Based in London, Orlebar Brown was founded by Adam Brown and launched in March 2007 as a tailored approach to men’s swim shorts. OB Classic swim shorts remain the original and best ‘short you can swim in’, offering something you can wear on the beach or by the pool, yet smart enough to wear to lunch or for a drink. In 2010, they progressed from beach to resort with a full range of holiday clothes that can also be incorporated into everyday wardrobes, including polos, chinos and shirts. In addition, they offer a Design Your Own service which enables you to create your own bespoke pair of photographic swim shorts using the #SnapShorts app in-store or online. Adam came up with the idea for Orlebar Brown “by accident” in 2005 when on holiday in Rajasthan for a friend’s 40th birthday. Sat around the pool, Adam noticed that while the women in the group looked great, the men did not – which became even more apparent when only the men had to change their clothes to have lunch in the bar.
In this episode of the MenswearStyle Podcast we interview Adam Brown, Founder of Orlebar Brown about the founding story of the brand and how he launched the label with just one product, men's swim shorts. Our host Peter Brooker and Adam also talk about dressing James Bond in Skyfall and how they were given access to explore the Eon Productions film archives when designing their popular 007 casual clothing collections.
Adam Brown will be sharing his best advice on utilising data insights to understand customers and minimise business costs at Vodafone’s #ThoseWhoDare virtual conference on Thursday 20th May 2021. As part of its ambition to support SMEs, the week-long event will feature keynotes from over 30 dynamic and game-changing entrepreneurs. Register your attendance here.
Whilst we have your attention, be sure to sign up to our daily MenswearStyle newsletter here. We promise to only send you the good stuff.
Based in London, Orlebar Brown was founded by Adam Brown and launched in March 2007 as a tailored approach to men’s swim shorts. OB Classic swim shorts remain the original and best ‘short you can swim in’, offering something you can wear on the beach or by the pool, yet smart enough to wear to lunch or for a drink. In 2010, they progressed from beach to resort with a full range of holiday clothes that can also be incorporated into everyday wardrobes, including polos, chinos and shirts. In addition, they offer a Design Your Own service which enables you to create your own bespoke pair of photographic swim shorts using the #SnapShorts app in-store or online. Adam came up with the idea for Orlebar Brown “by accident” in 2005 when on holiday in Rajasthan for a friend’s 40th birthday. Sat around the pool, Adam noticed that while the women in the group looked great, the men did not – which became even more apparent when only the men had to change their clothes to have lunch in the bar.
In this episode of the MenswearStyle Podcast we interview Adam Brown, Founder of Orlebar Brown about the founding story of the brand and how he launched the label with just one product, men's swim shorts. Our host Peter Brooker and Adam also talk about dressing James Bond in Skyfall and how they were given access to explore the Eon Productions film archives when designing their popular 007 casual clothing collections.
Adam Brown will be sharing his best advice on utilising data insights to understand customers and minimise business costs at Vodafone’s #ThoseWhoDare virtual conference on Thursday 20th May 2021. As part of its ambition to support SMEs, the week-long event will feature keynotes from over 30 dynamic and game-changing entrepreneurs. Register your attendance here.
Whilst we have your attention, be sure to sign up to our daily MenswearStyle newsletter here. We promise to only send you the good stuff.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of The menswear style podcast. I'm your host Pete Brooker. On this episode I'm going to talk to the founder of Oliver Brown, Adam Brown. Adam came up with the idea for all over brown by accident in 2005 went on holiday in registan for a friend's 40th birthday sat around the pool, Adam noticed that while the women in the group look great, and men did not, which became even more apparent when only the men had to change their clothes to have lunch in the bar. So the idea for all of our Brown was conceived and the brand launched in March 2007, offering a more tailored approach to men's beach and swim shorts, something you can wear on the beach by the pool, and that's smart enough for drinks or lunch too. Now, Adam has teamed up with Vodafone group to speak at the brand's Lowe's who dare virtual event taking place from Monday 17th to Friday, the 21st of May. The event is aimed at SMEs which is small, medium enterprises. And we'll give business owners the opportunity to hear more about those 30 daring, disruptive and ambitious entrepreneurs who each share their own unique approach to starting and growing a business. Now I caught up with Adam for a quick chat about the brand about James Bond, Vodafone, and much more in here is Adam, in his own words, telling me how it all began. Yeah, sure. I'm Adam Brown, I start sort of our brand was as a tailored approach to swim shorts. About 14 years ago in 2007. We launched with one product we launched with one style of tailor swim shorts and we've evolved into a full sort of holiday resort knife style collection is based around holidays. Okay, so sunshine, everything is Sunshine travel happiness and good time. Excellent. Right now moving on to Skyfall. I know you're probably sick to death of the James Bond connection, get asked 1000 times but perhaps people became more aware of your brand through the introduction of Daniel Craig weighing them in Skyfall. Is that right? Yeah, I mean, that was a real moment of luck. I think we we weren't where it was gonna happen. We're obviously extremely