Member Article

Leeds' Reem Clothing first stockists of student enterprise project also picked up by House of Fraser

LEAP (Leeds enterprise advisory programme) has teamed up with students from Allerton High to produce a t-shirt brand called Monochrome, which are being stocked by Leeds retailers Reem Clothing.

Reem Clothing are the first stockists to pick up the brand before it is launched in House of Fraser and Footasylum.

Louis Klineberg, Ava Myers, Daniel Larkin, Zoe Packter, Harrison Pye and Una Ramachandran the Allerton High School students part of LEAP which is a registered charity encouraging students to set up their own business for a year and build up problem solving skills, gain confidence and prepare them for interviews and university.

Simon Cohen started Reemclothing.com, an online retail outlet for designer clothing, in November 2003 at the young age of 23. He attended Allerton High School as a teen.

Ben Harding, assistant head of Allerton High, got in touch with Simon to go in to the school and do a Q&A with a group of students who had started a t-shirt brand for the enterprise scheme run by LEAP.

Simon said: “The meeting proved to be very exciting and I was impressed with what the students had created. The name of the business ‘Monochrome’ was very creative taken from the year is was produced MMXIII and the colour design.”

Ten years in the business Mr. Cohen had built up an extensive network of in the fashion industry and new this design was something that could sell and so decided to invest around £1200 of his own money and time to help the students create something sellable.

Monochrome got its first taste of retail when they got to showcase their designs in ‘The Light’ in Leeds City Centre. Through this they went on to win Best Retail Stand at the LEAP Winter Trade Fair.

It will be available from Reem Clothing at Reemclothing.com in April shortly followed by House of Fraser who agreed to stock the six designs. Footasylum is the latest high street name to take the designs on board.

Louis Klineberg commented: “Having a stall in ‘The Light’ was an invaluable experience, finally feeling like we had some brand awareness. It also allowed up to interact with the public on a larger scale and helped us learn how to speak to customers and how to best market ourselves.”

The group’s biggest obstacle was trying to establish a brand image and be taken seriously as many consumers wrote them off with being children.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .