In the messy copycat world of fashion it’s rare to find a brand that you can truly call one-of-a-kind, but Danish label Soulland is one of those curious beasts. Over the past two decades, these Copehageners have dialled in on a unique formula, taking the best of Scandinavian menswear and spicing it up with streetwear flourishes. As Soulland’s style has evolved, so too has their commitment to sustainability. What started as recycled polyester tags and organic cotton tees finally culminated in the brand’s 2020 Responsibility Paper, an in-depth report on the sustainability and social activism initiatives that Soulland is undertaking. In their own way, Soulland is redefining what is possible for small independent brands in the field of sustainable fashion. While they readily admit to not being perfect, they’re doing a damn good job. I caught up with CEO and co-owner Jacob Kampp Berliner to discuss…
Let’s start before Soulland. Did you grow up in a creative environment? Did you always want to get involved in creative fields when you grew up, fashion or otherwise?
I grew up in a communal living situation where being creative took many different forms. You might be in a band or do crafts, it was more about expressing yourself and being politically active. It was a different way of being creative but I think it made people very active in the community. I always felt like my core family was quite big because I lived with so many people and was raised with other kids like siblings. I feel like we still have that today in the company, we always work with people that we feel connected to. I think that’s a core of Soulland, whether it’s a personal relation, or you share political views, music taste, whatever.
I think it really shows, everything you guys do feels very creative. When I first saw Soulland in 2015 it was more minimalist, but in the last few years you’ve really branched out with new fabrics and prints.
We only work with what we find joyful and interesting, so we’re always defining new aspects of the brand. For [Soulland founder and creative director] Silas and I, it’s very important that Soulland is an extension of ourselves. I feel like the brand is growing with us and I love that.
I see that in how your collections don’t change drastically from season to season. It’s more of a steady evolution and refinement.
You know, the more we work with sustainability, the more we understand that we want to grow in a natural way. We don’t want to add a lot of new styles and new materials. We want to push our designs, push fashion, but we don’t want to make it less wearable. We’re still based in classic menswear and old-school streetwear.
So how did you get involved with Soulland?
Well at the beginning, Silas started Soulland when he dropped out of high school. His mom said he had to find something to put his passion and time into if he wasn’t in school, so he decided to start a clothing company. He would print t-shirts and sell them at the skate park, and built a community around it. At that time there was a very vibrant scene in Copenhagen, a lot of musicians, skateboarders, graffiti artists. Copenhagen is like the smallest big city in the world, so if you’re part of a subculture you mix with all subcultures; you’re always interacting with other kinds of people outside your bubble. Silas and I met through parties and we joined forces around 2008, though it was a few years before we decided to take Soulland more seriously. The turning point was when we made a bunch of mistakes at our show at Copenhagen Fashion Week, and we were like “fuck, we don’t wanna be happy-go-lucky the rest of our lives.” Then we started changing the structure of the company and going more full menswear. While we’ve evolved, I think the core of the brand is the same and we still have some retailers from that time, like Good Hood. Those stores have been part of our transition from street subculture to fashion.
Our latest evolution has been in the last four years, when sustainability and quality have become our biggest drivers. Silas and I are both quite active, we try to eat healthy and be conscious about our lifestyle, and that’s what we try to put into Soulland now. We want to find how Soulland can push the industry in a more sustainable direction. For us that’s the start, and it impacts how we treat employees, the factories, all the circles we work in. Something I’m proud of is that we own the company ourselves—though maybe the bank owns a big part (laughs)—so we can say whatever we want, be as political as we want, and I think that’s a big part of the future for us.
I’m sure if you had shareholders they wouldn’t be too thrilled about the money and effort you guys put into making the brand more sustainable.
Exactly. We used to be a much bigger company, but when COVID hit we saw it as the perfect opportunity to scale down. We transitioned to having a smaller team that’s really skilled and super dedicated, and we all push each other to make things better. Honestly, a big strength of starting a company without having a business background is that the focus is on creating an environment that’s intellectually stimulating. For example, with sustainability we’ve learned that every time we make a decision we’re taking other decisions away, so it makes the road more clear. If we decide we’re not going to work with a certain material, then we never have to consider it again. At some point everything turns into a yes or no, and then we can spend more energy on what’s important.