Sir Anthony Jeans Co. pop-up store pioneers local-fashion retail experience
“Freedom Month” saw the exciting launch of a first of its kind independent retail pop-up store by Sir Anthony Jeans Co, in Vosloorus. A fashion brand popular to its customers for its denim-styled designs and apparel. It officially opened its doors to the public on the 23rd of April 2021 , to reintroduce both itself alongside its new product offerings and initiatives to the community and the township-economy at large.
Anthony Kobane, owner, and founder of Sir Anthony Jeans Co. started his creative entrepreneurial journey in 2014, with the full support of his family at his home, in Ext 9, where he grew up and has had his studio/creative headquarters since the beginning. The exact opposite end of the stick and opposite-side of the neighborhood is where he intentionally decided his new store should be located — Basothong Section. Same area code, 1475, but with nuanced cultural expressions of the township story.
In my own curious exploration of what freedom means to youth in my neighborhood in 2021, I had an in-between busy chat with Anthony at his studio, following my visit to his new store on Freedom Day, 27 April, in an attempt to break cliches of the day’s typical celebrations.
Anthony as a person is a cool down-to-earth and introverted soul, sharper than his demeanor can give off in his natural habitat where he lives and breaths design ideas. He doesn't call attention to himself and explicitly states that “I’m really not a flashy person” ….“I’m a constructionist” above being just a designer. Constructionism is an approach and school of thought driven strongly by a rebellious stance that overlooks the need to define human interaction within the boxed-in definitions and classifications of cultural boundaries, without completely dismissing its validity.
Anthony says the brand “not only celebrates and promotes creativity and individualism but also prides itself as a community-builder”. An important task that challenges the youth to be better and opening up opportunities for sustainable livelihoods through job creation and collaboration, especially in a country where the youth unemployment rate stands at a whopping 43,2%, and can no longer be swept under the rugs of government’s failures.
Since its inception, the brand has evolved in leaps and bounds along with its creator who has had the pleasure and honor of making a runway debut during iconic fashion designer David Tlale’s homage show Tlale Vosloo To New York in 2019. A jewel in the dust, and, in the same respect a hybrid and disrupter in a space where operating a retail store and/or e-commerce business means you fall into strict definitions and business categories like “concept store”, “flagship store” or downright plain “informal business”. Outside the store, Anthony also supplies his products to pop-up stores in and around parts of Johannesburg, as well as creates customized bespoke pieces for a lot of class of A-listers.
Self-funded, the fact that the store launched during the pivot of both the COVID19 crisis and sluggish economic growth is an impressive feat that positions the store as a destination location that integrates the township into the mainstream economy through minimalist enterprises resourced on the brains and brawn of an all-local team. From the landscaping to the design of the container, shelves, etc.
An illustration rendered by Interior Designer, Itumeleng is the glory child of the outcome of the launch's creative collaboration between Sir Anthony Jeans Co. and Terracotta Cells. It epitomises the spirit and conceptual thinking behind the brand's deviation away from its pure jeans collections into t-shirts, bags, and hats. According to Terracotta Cells, the illustration “ focuses on the reconstruction and layering technique of threads to produce denim. The layered threads create the form of a circle to reinforce the notion of unity and the community that the brand creates and receives its inspiration from.”
Located in a high-traffic zone the store is both a destination shopping location for tourists and locals alike, set to become a definitive feature and poster child of the revitalization of township urban spaces and socially inclusive long-term wealth creation in the township eco-system. An assertive stance and shared strength the brand holds to speak directly to freedom in the economic sense of things, while proactively taking back power by living the dream and at the same time redeeming the negative narrative labeled onto black consumer behavior.
In light of black culture, Anthony says the negative stereotypes “of the black underprivileged child” (a.ka. aaaarg shame syndrome) is an oppressive fallacy that his brand shatters, saying that his products have been well-received by the market in their uniqueness. He also mentions that his customers are always willing to pay for his high-value quality clothing because inherently they also believe that they deserve premium quality denim products and clothing close to, if not, where they live.
What makes me personally happy about the store is the prospect of healthy and high-value brands Sir Anthony Jeans Co and others that are also emerging, coming into the play of things to repossess the space that has so easily been infiltrated and claimed by mass-consumer monopoly franchise models that have carved a space in the hearts of some townships in the country but don't even produce quality at the level of artisanal workmanship that you can find in this store. Proudly local, proudly South African.
When I ask him what have been the most critical building blocks for him that ensured that his business gets to this level of execution, he smiles simply and in the same light calm tone, responds ;
