2xH Brothers is a label established in 2014 and founded by the two brothers Søren and Kristian Harresø.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do. We are the brothers Søren Harresø and Kristian Harresø, heads of our own clothing brand 2xH Brothers, which we established in 2014. The mission of the brand name is that the number 2 reports that there are two of us. The H represents our family name; Harresø and the last and best part; brothers imply that we are real brothers.
After years of working with the fashion industry seen from a business acumen, we thought to ourselves, that we needed new challenges. Therefore we founded the brand, because we wondered what it would be like behind the scenes of fashion instead of performing “on stage” as the sales person. Therefore we decided found the brand as we saw it as a natural step for us. The fact of being able and given the opportunity to add our own personal DNA and style into salable products by bringing our designs to the market.
How has living in Kolding affected your work? Kolding has always meant a great deal for the both of us. It is the city of where we are born and raised, and also the city which framed our youth and grown up life. Therefore for us it was obvious, that we founded the label in Kolding.
On our small team we also have the newly graduated Louise Egebro, who has a MA Degree in menswear fashion from Kolding School of Design, which also geographically is based in Kolding, as our designer. It was very important for us that the designer of our company had a connection to the city, and preferably we would like a designer from Kolding School of Design so we definitely think that we lucked out when we got our hands on Louise.
What kinds of things are influencing your work right now? The inspirational sources come from a variety of different places — but the main focus and starting point is ourselves. Each of our identities of the small team we have collected, shine through and we only do what we feel is right. Throughout the process of designing our collections it is therefore an important factor, that our collections contains elements that represent every one of us.
Usually our collections evolve around recognizable and significant details, which supports a conceptual theme in shaping and execution, and due to our monochrome colour scale — regardless of seasons — our selection of fabrics always has an increased and strong focus on bringing materials with special surfaces in the collections, as the new colour range is to be found in the tactility and sounds of the fabrics.
What are some recent, upcoming or current projects you are working on? We recently just finished our upcoming SS16 collection. This will be our third collection represented and we really look forward displaying it for you guys. This will be an extension of our AW15 collection, which we have gotten great feedback on, but in a much lighter and brighter version.
What do you want a viewer to walk away with after experiencing your work? Our biggest wish is that the consumer reflectively considers our collections and brand as a label that really wants to make a difference. Our style is cocky and quirky and contains a lot of fashion forwarding details.
Desirably we would like the viewer to be left with a feeling of having been shown a collection, with experimental peculiarities that they rarely have seen, but still with the sense of feeling, that the look is obtainable without looking odd when dressing in 2xH Brothers.
What’s your absolute favorite place in the city/the world to be? We have chosen to dive into the definition of what are pleasurable destinations for us to travel to. Therefore we have made a division of what our primary needs consists of. If focusing on fashion we definitely think that Hong Kong is very fashion forward, and we both enjoy exploring the Eastern take on fashion. The style and silhouettes are refreshingly more experimental than the fashion we see in the European countries.
Without fuel, the wheels won’t spin and the same goes for our stomach and us. A culinary and different experience worthy is “The Bird” in Berlin. They serve the best imaginable beef and burgers. We are head over heals in love with the atmosphere at the restaurant, the staff and especially their cockiness. In their menu they command to eat the damn burger with your hands.
When we need a serious break from our busy everyday life we go skiing. Our favorite place to hit the slopes is Austria, Ishcgl. We love the fresh breath of air and the after ski parties.
What were you like in high school? Studying has never been a strong side of ours; therefore it is actually only Kristian who finished his business college. We hit the labor market in a relatively young age and gained our knowledge from business partners and colleagues.
Favorite article of clothing? We are all about accessorizing our attires with shoes, shades and hats, and everywhere we go, if we find something untypically to be seen in the streets, we buy it. Our favorite shoe labels at the moment are the Danish brand The Last Conspiracy and German Trippen — both actors within shoes of quality and a their look matches our strong demands. When having a bad hair day, we disguise the bird’s nest on our heads with hats. Beton Ciré and Nasir Mazhar are momentarily our preferable brands of doing the job of hiding hair failures.