Walking down the cryptic streets of Camden you will encounter all aspects of youth culture , from punks queuing to get into Underworld , to young European tourists being scammed in the markets . It is only in Britain will you find so many diverse subcultures ; so many that it is hard to pin point any particular trends at all . This is unlike our past , where we found the distinctive Teddy Boys , Beatniks , the New Romantics and Mods ; the lines between subcultures are now blurred .
Is this all about to change ? Out of London it seems a new distinctive subculture is slowly growing and taking over our digital era . The Young Creatives . We have been watching this subculture derive through our generations . It starts with the heavy metal punks in the 00s that turned down their headphones and tightened their jeans to reveal the longhaired and bearded indie guy . Only in recent years has the Indie guy groomed his beard and twisted his tash to become the glasses wearing Hipster of British subculture . The hipster likes to be alone in the crowd , for the hipster is a young independent man or woman who rides on the belief of originality is key . Here is where our Young Creatives take over by taking the hipster movement out of a fashion trend and into a lifestyle . The lifestyle of mind maps , entrepreneurs , artists , musicians and philosophers gathering in creative hubs such as coffee shops and studios in the fight to be original .
British art universities are now dubbed cool . For our young British adults the only way to afford university is to sell your own graphics or artwork on t-shirts and blog till you have enough cash to buy a can of Red Stripe or a ‘ Tinny ’. To be a young creative evolves around our digital era of posting images onto Instagram , Vsco , Twitter and Tumblr . Who knew tea-staining photographs would become so popular ? Or a crisp image of clean white walls adjacent to a black pair of Acne jeans would be reposted an infinite number of times ?
So on our journey to discover what a young creative is all about we met a few of them ourselves .
MEET OLIVER PROUDLOCK THE MAN WITH THE BUN .
Edina and Lena . He followed his creative instinct and studied Fine Art at Newcastle University , then in 2011 he created Serge De Nimes .
We can learn a lot from our past , our own family will hold knowledge and inspiration that we could not imagine . Oliver admits to us his mother was his biggest inspiration for his debut collection and the brand . She was obsessed with denim and you would often find Oliver dressed in denim as a child . He always knew he wanted to work with this material , gaining inspiration from his favourite denim brand Diesel . This was the starting point for Serge De Nimes . See Nimes is a city in southern France , the birth place of denim and Serge is the original name for how denim was woven . Clash these together and you create the Denim of Nimes ‘ Serge De Nimes ’, the origin of Oliver ’ s Brand . His other inspirations come from a balance between art and his surroundings , you have to interrupt your inspirations to make your brand original and unique . “ Stay strong to what you believe in ” and your brand will follow .
His favourite place to be for inspiration is walking around his studio at 5am when no one is around . We can imagine him walking round in his leather dungarees ( his guilty piece of clothing ) pouch up if he ’ s happy , pouch down if he ’ s sad . This is something he only dares to wear outside on very few occasions .
“ Urban , Unisex and Unique ”
This is the ethos his brand portrays , it is not just a fashion brand but it describes a lifestyle of music , art and fashion . The serge lifestyle is embedded in the brand , it ’ s based entilely on Oliver ’ s own experience and personality . He wants to collaborate with any young , fresh talent out there ; it really is a creative hub . His team also produce films about young creatives giving them an insight on what they do , the latest film on an incredible street dancer who made something out of nothing . They want to expand their films and document tattoo artists and musicians in the near future . His team are made up of seven young creatives like him , all bringing a unique touch to the brand .
With Oliver here we had to ask the cliché question of your ‘ worst fashion moment ’ and we couldn ’ t expect a better answer than “ Black Speedos ”. From his experience , if you ’ re in Brazil you have to wear them and that he has never ventured outside of Brazil in speedos .
Oliver ’ s lifestyle is all about being a young creative ; you can tell so much of his personality is reflected in his brand and designs . He kicked off this serge of creativity in our society today and we think he will go far when he ventures into denim clothing next year .