Donkwear was born out of Northern culture and vintage garments. Intertwining the working class ravers from the North with forward thinking fashion that is both sustainable and stylish pretty much sums up the Donkwear label. Started by the two creatives Sam and Madi; they work using second hand garments to up-cycle and recreate in their own unique style. Sam and Madi use techniques such as bleaching and appliqué to give each individual garment the Donk aesthetic which could be best described as comical and playful. Read on to hear more from Sam as he talks about his brand with Coeval.

How did Donkwear come about?

Well Madi has studied fashion and I studied graphics. After kinda knowing each other for years we got together in 2018 and since then we’ve just been making work together and it seems to go down well with people. We worked creatively for a vintage shop in Manchester reworking damaged garments - we think this is where we really learned how to work with each other and now we no longer work for the shop as Donk seems to be gaining a life of its own.

The name ‘Donkwear’ is in reference to the Northern based music genre ‘Donk’, but how does the high BPM dance music relate to your brand?

Donk obviously has is connotations to the people who know - working class, northern, rave... me and Madi were raised on donk. We’re two working class people from the North - everything we do is Donk. As a graphic designer I knew the word donk was just a good-looking word - it’s expressive and also perfectly encapsulates our brands cheeky ethos.

You are based in Manchester - how does the city influence your work?

Our studio is inside a nightclub, we often have people on nights out who have wondered up discussing ideas. Even if they are absolutely spangled - it’s still nice! We often influence one another and we make things for each other all the time. We try not to let outside ideas influence us too much - we think being in our own bubble is really important. Manchester has so many seriously creative hard working people but it still feels like to find a desirable creative job London is the only option - and that’s something we’d really love to change in the long run.

The concept of ‘Donkwear’ is based on customising old clothes to give them a DIY aesthetic, what techniques do you use to up cycle the garments?

We use techniques like airbrushing, bleaching, dying, appliqué or basically anyway of covering up a stain or rip. I honestly think we could do something with everything - it all just depends on how you choose to repurpose it. Our techniques are an immediate reaction to the individual garments - that makes most of our pieces one off and unique.

Your main customer base is through Instagram, how does this work?

At the moment our main customer base is Instagram - we have a current stockist and are in talks at the moment with another London based store. We never decided to have an online store as we never needed one. Donk has grown organically - we were just sharing images of clothes we made and we’d sell some. Now we make the items knowing that they’ll be uploaded to Instagram to be sold. It’s easy and you get to speak to the customer which we really encourage! If you are Manchester based we much prefer you to come by the studio and have a spliff n a brew with us. We think we’re gunna get a TikTok on the go too lol.

Recently your clothes have been styled on fashion designer Mowalola, how did this collaboration come about?

It was weird because I was talking to my friend about who my favourite designers are two days before we got asked to send the garment. So it was pretty crazy - we were buzzing about this one. Lee Trigg is a stylist based in London and she is the plug. She’s mint we love her. She understands how garments are made and how much work genuinely goes into it all - and we really appreciate being involved. So many people have begun making their own clothes/brands and sometimes it feels like you’re in a sea of people who are doing very similar things so when jobs like this come up it’s always reassuring that we are standing out.

Donkwear is a super sustainable brand due to your use of second hand garments, however what are you views on the fashion industry as a whole becoming more sustainable?

Fuck fast fashion so much. The only fashion jobs you can get in Manchester are Boohoo, Misguided... all the other shite. We also see them brands using sustainability as a USP whist still making the same shit for people who don’t care. It’s obviously a hot topic in fashion right now but how can we as conscious consumers do anything. It’s out of our hands. It’s up to the big companies/factories to make the changes to the products to ensure they are sustainable. Working in a vintage store has really opened my eyes too how many clothes their are already existing in the world and it’s crazy. Also we’re sustainable cos we’re skint, we’ve got to try and make the most out of what we’ve got in the studio - you’d be surprised what you can make out of scraps.

What do you have upcoming for Donkwear?

Momentum seems to be picking up for us we’ve got a few interviews and shoots coming out. We’d really like to put on another exhibition but times are tough at the moment. We’ll just keep making who knows what’s next!