Have you received any custom orders that made you laugh or do a double take?
There’s been so many crazy customer orders that range from wedding proposals to protest hats for the release of convicts! The most memorable is an X rated order for a range of hats that a London Soho socialite ordered. He wanted to put a collection of hats together called ‘Filthy’ with words such as CUM, C*NT & F*CK, all on bright neon hats in a black dripping font. He’s very brave to wear it in public but that’s what we love-people who want to make a statement even if it is controversial.
Where did you get the idea for the Tapechains? Is there actually playable music on there? If not, what would you put on there?
Oh the Tapechains were around before we even done headwear. In 2006 we were both going through a retro & funky phase especially with the old myspace craze. Teejay yet again had the idea to tie a ribbon through a cassette for a fashion show we had. I then decided to do some painting onto the tape and find a more slicker metal chain. For anyone lucky enough to have purchased this they must remember that the tapes are blank and fully recordable! Because we sold so many back then we didn’t have time to record any music on them. If I did then I probably would record a secret message telling people that in 20 years’ time these tapes will be worth a lot of money, as I knew back then cassettes were becoming extinct and we were getting the most rarest coloured tapes made in the 80’s & 90’s. We started to sell some to market stalls in Camden and giving them to our favourite underground music artists. It was a great first experience into selling accessories and without this I’m not sure we would have done what we did with Snapbacks.
I’ve been to plenty of clubs and bars that don’t allow any headwear to be worn inside. How do you feel about that when you make items that are both casual and high end?
That is one of my biggest hates especially as our hats are worn to be glamorous and shown off. I think it’s the stigma that people in hats are casual and not smart, but with the evolution of luxury headwear some clubs are starting to except that if a person has made the effort to wear unique clothes this is their way of being smart. Let’s be honest, what do bouncers and promoters know about fashion? And do they know what is the definition of smart? 40 years ago, men wore trilby’s and fedoras when they went to bars.
I know you did some graffiti, DJing, and breakdancing. Looks like you’re just missing the fourth pillar of Hip-Hop-emceeing. Can we expect a mixtape from you soon?
You wouldn’t believe it but I love the art of rhyming and have recorded lots of tracks. I even have a music video on YouTube, my sound is very visual and crazy, mainly as my influences are from bashment, Hip-Hop and UK Grime music. I’m definitely going to do more music this year. I personally don’t do it to be famous. I do music as a sport. I feel like I need to exercise my lungs and it’s such a release to perform at gigs. Some people have no idea I still do music, but without music there is no underground fashion scene.
What do you have planned next for MODU?
This year our main focus is PR and marketing. We’ve both put in 4 years of hard work making the perfect hats and putting together a mega massive range but we now need to focus on getting thousands of fans all around the world. We want people to feel like they’re apart of MODU because they have one of our hats, so we are shooting much for lifestyle images, working on more virals for YouTube, and I plan on doing some tracks and radio shows to promote what MODU are about.
