Back in May 2020 we reported on the launch of a new Slovenia-inspired apparel brand – BREG Design Co.
Despite starting up in a pandemic, BREG have survived lockdown, and even released several new designs including a new winter collection. We caught up with the creator – Sam Baldwin - to find out how things were going.
What are the new designs about?
As always, I look for interesting elements of Slovene culture, history, food, landscape or language, and base my designs on those. I find no shortage of fascinating Slovene things which inspire me.
The Slovene Grammar [https://www.bregdesign.com/slovene-grammar/] design is for anyone who ever tried to learn Slovene; a language with grammar so complex, it has been known to cause brain damage. It’s inspired by a classic brand of Slovenian cigarettes that used to be made in Ljubljana at the tobačna.
The Velika Planina [https://www.bregdesign.com/velika-planina-hut-head/] design celebrates the iconic shape of these beautiful Shepard’s huts which are unique to Slovenia and have a really interesting form.
The Bled Block t-shirt [https://www.bregdesign.com/bled/] plays with the town’s most iconic cake, and TR3 design [https://www.bregdesign.com/ljubljana-tr3/] celebrates the ‘brutal beauty’ of Ljubljana’s twin tower blocks.
And finally, BREG Classic [https://www.bregdesign.com/classic/] is a simple design that plays with the Slovene language.
Where can people buy BREG shirts?
For the full range of designs, colours and garments, the online store is the easiest place to buy: BregDesign.com.
If you’re based in Slovenia, you can also find selected lines at our partner retailers in Ljubljana [https://www.bregdesign.com/buy] centre, Šiška, and Vrhnika.
How has the pandemic affected the business?
Covid appeared at exactly the wrong time for starting a new venture! I had just hung the first shirts up in a café in Ljubljana (the excellent Črno Zrno) when lockdown struck and everyone closed their doors for business. So it wasn’t quite the launch I was hoping for. (I wrote a bit about that experience here: How I started a Slovenian T-shirt Brand During a Pandemic
But in hindsight there have been some good things to come out of the Covid situation too. Online sales have been strong, especially outside of Slovenia, and the situation also gave me time to experiment with different approaches.
Despite all the travel restrictions and corona chaos, I still managed to build up a network of retailers and hundreds of shirts have been sold. My thinking was: if I can make this work during a pandemic, then I can make it work anytime.
Will there be more designs to come?
Yes. I am constantly sketching out new designs. For the shirts sold in stores in Slovenia, we normally do a limited print run of just 100 shirts. I normally prefer to then print a new design rather than repeat a previous one. So, there’ll always be fresh BREG designs coming!
I’m working with my design partner Valeriya of One Line Art, and there’ll be plenty more fresh designs coming in 2022.
To see all designs visit: www.BregDesign.com
