Q&A with BYRONESUQE co-founders Gill Linton and Justin Westwover
Who / What is Byronesque?
The antidote to TikTok unboxing videos.
What is the overall mission and vision of Byronesque concerning fashion and sustainability?
Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s good. Only taste can save us now. Taste creates boundaries. Boundaries create a subculture, and subculture stops overconsumption. That’s not to say we’re against pop culture; subculture can’t exist without it.
If Byronesque was a person, what music would they listen to?
A John Peel session.
If Byronesque were a poem, what would it be?
“Know ye not that there is here in this world a secret confraternity, which one might call the Company of Melancholiacs? That people there are who by the natural constitution have been given a different nature and disposition than the others; that have a larger heart and a swifter blood, that wish and demand more, have stronger desires and a yearning which is wilder and more ardent than that of the common herd. They are fleet as children over whose birth good fairies have presided; their eyes are opened wider; their senses are more subtle in all their perceptions. The gladness and joy of life, they drink with the roots of their heart, the while the others merely grasp them with coarse hands.” ― Jens Peter Jacobsen
In a world of inauthentic news, faces, and body parts, what does authenticity mean to you and Byronesque?
Knowing when to stay behind the camera. (Literally and metaphorically).
Regardless of trends, what do you think people want to feel in their clothes?
We exist for people who don’t want to be figured out.
How does Byronesque support and promote the concept of circular fashion through its resale market?
Buy it, don’t flip it. Keep it for a long time. Which is very different from the current culture of disposability that resale generally supports with their landfills in the cloud.
What fashion era lives in your head forever (good or bad)?
New romantic pedal pushers and Lady Di pirate shirts. Good.
Where do history and education play a role in fashion, or can a customer just be interested in a piece without knowing the major moment that it was in?
It’s still a relatively nascent concept to collect clothes and care about provenance and the importance of fashion in culture. We don’t currently foresee people buying contemporary vintage at a mass level. Not in the way we’d like. People are still brainwashed by the spectacle of the new, even when – particularly when – it’s a blatant copy of our fashion heroes.
Have you been the home of one of your collectors? If so, was it mad?
Because collecting and archiving is still a new phenomenon, most people don’t know how to store or care for their collections or even realize they need to. We’ve walked into and fixed many shitshows and emotional breakdowns.
If Byronesque had a fragrance, what would it smell like?
Polarity.
Balenciaga
Comme des Garçons
Comme des Garçons