HOW DID YOU GET HERE? FEATURING CHRIS LYND FROM ULLAC DENIM
Chris Lynd is a designer & Creative Director of Ullac, a contemporary brand which adopts a super fun and unique gender neutral approach to clothing. Ullac is based in Shoreditch & has a presence in Helsinki, although Chris himself is from Preston, Lancashire. Ullac is a collective of his mates from across the globe who all share a common love for craft and culture. The brand has a strong 90’s presence running through it, inspired by Chris’s fondest memories of people & places from his youth. On my first visit to Ullac in Shoreditch, one thing that stood out was both the sheer creativity of the garments & the shop interior; it wasn’t like all the other stores on shorditch high street.
Ullac continues to breathe new life into fashion and adopt a playful approach to design and production. We wanted to understand more about the brand and just what keeps Chris inspired.
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Name: Chris Lynd
Occupation: In charge of nice clothes at ULLAC oy
Location: East London
IG Handle: @ULLAC_oy
Website: ullac.com
Tell us about yourself? Eg. What did you study and where? Where did you grow up?
A: I’m Chrissy / Chriso / Christo / Chris / Christopher / Kit depending on who’s talking to me (my mum calls me a few of those and definitely not others). I am a designer / Creative director at ULLAC oy and I also run all the production. Basically I sort out the clothes. I grew up in the North, in the UK’s largest town or smallest city; Preston. I studied Religion at Lancaster University because I was very right on as a teenager, I really wanted to study philosophy but I thought Religion made me more interesting. I don’t think that really landed how I wanted it to.
Tell us more about ULLAC? And what’s in the name?
A: ULLAC is a collection of friends and family. It started with two, then became three and then a few more people got picked up on the way. ULLAC is all about friends and anyone who wants to jump in. ULLAC is an old Finnish word that isn’t used any more. It sounds funny in English but the direct translation says ‘many mates making much nice clothes’.
What made you move from Preston to London?
A: There’s something a bit magic about growing up in a small town because you get so good at escapism. You get obsessive about all kinds of stuff; clothes, books, people, films, music, because you’re always trying to escape. But the real magic is in the ACTUAL escape. I met a girl from Preston who was moving to London. I had this big metallic pink VW van at the time and I helped her to move. To be honest I had never really been to London , but I instantly fell in love with her and in love with the city, and that was my escape. I’m still here, Han and I are married and we have a little boy now.
Have you always been interested in fashion and clothes?
A: Yes, always. It comes from my mum for sure. My mum is ace, but she has a real telephone voice if that means anything to you. When one of the kids in my school had a birthday party, maybe we’d go bowling or there’d be a bouncy castle in someone’s yard covered in vomit and jelly, all the other kids would wear Turtles T-shirts or football shirts, trainers and trackie pants. My mum would dress me in Sunday best. I’d have patent leather shoes, a dickie bow and a waistcoat. I was embarrassed to begin with but it gave me a very strong understanding of the transportive nature of what we wear. How clothes can make you feel and help you escape to where ever you want to be.
And my mum really encouraged me. The first Christmas that I could write, I wrote to Santa and asked for a leather suit the same as Baby Jackson. I actually thought that Baby Jackson was the kid in the Bad Video. I think the leather trousers were a stretch for Father Christmas but I did get a leather jacket that had many many years of growing room in it. I think I still have that somewhere.
Then when I was about 6 there was a fancy dress Christmas party at school. We were meant to dress as something off the Christmas tree. I had this idea that I thought was really clever. I subverted the theme. My thought was that people put stars on the top of trees and Michael Jackson is a star, so I’m going to go to the Christmas Fancy Dress Party as Michael Jackson. I got some lame black leggings (the closest thing I could find to leather trousers) a glittery plastic trilby and my leather jacket, then I went to the party at my tiny little primary school in a Northern town feeling like star. A fucking rock star. Then I saw all the other kids dressed as Christmas stuff and I freaked out. I balled and balled at the school gates but my mum was so ace, she really believed in it and the idea, so she convinced me to go in. But because I spent so long crying at the gate, school assembly had started and I had to walk into the school in front every single person there. I felt like a dick, but also kind of ace. And I suppose that was quite a defining moment for me and my relationship with clothes. Oh god that’s two Michael Jackson Christmas stories. For the record I know he’s a baddie now.
How did you turn your dream of designing your own denim into a reality?
A: Growing up we’d always talked about putting it together but just got distracted by life. After a difficult year for some of us we thought ‘fuck it’ and had a go. We made 300 pairs of jeans sold them, which paid for some more and a couple of jackets. Then it just went from there really.
