LOUIS HOLSGROVE'S CIRCULAR EVOLUTION

A common term in the modern age, the multi-hyphenate moniker has become a go-to title in recent years, with creatives seeking to fulfil the nomenclature at any opportunity they get. A difficult title to live up to, Louis Holsgrove is someone who truly embodies the designation, deftly navigating his work as an expert archivist, stylist, and most recently, clothing designer.

Visiting Louis’ private retail space and showroom Holsales, tucked away in Shoreditch, East London, the 28-year-old’s passion for vintage sportswear and ‘90s/’00s oddities is abundantly clear. Brimming with rarely seen Stone Island, C.P. Company, Prada, Oakley and beyond, the collector’s original interest in sourcing unusual pieces for his own enjoyment has blossomed into a fruitful career. Mapping the early-internet era through clothing, accessories and footwear, Louis’ determination and unbridled interest has seen his collection expand from a sizeable personal collection to an offering of over 500 pieces. Commenting on his multi-faceted approach, Louis said “over the last four or five years, I’ve been dipping in and out of styling, just through running this as a business, and I’m now in a position where I’ve taken the archive to the next step, and I’m actually using it as a reference point for my own brand, Standard Format.” It’s a pursuit of passion for Louis, with the process of tracking down certain items being part of the charm. “It’s a case of just keep digging, digging, digging. You might be scammed, you might find that someone says, ‘Ah I’ve got it’, and it’s not the right jacket. You just have to accept that one day, it could take you twenty years, but it’ll just appear one day. That’s the beauty of running this [Holsales].”

Operating as both an appointment only retail space and a rental service, Louis carefully compartmentalises his archive and his for-sale collection, with certain items remaining a part of his permanent collection. One such piece is a rare, promotional Maharishi x Futura jacket, potentially hand sprayed by Futura himself. “This one is pretty crazy, it’s Maharishi x Futura. You can see this is distinctly Futura’s artwork on the front and on the back. This one was a crazy eBay find from about four years ago now. It’s actually been hand sprayed, and I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I’ve been told it could have been sprayed by Futura himself,” reflected Louis when showing us the piece. “Maharishi, back the early 2000’s, did an exhibition to do with the Endor Forest, from Star Wars, alongside one of the movies they released, and this was actually part of the exhibition there. Hardy [Blechman] himself reached out to me to try and buy it off me, but I really didn’t want to sell it. This is one of my prized possessions that I would never sell.”

Learning through his expansive appreciation of clothing, and his careful studying of the garments that come through his archive, Louis has been quietly working on an all-new project that he recently debuted. Presenting Standard Format, Louis has stepped out into the world of apparel design, creating clothing with the aim of “reimagining the boundaries of technical apparel through cyclical evolution”. Pulling influence from the worlds of architecture and automotive design, Louis’ label creates clothing that is perfected for daily wear but boasts a variety of features typically reserved for ultra-technical clothing. Ruminating on Standard Format while showcasing his new product, Louis spoke on the history of the brand, ““We’ve evolved from what I was doing before, which was essentially a bedroom side hustle. I didn’t really know what I was doing in the design space. Three years in, I realised that I didn’t really have a brand direction, and it was a nice idea to take a step back, understand my audience, understand the actual brand identity, and now, as Standard Format, we have a whole conveyor belt system of how we work, which is all to do with evolution.”

Moving forward, it’s clear that Louis’ dedication, expertise and innovative thinking will stand him in good stead as he takes both his archive and brand to the next level.