happens to us, it is
interesting to us. We hope some people find it the same

Tags: Add new tag, Bernard Andrew, designers, Formerly known as, Gavin Parry, Kris Small