What would you tell your younger self?
A: Enjoy your own company more, never be too embarrassed to say hello or smile, don’t not do things because they’re scary. Be brave enough to be kind to everyone. The cycling shorts with Guns & Roses T-shirt, boots and white socks look great, where them to Niriko’s party. I’m totally going to have to think of some new final words aren’t I.
What inspires you and the brand?
A: It’s a bunch of things. The last collection was inspired by memories of memories. You know how memories aren’t real? Like, every time you remember something you aren’t watching a replay you are like recreating it. Putting all the parts together from all over the place, that’s why things over time become more exaggerated. I’m sentimental so I’ve recreated certain memories way more than the vast majority, and these images developed into something I wanted to make.
Escapism is something that really inspires me too. The feeling of looking at the outside world, and where I want to get to, and imagining what the people that are in those places where I want to be look like. These are all really vivid pictures in my mind and something I’ve been putting into my work. So for example our Easter Outfit Shirt and Easter Outfit Pants and Shorts are based on both of those ideas. Like I said up there, my mum was really into dressing us up. So on occasions we’d get a new outfit. When I was about 7 or 8 mum got me a new outfit one Easter. I really, really loved this outfit. Actually these were first pair of jeans I was ever allowed to wear. They wear bright green. A kind of acid wash. The original sketches for the ULLAC Easter suit are just that memory and the shirt is still pretty faithful to the memory. But with the pants I made the silhouette into what I imagined the scary older people that hung around in Mark’s Square would think looked cool.
What’s your favourite part of what you do?
A: I love the process and evolution. I love it when I look at my initial drawing and the finished product and consider the whole journey it took to make this thing I love. I really love the new people we’ve met through this too. It’s always scary entering into a new world like this, but we’ve met so many people we will know forever. It’s also happened a couple of times where musicians, tattoo artists, artists etc. who we love, have come across our clothes and bought them and loved them. All of a sudden people we’ve admired from afar are enjoying something we’ve put out into the world.
What’s your most popular item at the moment?
A: Since life on lockdown started I’ve been dying very small batches of our take on a fatigue pant. They’re so new that we didn’t get a chance to shoot them for the site, so they’re only available to order via Instagram or email and I’m limiting orders on them because they take up so much space in the flat. But they're really popular, and keeping me busy. Our Easter Outfit Shirt and Shorts are very popular too and a big favourite of mine.
Tell us about your denim offering and the mills which you use?
A: I think we’ve got a really broad denim offering. On the one hand we’ve got our super classic staples - nice tasteful timeless cuts and shapes. These are the Slim, Straight and Loose jeans. We do these in a few different weights and colours, raw indigo and black denim from 13oz up to 16oz. They’re lovely, especially the straight jeans. All of them have a fairly deep rise, without veering too much into Cosplay. So they have a very clean, ivy league vibe.
Then we have our Blew Jeans and Easy Friend jeans. These are super soft washes. Dead comfy and slouchy and there’s more than a few influences in there. I’d say these are very versatile jeans. If you wear these snug and high on the waist they have Townes Van Zandt vibe. But then you can also wear them a couple of sizes bigger, a bit slouchy and all of a sudden you're standing on the muddy banks of the Wishkah.
Then on the far side we have some much wilder more exaggerated stuff. Our Big Jeans, are really super big and wide. And then we have our Painter Pants. These are maybe our biggest pants. Super baggy and wide. I do them in black, ecru and a whole rainbow of hand dyed and tie-dyed options. I work with a bunch of mills, all in Europe. I work with Candiani and Berto a lot and also TFM, Velcorex and Brisbane Moss for softer handles.
How does an independent brand like ULLAC steer their way through the maze of today’s huge fashion world?
A: Ha, well I’m not sure that we have! It’s really hard and to be honest, I don’t think there are any right answers. When we started we felt a little bit like we had to pretend we knew all the bits, when to be honest the only thing we truly knew was what really nice clothes looked like. I think we’ve become more confident and more ourselves over time, so we talk to people how we talk and the things we make are the things we want to make. We don’t know all the bits and we never will, but we are really proud of our clothes, how they are made, and equally proud of the people that are involved with us.
What made you choose East London to open up your physical store?
A: It was near to home and we fell in love with the building. If I’m entirely honest though, we all thought it was haunted and we wanted to see some ghosts.
How is it working out of two cities - ULLAC also has a presence in Helsinki?
