THE SALE OF A-COLD-WALL* - DOOM OR DESTINY ?
Has another concrete pillar of the intersection of British luxury fashion and streetwear been "lost" to the corporate fashion machine ? Let's explore.
On Tuesday the 20th of February, 2024, Samuel Ross announced via Instagram, that he is relinquishing the reigns of A-Cold-Wall* (ACW) to Tomorrow Group Ltd. A move that has been met with a lot of support for Sam Ross, and rightly so - but a part of me is burdened with what this means for the future, fledging brands, and black-owned labels.
The full sale of fashion labels is not a new phenomenon in the sector, designers usually receive funding from investors that assists in larger scale production, better quality items and higher level advertising. This sale in particular is more peculiar to me than others, in recent times we’ve seen an increase of wide range topics in fashion discussion. Topics such as diversity + inclusion and sustainability have really taken centre-stage in the last half decade. Black-owned labels are not populous in the industry, successful black-owned ones are even less existent and that is what makes the (full) sale of ACW more unnerving.
On the one hand, I’m happy Sam Ross can make a substantial profit off of such a prosperous project and discover creative freedom, on the other and this is the sale of yet ANOTHER black-owned brand. As stated earlier, there are few financially successful black-founded and owned fashion labels. For example Martine Rose, Bianca Saunders (MR + BS partly owned by Tomorrow Group), Wales Bonner, Spencer Badu are all currently black-founded and owned brands who have relatively come into cultural + financial prominence. However, a handful of black-owned brands that preceded them aren’t in that same position. Off-White and Heron Preston defined the 2010s as it birthed the behemoth that we know as streetwear today (yes i know they didn’t invent streetwear but they sure did take it to astronomical levels lol). Today, unfortunately, both brands are owned by New Guards Group, which is owned by Farfetch, which has now been recently acquired by South-Korean e-commerce company, Coupang.
I am a very avid believer that ownership cements legacy. If you do not own a majority stake in your label, you cannot dictate the label’s future. You lose control over production, samples, pricing, colour palette, stocking + distribution, creative + artistic direction. It’s artistic death. Sam Ross abdicating his ownership + lead design role at ACW means that the destiny of his most accomplished artistic creation is left in the hands of a outsider (somewhat). Ross’s decision to me, feels like this is the end of his fashion journey. On his Instagram, there’s evidence of the other artistic projects he’s been indulged in alongside the design role at ACW, but notably, none are fashion related. This is quite upsetting from a fan perspective because I didn’t only revere him because he was a successful black artist, but also due to the multiple black artists he’s platformed with grants. Ross got an internship from Virgil circa 2015 and he’s made it a mission to extend that generosity and grace to upcoming artists. A major reason he was in a position to give these grants was due to the financial endowments received alongside his design accolades from ACW’s success. Now that is gone, the future of grant receptions for black artists feels bleak.
As much as the potential future I’ve outlined feels grim, there is still reason to be hopeful. Tomorrow Group Ltd have shown to be a corporation dedicated to preserving artistic freedom + dignity. The brands on their books (Coperni, Nensi Dojaka, GMBH, Andersson Bell, Ottolinger, Post Archive Faction, et al) are allowed to flex their creative muscles greater degrees. Coperni even recently had a viral moment where its designer, Manel Torres aka “The Chemist Tailor”, made the spray-on dress that Bella Hadid wore to close their SS23 show. The material for the dress was constructed out of polymer, additives and fibre. This is just a snapshot of the journey of creativity they allow their head designers to embark upon. The fashion group are also maintaining this same honesty in regards to ACW. The long-standing art director and brand director, William Slocombe and Liam Hassimi repsectively, are going to continue their roles. Shortly after the news broke, Tomorrow Group announced they will not be hiring a new creative successor for Ross. I think this shows their commitment to authenticity as it seems they intend to make ACW a legacy brand. I don’t have access to financial reports of any of the brands under Tomorrow Group, but from an outsider looking in, it looks like their brands are financially healthy and are primed for increased success. Samuel Ross has always come across to me as a very introspective and intentional character, so I believe he trusts the group to preserve the allure and core values that birthed ACW.
Founders of fashion labels sell their companies all the time, even James Jebbia who built the leviathan brand in the name of Supreme sold it for $2.1 billion to VF Corporation. Selling a brand isn’t inherently bad, it’s just like any other standard business being sold. However, the emotions we attach to fashion brands due to how they communicate with the most vulnerable parts of us is why we (myself included) tend to have such an emotional reaction to news of their sale. I am very worried of all the sales of black-owned + founded brands to fashion corporations, but at the end of the day we’re all in this game for financial freedom. I hope the core values + ethos’ of A-Cold-Wall* are maintained and I wish Samuel Ross the ultimate success in his further endeavours. Regardless of what happens with the brand, the memories and inspiration ACW has left me with will live on forever.