Braves&Co where Italian tailoring meets rugged denim.

Interview to Stefano Angelico, Founder and Creative Director at Braves&Co. Based in Hamburg, Braves & Company strives to preserve and blend the culture of an old Italian tailor family, with the experience in making denim garments. With a focus on quality artisanal products, through ethos and transparency, Braves&Co. promotes a Mediterranean way of living, free of fast consumerism.  For eclectic and self-confident ladies and gentlemen who seek timeless pieces. Their motto? Slowly Made Goods in limited batches for eclectic rugged ladies & gentlemenwith a twist in indigo.

Tell us a little bit about you. Your story and how Braves & Company was founded

I was born in 65′, son of tailors. Essentially, in my family we are almost all in the fashion business. I grew up in my father’s atelier, among the dusty smell of fabrics and the aroma of espresso coffee. My mother was my father’s employee. I spent my childhood among fabrics, tailored suits, my father’s customers, Fellini and la Dolce Vita, in short, the 70s and 80s. In 1992, after much reluctance, I officially started working in the family business, I have that job in my blood and it could not be otherwise! From here to Braves & Company is a long story, I am not going to tell you everything. The idea of Braves, was born in 2008 on a summer evening on the terrace of my friend and colleague Dimitris, in Crete.

After a memorable barbeque, several bottles of wine and many daydreams, the name came up!

 What are the core values and products of Braves & Company?

Braves & Company is a small brand and denim atelier, based in St. Pauli, Hamburg. Quality is our first target. We do not follow trends or seasons, our product is timeless, dedicated to ladies & gentlemen with a strong behavior. We are inspired by other eras or human characters, seen with a contemporary eye and a denim touch. Basically Braves & Company is a Denim Brand with a sartorial background.

The garments are made in small batches with artisan method, using fine fabrics from Italy and Japan. The small batches are produced in Italy.

We are constantly creating new styles, following our inspirations but also the needs of our customers.

I like to think that I don’t make fashion, but I create characters.

To my customers I offer a “no season” garment, because in my opinion it is useless to fall into the circle of planning winters and summers. I would like people to buy a garment that they can wear, all year round, and also for the next few years. In the same way we work for wholesale.

At Atelier No. 12, I create unique, denim and non-denim customized garments for my clients by selecting with them the elements and fabrics that will best express them.

With the start of wholesale from early 2020 we have further developed the collection.

We have a good selection for women and men, of shirts, classic pants, Jeans, strictly “selvedge & raw”, worker jackets, waistcoats, a small selection of leather accessories. Natural soap etc.

What value do you give to Italian style and why did you choose Canclini?

I come from the production dept, for many years I worked in the background, on the producer’s side, I worked for many companies and brands, developed collections and garments. Braves & Company was born, As a natural evolution of my experiences. It started almost as a personal project, as I felt the need to do what I have always loved and in the way I wanted. My family’s sartorial background in Italy, and creating denim for almost 20 years, are the bases from which I started.

I was lucky enough to grow up among great professionists and craftsmen, to increase my experience learning the tricks of the trade, and all this in Italy. The roots and traditions of my job are in Italy.

I like the traditions of this job, which I would say is in danger of extinction and I also believe that in Italy there is still the professionalism of the past.

The Canclini fabrics were already among the samples that my father showed to customers who came to choose fabrics for their shirts, the quality was already known to me, so they simply remained in our collections.

How did you manage to combine the shirt with your product niche?

I have always been in the habit of creating complete collections, I like to create outfits, and personalities. One of the functions of fashion, is to help the customer to understand their personality, please note i said the customer not the consumer. So I have always felt the need to offer a complete range of products including accessories.

When I started this project it was easy to find a place for the shirt in my collections. I make clothes for ladies and gentlemen.

As I have already said, my creations are just the result of my experiences, I simply do what I do the best! This guarantees me the quality of the product, the possibility to create new personalities every time, mixing inspirations to my personal taste and the one of my clients, I hope.

How was your 2020/Covid year?

For Braves & Company, 2020 was as important as difficult.

In February 2020 we opened the wholesale business at Selvedge Run in Berlin, the last one unfortunately.

Even though we were affected by COVID-19, this year was a year of growth. We started to get our first customers and partnerships.

We invested the lockdown time to open our own small workshop. A dedicated space for our custom clients.

Let’s say that for a year of crisis we can’t complain, it could have been better for everyone… but this showed us that we were on the right track.

We are curious to know your opinion about the Denim Community, can you tell us something about it?

The Denim Community is really a world apart. It’s a world that thinks in inches and ounces, it’s a group of people all over the world who has the blue denim as a real reason to live. Joking aside, there are other people who, like I did, have changed their lives several times following Denim. I am someone who has always preferred to stay behind the scenes, but I have given and will always give a piece of my heart to Denim.

Denim Nerds are demanding and passionate people, always looking for special qualities, they study and learn about weaves, structures and weights of fabrics. They talk about casts and slubs. As a denim manufacturing insider, I am always excited to interact with my customers and show them garments they can appreciate and recognize the quality of.

 CASUAL MOMENT: how long has it been since you cut your beard and how long is it.

The story of my beard is an old one, it’s a promise I made to my father.

In 94′ my dad passed away, he had a long beard and hair, I decided to start growing my beard on the sad day I had to shave it him off.

So I am probably the first hipster in history! Since 94′ I’ve let my beard grow out in several stages.

I cut it about every six months the usual 2.5 inches from the usual barber. My beard is 12 inches long 😉