“he must survive all your T-shirts”

The brand new Club 24 Fashion entered the market last summer with a clear product: a premium, but comfortable T-shirt that you can wear 24/7. It makes the Club a lifestyle brand, even more than a fashion brand. What kind of philosophy is behind that? FashionUnited wanted to know more and sat down with Daan Romers and Ruben Brand, co-owners of the club.

T-shirt frustration

A DJ and a milliner. That’s a strange combination for a fashion brand, and yet it works very well. Where Brand already has 18 years of experience with numerous major brands, Romers knows the man who is looking for the perfect universal T-shirt from the room. Club 24 brings their worlds together.

The seed was planted during the corona period, when Brand had a wedding just before the lockdown for which he was looking for a sleek look. “I said: I can’t find a good T-shirt to wear under my suit anywhere. I’ve been working in the fashion industry for years and yet I can’t find a decent T-shirt. It was really a frustration. At that moment I started thinking. I went into the shops and looked everywhere: nowhere was there a T-shirt that suited my needs.” Romers recognized that feeling.

Effortlessly fashionable 24/7

Fortunately, Brand knew another good designer from the trade, Isabel Figlarek, who had design experience at PVH and Hunkemöller, among others. She liked the concept so much that she wanted to become a co-owner. That completes the trio. The mission was, as Brand puts it, a 24/7 T-shirt. “In the morning you put it on as a no-brainer under your business outfit. When you’re done working, you take off your jacket, you turn your sleeve, it says ‘free again’ and you can go straight into the club or to the restaurant.”

Bottom line is that you can come out as a man without having to think too much. The T-shirt is comfortable and you don’t have to go home to change. It is not too thick for the summer and you can also wear it in the winter. “It’s actually an essential that a man should always have in his closet,” explains Brand. To test this all-in-one concept, he asked retailers, buyers and designers for their unvarnished opinion. “I’ve let it go to a lot of people and everyone says sincerely: this is a full-fledged, super cool and cool product.”

Business and sweaty clubs

“He is more of the day and looks neat,” Romers says of his business partner. “I’m more nightlife and sometimes I’m just playing in a nice sweaty club or pub. That is exactly the concept. Day and night: the T-shirt just has to look good in every situation and I must say that I also like to wear it myself, precisely because it fits well on every occasion.”

Romers also used his network to test whether Club 24 was catching on, and celebrities such as Lucas & Steve, Nicky Romero and DJ Hardwell appeared in the label in no time. “I told them: you don’t have to wear it, just see if you really think it’s a cool T-shirt. At first I had not heard from Hardwell and then I see his press photo passing by. “Are you wearing that T-shirt?” I said to him. He had already washed it eight times, wore it every day and thought it was a very nice T-shirt.”

So there is plenty of positive feedback from the market. “That has been a kind of benchmark for us, of okay: people really think it’s a good product. We are now further developing and supplementing the collection.”

Grow step by step

Now the label has to grow step by step. The first boutiques that want to carry the brand have arrived and that is immediately at a very high level. The brand atmosphere is very cleverly in the middle of the clean Scandinavian market and young streetwear. On the one hand, the T-shirt fits perfectly under a business jacket, on the other hand it belongs next to premium labels. “We are now testing where our product is most profitable,” says Brand.

One of those supermatches is Dressnocode. “These are fantastic guests who are more into that Scandinavian corner. They already had many premium brands and great contacts with premium boutique stores that are really focused on our target group. This summer we will be visiting a number of such stores for the first time and we are very much looking forward to it.”