A: Yep, we have a presence in Helsinki. We’re part of a little collective of designers that run a co-op store called Liike, although most of the making really happens out of London. The best thing about working out of two cities is having more friends in more places. I really love Helsinki and Finland.
There’s a strong feeling of the 90’s and 2000’s in the brand – what inspired this?
A: I reckon this just comes from where my inspiration comes from. With it being people, places and memories of memories. My most vivid memories of those things were in the 90’s / 2000’s. So that’s why you’ll always see nods to that period of time. But it all depends where my heads at when I’m making and it might be somewhere else when I’m next drawing.
We love the genderless approach of ULLAC, do you believe this Is this the future of fashion?
A: Yes I think so, very much. Once someone makes something it should be down to the individual to interpret it and enjoy it however they want to. It’s weird that the brand gets a say once it’s out there. 'You can wear this but not this’, know what I mean?
Has your upbringing in the north of England influenced your approach to clothing and design?
A: Yeah I think so. Growing up in a small town in the North you’re always kind of dreaming of the big, more exciting thing that’s out of reach. You’re always dreaming about escaping. And always staring at people that look exciting, or scary or dangerous. When I was growing up, clothes became a way for me to make my escape. And I think that’s what I’m doing when I make or design something. I’m thinking about how I want to feel when I wear something, I’m thinking about the sort of person I want to feel like and the sort of escape I want to make. I think there’s a more literal straight forward influence on my stuff too. I think there’s a reasonably clear image in there of a kids interpretation of 90s hip hop, via the Hacienda, but in Seattle, if all that was in in a small Northern town. Does that make any sense at all?
This season saw you swap pared down workwear staples for bold colours and tiedye, what inspired this?
A: I think it was always where we were going. You know when you get an outfit that’s pretty bold and you love it, but you’re a bit shy about it? Or when you meet a new group of people and you fall in love with them and you’ve got so many stories you want to share with them but you’re a tiny timid about it? That’s Maybe how we started off. I had a whole bunch of ideas and stories I wanted to tell but I think we were testing the water. The more comfortable we’ve gotten, the more we’ve come out of our shell.
Tell us about your collaboration with Gloverall? How did this partnership come to fruition?
A: We got introduced to the design team because we really wanted to meet them. We’ve been fans of theirs for years and had some ideas we wanted to share. We sat down and we had a big chat, it was really fun and dead nice, so after that we worked on some pieces together. We've done two suits, one in a crispy Italian 16oz raw denim, and the other in a crunchy Italian 14oz Italian ecru twill. The cut and sew was performed in Italy too and they’re available for both goodies and baddies. This is the first time we’ve ever collaborated with another brand and because we have been fans of Gloverall probably since forever, it was perfect. We think collaborations should all be about celebrating the things you love about each other so that's how we approached this. These suits are everything we love about each other aesthetically, but also in terms of our shared ideals and the way we both make stuff. Gloverall have been around for over 50 years and their seminal pieces are a part of garment history, so to have our name written next to theirs is excellent.
“Growing up in a small town in the North you’re always kind of dreaming of the big, more exciting thing that’s out of reach. You’re always dreaming about escaping. When I was growing up, clothes became a way for me to make my escape.”
Cris Lynd
Who are your heroes and heroines?
A: Clarence and Alabama, Zac Witness, Sidney and Dewie.
Favourite colour?
A: Pink has always been my favourite colour. I Really like a dusty lavender or plumb too.
Describe how your favourite jeans make you feel in 3 words?
A: Like Babe Ruth.
Coffee or tea?
A: I like really shit black coffee. Like, Pret black filter shit. I feel like it’s the Rolls Royce of cheap black shit coffee.
Best pizza spot?
A: La Barca in Stoke Newington, its next to my favourite pub in the world ‘The Shakespeare’ which is basically ‘Cheers’. You can take the Pizza into the pub. It’s the perfect middle ground between middle class pizza and pizza shop pizza. My order is Mushroom, Jalapeños and pineapple. I’m an outlier when it comes to pizza, I do take heat for that, but, you have to remember it’s outliers that invented light bulbs, wheels, compasses and the printing press. What I’m trying to say is people turning their nose up at pineapple on a pizza would be trying to drive to work on square wheels if they could.
Favourite city you’ve visited?
A: This is a really hard one. There are so many great cities and it’s always about the people, right now I think it’s Amsterdam. It feels like a small town that grew into a city but maintained who it was. I love how all the buildings are tall, thin and really different from each other - there is a theme and they complement each other but they are all very individual. I love that everyone is 15 minutes from home, it encourages people to be social and live nice lives. A friend of mine who moved there from London explained to me that if you live in London, it requires 2 hours of you a day just to be there, just admin, tube chasing urban foxes etc. and in Amsterdam it’s 30 mins which is actually huge when you think about it.
