DANIEL SIMMONS WANTS YOU TO TOUCH HIS CLOTHES

Before he was designing clothes, Daniel Simmons was reviewing them. He built an audience by trying on and talking through other people's collections, piece by piece, fabric by fabric, detail by detail. That process, repeated for long enough, gives someone the perfect viewpoint notice the gaps. For Daniel, it was fit. Great fabric, strong construction, but proportions that never quite worked for how he actually wanted to dress.

That became the starting point for his eponymous label. The brand has grown rapidly, sourcing Japanese flannel and Portuguese denim while staying anchored to the fit-first, affordable-price-point approach that started it all. Now on Collection 7 for SS26, fresh off a Soho pop-up and heading into END., Simmons is turning his attention to getting the product into people's hands, literally.

We caught up with Daniel to talk about the early lessons that come from launching a brand in public, why New York has reshaped his eye for style, and what's next.

You built an audience shooting other people’s designs before launching your own brand. Was there a specific piece or a frustration that inspired you to build your own collection?

My life on social media really started with me reviewing other brands, and then that naturally got me wearing heaps of different brands, trying everything out. While trying such a massive range of brands, I started to see things that I thought were missing in the industry, or things that I'd like to see more. 

I found myself purchasing something from a brand and then having to go take it to the tailor, like I may have loved the pattern or the material, but then the length may have just been crazy. And that's actually what started us off with one of my first products, which was the drape shirt. I was really into a boxier, oversized shirt, but every shirt that I found was just so long. 

That's why we created it; We wanted something that was still flowy, but at the same time, it was more generous in its proportions. Crucially, it's not super long.  

So really, fit was the starting point. Do you still see that missing in the industry or do you think that’s started to change?

I definitely think there aren't enough people focusing on fit these days, especially off the rack. Seems like more brands are leaning towards oversized silhouettes because it's easier to fit all different body types. With a lot of the brands I’ve interacted with, I've been impressed by the quality, the fabrics, and details. Especially with luxury brands, I'm like, you guys are using some of the best materials, and I just wish the fit was a little bit different. But that's like a personal preference for me. What I’ve learned though, is that if it’s my personal preference, it’s also lots of other people’s personal preference: most of the time there will be some sort of an audience. It could be small, could be big, but there are people out there who have that same frustration. We wanted to fill that gap, and it was essential for us to do it at an affordable price point.

The brand launched properly in 2023. How long was the behind-the-scenes period before launch? What were the key lessons that you learned in the early days?

Yeah, we launched in 2023. That's when the audience first saw us go live, but it was about two years before that when the whole initial plan started, deciding what kind of direction the brand would take and really taking the jump to say I want to start a clothing line. 

The lessons that I learned early on… And to be fair, we are still learning lessons every day, just trying to get better with each mistake. The main lessons so far? Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Don't announce drop dates when you don't fully have the product in front of you. I remember either our first or second shoot just happened to be a snowstorm, so DHL couldn't deliver the product to us. At the time, you just don't know that these things can happen so you don’t plan for them. We’ve learned to be prepared.

Where do you find inspiration?

I find inspiration honestly everywhere. I know a lot of people say that, but it’s true. Obviously social media is a massive source of inspiration for me. I follow so many accounts who have big followings and small followings and I get inspiration from so many different types of people, whether that’s fashion, art, music. I just love that people are kind of like showcasing their outfits and interests and that really inspires me. 

And then on top of that, movies; old movies, new movies. But I see things that inspire me anywhere and everywhere. When you go traveling through Europe, it's a lot of the older dudes who I look at, I'm like: Wow, you're wearing the stuff that people search hours for online, you know, looking for the perfect vintage piece but you’ve got the real thing that you’ve lived in. So I definitely look to the older generation who aren’t going online to look for a distressed Carhartt jacket, they've worn theirs for more than 20 years.

You’re based in New York while the brand is based in London. How do those cities influence the brand? Do you gain something different from each place?

Moving to New York has had a huge impact in a positive way on my style that’s going to naturally filter through to the brand as well. I think especially in New York, there's an abundance of amazing styles—stuff that I would wear, stuff that I wouldn't wear—but it's what New York does so well. Everybody is trying to be authentically themself, and you see that reflected in their style. I get a huge amount of inspiration from that. I’m really noticing Americana right now. Like, people in New York are mixing bits of workwear with a smarter aesthetic: pleated trousers and that kind of thing. 

But New York has definitely opened my eyes because I'm just seeing very, very well-dressed people who aren't even in the fashion world. They could be a barista, an architect, anything. You see it everywhere. 

As for London, I don’t spend as much time here so I haven’t been walking around too much. I do still feel like London is inspired by New York. With that said, streetwear is a major strength here. It’s not really what I go for, but London does it really well.

As an influencer, you receive feedback about your creations immediately. Has that ready-made feedback loop informed your design or do you try to separate those things?

Over the years of doing social media and content, I've built up a pretty good resilience to feedback. That's really helped me with the brand. When we first started the brand, that feedback loop really was hard, and we fixated on it because we've worked so hard to put out a product and especially in the early days you don't fully know if you're doing it right or wrong. Being able to have that immediate feedback loop can be a bit disheartening. 

Now, we’ve learned which bits of feedback matter. If it's anything to do with quality, we’re incredibly responsive, and we really listen to that. If it's to do with personal taste, we’ve learned to just let it pass, mainly because if we start to listen to what every individual wants, we're going to stop creating what we want and we're going to lose confidence in ourselves. 

Over the years, we have built up that confidence to stand by a product, and the more we do that, the better the reception from the audience.

The fabrics of the collection rival those of brands with twice as much experience, ranging from Japanese flannel to Portuguese denim. What was the process of establishing such advanced sourcing like?

We've started to build up good relationships with people. You meet one person who then knows somebody else and that's been the best way we’ve found to source higher-quality materials. On top of that, we make sure that we go to textile events. It can be overwhelming, but it's a great place to see what these factories have on offer. I've got to give full credit to our Head of Production, Zoe. She's just a beast with finding things and talking to the right people. 

We’re a smaller brand, so our way to compete is to try to get the best quality that we can at a lower price point for our customers. That's what we stand on: The quality of the material and then the fit. 

But we're still never satisfied. We always want to know, is there something else out there? It’s an ongoing process and we’re still learning but we’re really happy with where we’re at.

You've already done a Soho store, and SS26 is Collection 7. What’s next for the brand?

After the success of the London pop up, it showed us that there's quite a lot more that we can do. We have the audience and people definitely want that. One of the biggest things that we've been trying to push and do a lot more is get the physical product in front of people, because we found that once the product is in front of people, that's when they go, oh, wow, this actually feels quite nice. 

So there's a few things that we have planned out. One of them is our arrival at END., which we're so excited about because it's a great opportunity for people to physically touch the product. And then on top of that, we have a few pop ups in New York, because we have a big audience there. Our big long-term goal is that we do want to have a few storefronts because our stuff is definitely something that you want to touch in person, feel, try on; that's where we believe that customers will start to understand what we're doing and why we're doing this.