ISABELLA BURLEY BUILDS HER WARDROBE LIKE A BOOKSHOP

Each of us has a complex data profile stored in the cloud, distributed between platforms and businesses that we use and ones we don’t even know exist. All of the clicks, searches, and swipes have built a cold, detailed image which narrows down what we see online, curating everything we consume. In the face of this technology, Isabella Burley’s Climax Books presents a hot-pink rebellion. 

At a time when the advice from any financial advisor would be to definitely not start a physical bookstore, Isabella has followed her instinct and built a space for community and ideas that’s thriving in London, New York, and online. Surrounded by content made to last 10 seconds, she’s doubled down on the human desire for random discovery and, ultimately, something that lasts.

It’s this unshakeable confidence in her own taste and convictions that makes Isabella an embodiment of END. LABEL. Identity, longevity, and the determination to build personal style rests at the core of our first-ever full in-house collection, and Isabella’s story crystallises all three. We caught a moment with the Climax Books founder to talk ultimate vintage finds, treating clothes like books, and why we should all be collectors. 

In terms of your talent for curation, do you approach your wardrobe in the same way you approach Climax?

There’s definitely a similar instinct to both. Like Climax, my wardrobe is really built around individual pieces that I love rather than trying to have a complete or particularly practical wardrobe. I’m drawn to things that have a strong point of view, whether that’s a piece of vintage or designer, or something completely anonymous that I’ve found somewhere. I like the tension of putting things together that perhaps shouldn’t make sense. That’s very much how I approach Climax too. It’s never about one particular era, genre, or aesthetic, but the conversation that happens when you put everything together.

What’s the best book you’ve sourced? 

One of the most special things I’ve sourced is LAX by Sofia Coppola, this incredibly rare Japanese photo zine and CD set she made in 1996 while spending time in Tokyo. It has this amazing mix of her photographs of friends and people around her, including Kim Gordon and Zoe Cassavetes, alongside a CD-ROM of images, and a music CD. I love objects like that, which sit somewhere between a book, a personal archive, and a piece of ephemera. It really encapsulates the kind of thing I’m always looking for with Climax: something quite obscure that captures a very specific cultural moment.

What’s your favourite piece of clothing you’ve owned?

I found this vintage T-shirt on eBay years ago that says “Climax HS” for Climax High School. It’s completely ripped to shreds now, but I love it too much to ever get rid of it. There’s something about finding a piece like that by chance that makes it feel even more special. I’ve worn it so much over the years and it’s almost become a little piece of Climax history in itself.

What was the moment that kickstarted Climax?

Climax actually started very instinctively. I’d spent so much of my career working within fashion and publishing, and books had always been this very personal obsession running alongside that. I’d built up a huge archive over the years and was constantly sourcing things, sending friends books, or telling people what they needed to find.

There wasn’t really a grand business plan. It started as an online store during lockdown, almost as a way of sharing this world and the things I was finding. The response was immediate and it became clear there was this community of people who were just as excited by these books as I was. From there it grew quite organically, and we now have physical spaces in New York and London. I think I was ready to build something of my own, but I didn’t necessarily know that Climax would become that until I was already doing it.

It was a brave move at a time when book shops are being overpowered by online retail. What do you think Climax provides that people have been missing?

I actually think the dominance of online retail is part of why people want spaces like Climax. You can buy almost anything online now, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you discover anything. For me, a great bookshop is about discovery. You come in looking for one thing and leave with something you had no idea existed. I also think people are craving physical spaces and experiences again. They want to touch things, spend time somewhere, talk to someone, and be introduced to something unexpected. Climax is as much about building a community around books and ideas as it is about selling them.

Increasingly, the collector’s mindset is leading the conversation in fashion: building longevity and appreciating heritage and things that have stood the test of time. Is this the same in books? 

Definitely. I think there’s a growing desire for things that have a life beyond the moment in which they’re consumed. We’re surrounded by so much imagery and information now that disappears almost immediately. A book is the opposite of that. It’s physical, it has weight, it takes up space, and you can live with it for decades.