I love cycling to restaurants, bars and clubs. Going on a night out on bikes with a group is basically the most fun thing you can do. It has a lawless side at times which I think maintains it’s self and I like that. I love the Dutch vibe, they don’t smile because they have too. They are direct and sarcastic, although I’m sensitive so that takes a bit of getting used to. I even like (probably because I don’t live there) the kids that come from across the world to smoke weed, loads of Scouse teenagers way too high to be in a tourist trap trying to not get hit by locals on bikes; “Amsterdam ain’t a nice place off your face”. I’ve been listening to The Fureys version of Red Rose Café a lot recently so that might have something to do with it.
Favourite places to visit in London?
A: Hahahahah I was just talking with my mate about this yesterday. She’s just moved out of London, and was saying how much more she appreciates it now she’s not here. We were laughing about when your friends come down to visit and they’ve either got this list of things they want to do and see, or they want you to have a list of things that you want to show them, and you never know where to take them. Basically what I’m trying to say is ‘where shall we go?’.
Having said all that, right now I would kill to visit anywhere and just spend time with people.
Oh, but if you really really pushed me I have two favourite places. The Shakespeare Pub on Allen road is really just one of the best places in the world.
And I really, dearly, love climbing over the fence of Clissold Park late at night, especially in winter, walking around on my own listening to Murder Ballads.
What book is on your coffee table right now?
A: I’ve got a massive stack of books on my table : SPENCER MURPHY’S ‘URBAN DIRT BIKERS’ photography book, THE VINTAGE SHOWROOM ARCHIVE OF MENSWEAR, STORIES FOR KIDS WHO DARE TO BE DIFFERENT, WAXPLOITATION PRESENTS STORIES FOR WAYS AND MEANS, THE BEASTIE BOYS BOOK, CUMBRIAN GHOST STORIES, THE MOONS AT YOUR DOOR, 30 HALLUCINATORY TALES SELECTED BY DAVID TIBE, PRESTON BUS STATION - JAMIE HAWKESWORTH
What was the last thing you bought?
A: Some Clarks Originals Dessert Treks for my son Little Ezra Elvis Good Guy. I never thought we’d be the kind of family that all wears matching outfits but we are. Except I think it’s cool if the matching outfits are cool. It’s like the Beastie Boys right?
Do you have any fashion regrets?
A: Nope, defiantly not. I’ve had loads and loads of looks, and If I look at some of them with today’s filter I cringe. But I don’t regret any of them at all.
What song best describes you?
A: Can I give you one of my funeral songs instead? It’s a song I’ve been listening to loads recently and calming me down in the mad times. It’s a gift to the world. Brian Wilson- Love & Mercy. I won’t be doing it justice but please listen if you don’t know it already.
Favourite thrift stores?
A: So I really don’t want to sound like one of those people that says ‘everything used to be better and why can’t things just stay the same’ because that’s sort of the exact opposite of what I am. But I really really love spending time in my memories because everything burns brighter there. I just get to romanticise stuff and no one can rub the shine off I suppose. So, that being said, when I was growing up there was this place in Manchester’s Northern Quarter called Affleck’s Palace. It’s still there and it’s still all independent little stalls and shops, but it’s quite a different place. When I was growing up it was just magic. We used to jump the train in Preston and hide in the toilets from the ticket inspectors all the way there. Affleck’s was full of amazing thrift stores, at least they were to me at the time. It was full of head shops, sex shops, record shops. It all felt exotic and dangerous and it had the most amazing smell. I bought some knock off Vivienne Westwood Bondage pants there. They were Stewart tartan, with a strap from leg to leg, and flaps on the front and the back. They were the business. There was also a shop called Flava on the ground floor. Actually I think technically that wasn’t in Affleck’s but the place sort of spilled up the street. I used to get these massive, really massive jeans there called ‘Over Bags’. I would love to visit that place, as it was then, once more.
Oh and I have to be a little bit vague about this one because I don’t want to get anyone in any trouble. But a few years ago my mate introduced me to her husband who manages the stalls on quite a well known vintage market. He gets the nod on so much killer stuff so I love going round to his and begging him to part with things. Now, this is where it gets sneaky, he hasn’t got room for everything and my mate will give stuff to the charity shops around Walthamstow. They are very very very worth visiting if she’s had a clear out.