pleased when it did. And even though it's a sort of blink and you miss that moment, who has a fundamental Yeah, reaching an international audience through a name a franchise like James Wright bond, brand, like bond is, is no mean feat. And it was a hugely instrumental in us in the success that we had of the future years. It was a real It was one of those moments, you know, for us, it was first of all, for any small brand it would be and ultimately really rewarding for you as well. I mentioned I remember you telling me on the first mood boards that you had, you had Sean Connery up there on the on the noticeboard, etc, as inspiration for the brands ever. Yeah, I think Sean Connery or the James Bond, there are iconic pix images and same with the Bond films. And whether it was Jacqueline Sean Connery, whether it was Roger Moore, you know, that incident sort of fashion moments, and on the original ideas board, you know, but all of our brands just sort of a concept. The pictures there along with others, but it's so it's and there's sort of shared values between the two brands, which is very nice. So when it did, when that when the Skype or moment came came out, it felt like a sort of validation of all those things that we've been working to over the first five, five or six years. You know, for that moment, you actually have this right, yeah. Wow. Congratulations. And since then, subsequent collections have come out the I think the heritage collection was the last one that you did through the James Bond franchise. And so we've got this third, instalment in a moment, and what are we allowed to talk about, if anything with regards to the third instalment? asked me, What can we expect? Is there going to be maybe a villains range? Is it going to be more into the other characters? Will? We not those sort of ideas, I think are interesting. They're all sorts of characters related to the Bond films that could be very interesting to explore in the future. No, we're still on we're still firmly on w seven and we're firmly exploring the archives of his wardrobe and we are looking at you know, it's amazing the the breadth of whether it's fabric basis, whether it's design signatures, whether it's a striper lapel or colour or you know, just the through the ages, you know, whether it was in the 60s 70s 80s and 90s you know, those those fashion moments so you can keep on talking about so so it's a I think especially with this sort of completion of that particular way we talk talk about bond but your I think you spoke about this, you know, all those different ways you can continue this conversation is are interesting to explore and And you have access to the archives. I imagine when you're doing the research to get these guns together, how is that? How does that process work? Well, it's very collaborative. And there's they have the archive view, where you start off looking through imagery, you go through everything you can find his face his research, as you would do with any other with any other with any other collection, you're developing, I think they do have this sort of incredible archive, just outside London, which you can go and have a look at. And they're remarkably generous with the access that we're allowed to it. And there are people there who literally know every scene of every Bond film, and every detail of what they've won is quite extraordinary. And actually bring the whole the whole the spawn story more to that even more to light. Yeah. It's amazing the level of detail, because I mean, it's, I think perhaps what people don't realise about Aeon is that it's a family run company, and has been for a long time. And it's not this huge, massive conglomerate company with many hundreds of people working for them. So you have the archivist, I think makes Simmons, it's been there for a long time. Those years, and it's the other people. That's nice. Yeah, I think that when people stay at places for a long time, and people really enjoy what they're doing, they feel passionately about the subject that they're talking about, you know, that really comes through like she's the person who knows all the details she absolutely everything. You couldn't you could ask her anything or any drawing any poster any, any prop any, any stunt that went wrong or right or whatever, it's you knows that right back? And are there actually many clothes in the archive? So you know, there aren't. So I mean, the the archive goes back a long way. But yeah, I think has many, the Roger Moore, the green jacket, the green jacket, from them, the Golden Gun was sort of one, which I loved here. We had that in the office. Oh, fantastic. And so there's something about these, these signature moments in the film, which has sort of real fashion significance, that actually having that jacket in the offices was kind of special. And also what was great was when we went there was we had the sort of a sort of call sheets whether when the sky for for the shorts were going into the scene. So it was lovely sort of had the short answer. And they have to the original call sheets and all the instructions of what was happening during that scene. So that was really cool. So I love that I, I had a chat once with Paul Duncan, who did the tashan archives book for James Bond. And he said it was just like being in Disneyland for him. He saw the call sheet that one of the producers I think maybe Saltzman had ordered the white bra for us or address and said like you go go pick this up from JC Penney's, or whatever it was, and he just said this was just an adult son assuming just stashed away no muscle sniffing there as well. It's sort of extraordinary things he just sort of come across a sort of dragged out of the box are often said. And what about the shorts at Daniel Craig wore the set of shorts and skyfold. Now they then come back to the office and say, Now, these are the ones that have been No, we didn't