SNS Presents: HERESY

British brand HERESY makes clothing and handmade art objects inspired by the research and exploration of Folklore. We paid them a visit at their studio for some deeper research and exploration of their vision for the brand, British folklore, and dungeon synth albums.

SNS : Can you take us on a trip into your research process and inspiration behind HERESY?

HERESY : Usually we start by focusing on a particular area of folklore that we’re into at that moment, whether it’s an event or a story or a practice. We’ll spend a lot of time looking up images or going to the library and pulling old books out about it. Sometimes we stay on that topic but others you’re just led down a hole to somewhere else. I think as time has gone on we stick less tightly to specific areas. I suppose we feel quite fluent in that kind of visual language now, so we tend to approach collections more loosely, it’s interesting to use what we’ve built up as the brand’s aesthetic and then try to point it towards a new direction for each collection. We also have a lot more freedom to explore with the construction and fabrics of the garments than we did at the beginning, so we spend more energy trying to marry silhouettes, textures and detailing to this folkloric language.

SNS : What is it about folklore that you find particularly inspiring?

HERESY : I think we've always been interested in folklore in one form or another. We've been engaging with it through the brand for ten years now, so the way in which it inspires us changes, our particular area of interest moves around back and forth. I think initially it was the storytelling aspect that we liked, and obviously the visual side of it is so rich. I think visual tropes of British folklore, the countryside, the costumes, even things as everyday as beer mats have been holding our focus for a long time. In recent years though I think that we have been looking at it in terms of identity, of our own British identity, what that kind of means now, and what it meant when many of these customs and stories were born.

SNS : What has been HERESY’s biggest moment as a brand so far ?

HERESY : There have been a few things that stick out, I think one of the most fun projects we’ve done was a presentation of our SS20 collection at Edale Country Day. It was part of a bigger project organised by Jarvis Cocker and Jeremy Deller celebrating the anniversary of the mass trespass, which prompted the law changes for the right to roam in this country. The right to roam is a really important thing to a lot of people, it's a major part of how people connect with the land here. The show was cool because we got to make some costume pieces as well, and it was the first time we’ve had lots of models walking in our collection all at the same time. It was in a roped off ring in the centre of this country fair, all around it were other things going on like sheep shearing, ferret racing and stuff. Jarvis announced all the looks as they came in and it was almost like some kind of weird livestock auction. It felt really out of place but also kind of a perfect setting for what our brand is about.

SNS : Other than clothing, HERESY also makes handmade art objects. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

HERESY : We made objects and drawings for a long time before we made any clothing, I think that has always informed our approach to designing for the brand. From the beginning we wanted Heresy to be a multifaceted project, clothes are the main output, but all the other works and processes that surround that end up informing the clothing. I don't think we could do one without the other. I think that’s one of the nicest things about having a brand, you can use it as a platform for all these different outputs, it's really good having a place for them all to live, and a common thread that ties them all together.

SNS : What’s next for HERESY?

HERESY : We’ve always worked on a lot of satellite projects alongside our main collections, but the collections have steadily grown each year and take up a lot more time now, so we’ve decided to be much more selective about what kind of other work we take on and focus more on the seasons. We’re developing our jewellery offering, and also including more traditionally female centred shapes, and we’ve got some more homeware stuff we’re excited about happening as well. Now that the world is getting a bit more back to normal we’re really up for doing some physical events again, it’s been a while and we’ve really missed those and seeing real human people all in one place.

SNS : Lastly, what are you listening to at the moment?

HERESY : I’m in the studio right now and I’m looking at this great record that Parish sent us. They're a proto-metal band that are pretty folklore focused and interested in a lot of the same things as us. I’ve also been listening to this amazing dungeon synth album by Maiden Hair, it kind of sounds like an expanded soundtrack to the film Mandy. Dominic has been playing sets out again after two years off because of this pandemic which I think he’s really happy about.

Interview by Ludwig Bornholm Photography by Bryan Ngay