“we are really proud of our clothes, how they are made, and equally proud of the people that are involved with us.”
Chris Lynd
Tell us one thing that people might not know about you?
A: I’ve got two. I have the most beautiful feet of any human person. Also, I am not a tall person but I’m not that short either. Now to the naked eye, I appear to be five foot six inches tall, but I am actually in real life, honest to goodness, bonefide, medically certified, genuine article FIVE FOOT ELEVEN.
What or who would be your dream collaboration?
A: So there’s loads of brands that I’d love to collaborate with, but I think collaborations should be about celebrating the thing you love best about the other collaborator, so it would be nice to work with someone or a brand that just does something totally outside of our wheelhouse. I love Clarks so so so so much, so I’d love to do something with them. One of my other all time favourite shoes is a Cortez so I would love to do some of those.
But what I’d really really like to do is collaborate with partners totally outside of what I do. I have a tendency to get very very locked on to an artist, or a band, and only listen to one thing for months on end. I’ve had one or two of those in the last year. In the summer I got locked on to Tropical Fuck Storm. I love them so much. They’re just so creative, and they inspired me a lot in all kinds of ways. I think that everything they do is just touched by genius. I would really love to work with them somehow. And there’s a California Band called the Growlers. I’ve loved them for years, but I saw them last summer and became besotted. I love the pictures they paint, and the world they’ve created. I’d love to add something to that story.
If anyone, alive or dead, could wear your designs, who would it be?
A: CLARENCE AND ALABAMA, SIDNEY AND BILLY
What’s next for ULLAC?
A: This is a tricky one, and I think it’s hard to talk about without reflecting on what’s happening right now. Having said that I find it quite tricky to talk about COVID-19 in relation to ULLAC because it all seems quite trivial and insignificant compared with the reality that so many people are facing right now. People are battling COVID-19, people, fucking heroes, are putting themselves on the line, running around out there trying to protect us from illness, trying to keep food and supply chains going, keeping the streets clean and the lights switched on. Those are really big serious conversations. When everything first started to become very real, and the lockdowns began to happen here in the UK we saw a lot of independent brands we really like, and stores we love, writing to their communities with messages about supporting independent business. That’s totally fine, I love those brands and those stores, I believe in supporting independent business and I really am deeply grateful for the support that we have also received from our community, but we didn’t feel like that’s how we wanted to talk about it or react to what was going on.
Like a lot of people, the psychological barrage of it all hit us. We felt a great deal of anxiety. Anxiety fueled by addiction to the news, and the feeling of helplessness as this thing crept in and began to take hold of people’s lives in so many ways, and how the media became dominated by very, very sad numbers. This was all dialed up by the fact that me and my family went in to a 14 day self isolation before the official UK lockdown.
Kyle and I were both really feeling it, and then a night or two after Boris made the lockdown official a good friend of ours and a really wonderful and strange human Matty sent us a video of him dancing on the beach near his home on the south coast. It was stupid, and lovely and it was joy. It cut through all the noise. So we decided that was how to deal with what was happening publicly. We shared that video with our community hoping that it would cut through some of the noise. Along with it we sent out quite a long message about how we thought it was best to deal with it all. The jist, is basically try to remember to cut the noise when you can and one day we’ll all be out there walking and dancing like Matty again. Oh and give a little love and it all comes back to you.
So now I’ve said that, this is what’s next. First, we need to get through this, it’s hard but we will get through. But there’s going to be a big change to the way we do things and move forward. At the beginning of this year we were working on designs and gathering fabric samples and getting ready to start sampling for our next collection. But then, most of our suppliers suspended any kind of manufacturing, and we had to close our studio. So all of that went on hold.
Add to this the big financial strain that this has had, and will continue to have on us, I think the rest of the year is going to look very different. Sampling an entire collection is quite costly, but also it takes a long time to get it all in place, so I don’t think we’re going to follow that pattern, not for a good old while anyway. I think we’ll be putting out a lot of singles rather than albums for a while which is very fun. It gives us a lot of creative freedom. I’ve got a whole bunch of sketches and ideas and a loose story I want to tell, but I don’t need to be too worried about if everything sits perfectly together. Putting out work piece by piece and working more on pre-orders gives us a chance to play around with lots of different directions and it’s a much quicker way to start telling stories again. This way of doing things is also much MUCH better for the world.
Name a fellow friend / creative who you think should be interviewed for HOW DID YOU GET HERE?
A: Spencer Murphy. He’s a wonderful photographer, and a wonderful human. I love him.
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