surprise me. We didn't need those. We've actually got it. We've got it. We've got some pairs of those. We knew what they look like. But no those. Yeah, it was it was great. They chose one of our It was our best selling car. Yeah, after Navy. Any light blue coloured sky colours is now called Riviera. But that that colour is second best selling con. And so it's extremely hard without any sort of input. They chose that. And it still is a sort of mainstay in the collection. So but it was good. Excellent. Well, listen, thanks for indulging me. I know that we've covered a few but I understand you're doing some work with Vodafone. Now you're going to be speaking at an event perhaps you can just talk a little bit about that, please. Yeah, no, I'm just really, really pleased. They asked me I think I'm past the the who does those events. It's a week long virtual event with you encouraging interesting discussion and thought provoking ideas. Yes. And so I'm extremely fast. They've asked me to be part of it. And this is going to be live. This is something that people can access. Yes, we have a week long event. Launch, I think in about in on May the 17th. Okay. Tom will double check that review in the background. But there will be details over a mentor style.co.uk we'll put up all the links and show notes and where we can catch Adam. And if you want to grill him on some more James Bond talk which I will be doing then the place to go. Are you looking forward to no time to die? I turn Yeah, yes. Yes. I mean, Oh, you've been really interesting. Yeah. I think it's really interesting. everything that's going on in the wider world and see how bond adapts and evolves. And you know what happens, you know, there's all talk about Daniel Craig would be really interesting to see how it happens. What, what, what what kicks off can honestly can't Yeah, yeah, I know this is a very, very long time now as well, like a long time that we've been waiting. And plus he returns to GoldenEye where Fleming wrote the book for Jamaica, especially, and you did the photo shoot for one of the collections. In Villa, which is extremely if anyone I recommend anyone who can get this is fortunate enough to get over to Jamaica and get killed. Nice, really well worth it. You do fit, you know, when you're in Fleming's house, and you're sitting in the room where he wrote the novels, this is one of those romantic moments looking out at the sea. Yeah, it's interesting, it's extraordinary, pretty incredible. Because for people that don't know that, the table is just there. I mean, people can rent out the villa sitting by a window in the bedroom. And you can just you can sit at that chair at that desk and look out at the view and imagine him writing it and the house up, you know, where the gold light is not this vast filler, but it just has this sort of romance to it. And this this because it has this history and this narrative has all this sort of symbolic just feeling about it. You know, when you're there you feel like there's something something fun happened before. Yeah. And obviously, you know, many other people's since then have stayed in this house. And yeah, it's a it's a happy house. You feel like it's a good time to have been out. Yeah, no, absolutely. It's come a long way since no coward first visited in called IP, GoldenEye. Nose and Throat I think in other words, he's more than me on that. Yeah. Well, I mean, just up the road is where no coward houses Firefly, so I'm not sure if he managed to get through the tour. But that's even more incredible, because so when I was there, at the start of the year, I want to say last year, so it's been a year, but I think acid, it was a last holiday I had so it was just before a freak show on there as well as Yeah, were you on holiday in the villa? No, but I did manage to get in there. I did sneak in there so that on minute one, when I arrived, I said to the people there the service stuff, how do I get in? Who do I need to pay? And they said it's fully booked for the next two weeks and no one's going in. I spent the rest of the time trying to hustle to get in there. And I finally got in there just before my taxi arrived to take me to the airport. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you manage again? Yeah. That makes that makes sense. Very kinda they, they organise it that we say that so we shot there. We woke up there in the morning. We, you know, they, they very kindly. We managed to get get get this right. Yeah. Well, I mean, we stayed in GoldenEye. So as a result, we managed to stay in GoldenEye then the flaming beloved's. Yeah, we were in the network. I mean, it was quite that sorry. That's what I mean. It's quite mind by staying in that Villa, even though you can be on the resort or be, you know, in the near it, but actually, you know, we're fortunate I've stayed in one of the, in the bungalow in bungalows, just around the villa. Nice, nice, very, very envious. But, Adam, Listen, I'll let you go. I appreciate you got a heart out, as they say in the trade. And it would be remiss if I didn't ask you if there was anything that we can expect to see of all of a brown in no time today. I couldn't possibly. Fair enough. You're left to forget your account. Wait. Wait. Adam Brown. Thanks so much for joining us, Evan. great talking to you. Thanks a lot. All right. Thank you, Adam. Once more, you can check out the collections we mentioned over at WWW dot all of a brown.com we'll leave all the details of that Vodafone event over on the show notes over at menswear style dot code at UK. We're also on the social at menswear style. Give us a follow join in the action baby. Thank you for tuning in. If you like what you hear, why not leave a review. It does help our egos doesn't take a second and if you want to be a guest on the show, tell us about your brand your journey you can email us here at info at menswear style.co.uk until next time,