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All-In’s Spring/Summer 2024 show, to be held in Paris on Thursday, was meant to take shape at a studio space in the suburb of Montreuil. But, with mere weeks to go, the studio fell through, and show prep was relocated to founders Benjamin Barron and Bror August Vestbø’s one bedroom apartment in Paris’s 5th arrondissement. Their bedroom became a mini atelier for last-minute bedazzling, their front door a revolving door for models and their spacious living room a fitting suite, filled with garments, fabrics and shoes — lots of shoes.
“We’re making it work!” Barron says, gesturing towards stacks of fabric boxes. The atmosphere is calm in the apartment-cum-studio, as models try on the yet-to-be-revealed looks. While Vestbø adjusts straps, Barron presents the board of looks – 33, 10 more than last season.
The show is the brand’s second formal outing as a fashion label, following a SS23 collection that featured its signature Level boots and jewellery sandals — strappy stiletto sandals with bulbous silver hearts, suspended from criss-cross straps, which have been spotted on Elle editors and Kylie Jenner. All-In is carried by six stockists, including Ssense and H Lorenzo, and the team hopes to land more retail partners this season. The ambition is to grow from its current revenues of over €100,000, 70 per cent of which come from wholesale. However, scaling comes with challenges, particularly for a brand that came together not so intentionally.
The industry has bought in. “Since its inception, All-In has achieved immense viral success, amassing a dedicated community of renowned stylists, top celebrities and artists from around the globe,” says Swedish Fashion Council CEO Jennie Rosén. Barron and Vestbøjoined its SFC[Incubator] in 2022, securing mentorship and industry connections, and presenting in the SFC showroom, after an early small showing caught Rosén’s eye. “We believe All-In will be a part of shaping the next generation of fashion,” she adds.
A pivot to fashion
It’s all happening relatively fast, considering All-In’s start was somewhat accidental. It started as an independent fashion magazine, launched in 2015 and still running today. However, when All-In founder and editor-in-chief Barron met Norwegian designer Vestbø at the magazine’s first launch event in New York, the two quickly became collaborators, working together across All-In shoots and Vestbø’s former fashion brand, Bror August. In 2019, the duo started making one of a kind, upcycled clothing to shoot for the magazine, created using found materials and flea market finds. They set up a small showroom in Paris in an Airbnb that same year, and invited friends to come along, including designer Maryam Nassir Zadeh.
“Maryam was very excited about the pieces and encouraged us to keep going,” Barron says. All-In held a small runway show in Maryam Nassir Zadeh’s New York store during New York Fashion Week in September 2019, subsequently selling the pieces in the store. Stylist Lotta Volkova (who has worked with Balenciaga, Vetements and Miu Miu) was the first person to buy a dress. She then walked in the brand’s SS23 show and is now styling the SS24 show. “It’s full circle,” Barron says. “We really learn a lot from her”.
After the New York show, Vestbø headed home to Oslo for a masters in fashion design at Oslo National Academy of the Arts, working on All-In as part of his studies. When Covid hit, Barron joined him there. And, when lockdowns lifted, the duo took an artist’s residency at Paris gallery Cité des Arts, meaning they could work with no overheads for rent and focus on designing All-In clothes from the French capital.
As they settled in Paris, Barron and Vestbø decided to hold a small show off-schedule in September 2021, debuting the collection they’d been working on in Oslo, titled ‘Miss France’. They funded it with their own money, working on freelance consultancy gigs alongside the magazine. The pieces were still heavily upcycled, one-of-a-kind dresses that couldn’t be reproduced.
“When we started the project, it didn’t start from a sales perspective at all,” Vestbø says. “And then, as people were saying that they wanted to buy the clothing, we would very often say, ‘sorry, but this is one of a kind made from a sweater.’ We found it's impossible to reproduce.”
That posed a problem, if the brand wanted to evolve from a project into a proper fashion label.
Scaling production and sacrificing upcycling
Wondering how to scale the brand for SS23, Barron and Vestbø approached their friends and design consultants, Sébastien Malpartida and Bibi Brandi B of consultancy BBSM, to figure out how to reproduce and manufacture All-In pieces at a bigger scale. “I had Sébastien over for dinner and showed him the collection. At first he was optimistic but when he looked, he realised it was impossible,” Barron says. “Everything was a mix of like 15 different materials.”
After that meeting, Barron and Vestbø knew they had to make some changes in order to scale All-In. They started with shoes, which had received a lot of attention from press in their previous collections. (Vogue’s Laird Borrelli Persson, called the shoes “the stars” of the show). The last show featured lots of new shoe styles and colours, manufactured in Italy in collaboration with BBSM.
The now-viral jewellery sandals weren’t a hit with buyers. “We felt very strongly about that shoe,” says Barron. “There was a question about whether it was even going to go into production because we had received fewer orders than we anticipated. We did invest in having a bit more stock and just thinking that it was going to work out and in that case it was a lucky experience because it did actually end up being a bestseller.”
All-In shoes are produced from new materials, after much exploration of deadstock options, Barron says. “It’s pretty much impossible to make a scalable shoe that actually works on that basis,” he says. “So, we figured the best thing to do is just to create the designs that we thought were exciting, have longevity and are good quality.” Vestbø and Barron also produced very limited runs of a handful of garments, to be sold on Ssense. But, for the most part, the clothing was still upcycled and one-of-a-kind, available for private order from their website.
While it’s a shift in gear, “upcycling brand” is not a label Barron and Vestbø are attached to as All-In’s defining characteristic. “Sustainability is a great perk to working with used clothing, but the reason for it is more because it’s an exciting process for us,” Barron says, “Now, as we produce our pieces, in terms of sustainability, what we think is one of the most important things is just to avoid overproduction.” All-In’s studio space is too small to hold stock, so they work in very small quantities. The brand only shows once a year and is keeping its stockist list tight and selective, in order to minimise overproduction as it scales, Vestbø says.
In addition to stores and direct-to-consumer sales, a large part of All-In’s business is personal orders, with high-ticket, one of a kind looks proving popular with affluent private clients. A top and skirt featuring towelling on the shoulders and hips was a particular hit, Vestbø says. Together, they retail for €1,575. As the brand grows it will continue to make showpieces to serve this customer base, Barrons says, albeit fewer and further between.
The SS24 show will intersperse statement pieces with more wearable fabrics like jersey and denim, and separates that are versatile, Vestbø says. “The more people want to wear our stuff, the more we want to make it wearable,” he says.
Barron and Vestbø finished the collection earlier this season, so they could make a linesheet for the showroom in time, Vestbø says. “Last time was testing the waters,” he says. “I think we’re ready now — we know how to fulfil an order and take on what the expectations are. We feel really confident.”
Key takeaway: All-In began as an upcycling project not intended for sale. Now, in response to growing interest in the label, the founders are gradually pivoting their design and production to create a scalable fashion brand, learning from industry mentors in styling and production to help them grow responsibly.
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