
Talk about fan mail:
At least one email that Fashionista gets every day is about the designer Henry Holland, best known for his zany graphic tees with fashion in-jokes and filthy rhymes.
Some of you love Henry’s gleeful humor, his bold aesthetic, and his party pictures from Boom Box and MisShapes.
As reader Violet gushed, “Henry and Agyness are like the prom king and queen of style… The best part is how Henry can turn [the fashion world] into a joke and a secret password at the same time.”
Meanwhile, some of you wonder if we’ve been snorting Strawberry Quick - as reader Alex snapped in her email, “All this for an expensive t-shirt? Can’t you buy some iron ons and get over it?”
We could… or we could let Henry Holland speak for himself. Click below for the inside info on Henry’s next collection, his imaginary jewelry line (sorry!), and his biggest prank yet…

So you woke up one day and said, “What the world really needs is some insane t-shirts.� No! I was on holiday with a group of friends, and I was a bit obsessed with Paris Hilton and those Nicole and Lindsay t-shirts that you have on the States. Like the “Save Mary Kate� tees and the “Team Paris� ones. I bought loads of them from an American website and I collected them; I wanted them as soon as I came out. But I thought, I could do that better, but with English celebrities. So the first shirt was for Colleen.
Colleen is a British reality star… Yes, and I sold about six t-shirts, total, and that was a success! It was kind of like an in-joke with my friends, that I had this failed t-shirt business. But I was with Gareth Pugh one day, and I was like, “Oh, I’ll make a t-shirt about you!�
Did he love the idea? No, I was just winding him up. I was making fun of him, because it wouldn’t sell!
But it did! Yes, but not then. I went to BoomBox with Gareth and some other friends, and we just sat around and got drunk and rhymed our favorite British designers. We got really rude and filthy, and then we actually made them a bit less filthy. At the end of the night, we’d come up with the “Fab Four� – Gareth, Giles Deacon, Hedi Slimane, and Christopher Bailey. And those were the first designers who got t-shirts.
Remember the first time you saw a stranger wearing one? Oh yeah! Just before Fashion Week. I made some for Richard Nicoll, the British designer, and went to an after-party for him, and a girl there had a UHU GARETH PUGH t-shirt. I was like, “Omigod, where did you get that from?� It’s still really, really weird when you see people in them.
How do you feel when you see the knockoffs? I go through phases of getting really pissed off, and being like, “Oh well, at least they thought mine were cool.�
What about TopShop sponsoring your first fashion show, and then copying your designs? When I first came out with the new line, they asked me to do a TopShop line. We said no, and then they ripped me off! It’s like, thanks!.

You wore a t-shirt that said One Trick Pony after your last show. Are you a One Trick Pony, do you think? No! I’m not. I was trying to think of a name for the collection, and I was like, people are gonna say, “Henry’s a One Trick Pony. I figured I’d get in their first so they couldn’t say it without quoting my own shirt. But now I’m trying to think of what t-shirt I can wear next time we have a show, like, what else can I say?
When we saw Agyness, she told us you wouldn’t be doing a jewelry line together… No, we won’t be! It’s a misquote! We’re doing sunglasses, which will be out in time for fall, for the runway. For Spring Summer I guess, but there will be loads at the show. We’re working on those together, which is pretty cool, but that’s it.
That’s too bad, because if you did a line with her, you could call it Holland Hollins. Oh, that’s quite good. Yeah.
So if you’re not a One Trick Pony… and there’s no jewelry line… then your next line will be…: A full collection, not based around t-shirts, but I’ll still be selling a t-shirt – of sorts. But I’m moving away from slogans, as in, not doing them anymore, which is quite scary. But there will be a graphic text element to the stuff, but it will be in a different format. It’s been ripped off so much that we can’t keep it going. But we still want to have a signature look, so it’s pretty tricky.
More specific? The collection is inspired by amazingly glamorous sexy supermodels and their amazingly weird rock star boyfriends. There will be four men’s looks but it’s definitely not Kate and Pete, it’s Stephanie Seymour and Axl Rose.
Nothing inspired by Andy Warhol?: No, I don’t know about everyone referencing me with Andy Warhol. It’s kinda come from Tim Blanks from Style.com, he said it first. I mean, its just one of those things that you don’t take too seriously. I think it’s quite funny, cause Agyness has short blonde hair so she can be Edie, but really, obviously, no.
Then why do you think you’ve been so successful, so quickly?: Maybe cause it’s come from nowhere and everything’s been so fast. But I think people like House of Holland, if they like it, because it’s an in joke, you have to know about the shirts and the slogans to get it, and in the fashion world, people like to show that they get it, cause then they’re like, in.
It seems like the London fashion scene is very tight knit, in a way that doesn’t really exist with New York designers… Definitely. I don’t think we feed off each other in a creative sense; I just think everyone’s so up for helping everyone else out, there’s a real sense of community. You just do end up doing things together, parties and events and projects – these big corporate companies come in and try to pick up “the new London people� but there aren’t really that many of us to pick! So we all end up doing so many things together, and it’s nice we all get along. There’s no ego at all, and everyone’s really happy to help and you know, offer advice and support. It seems like in New York, everyone’s in their own little camp.
They are. It’s not as fun. Hey, do your parents get what you’re doing? My dad doesn’t get it at all. I gave him UHU GARETH PUGH shirt for Christmas and he had no idea who it was. But my mum loves it, she’s really stylish and she’s reading this book at the moment, about fashion in London. She keeps calling me to talk about Katie Grand [the editor of Pop magazine, who’s featured Henry in her pages] and Giles Deacon, and she says “Henry, you should read this book and get some tips from these people.�

And now, the Proust Questionnaire…
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE WORD?
Cardigan. I’m obsessed with it. It’s a really weird, funny word, but if you repeat it, you start laughing.
WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE WORD?
Now! No, it’s not, it’s really with a question mark on the end, like “Really?” But everytime I come up with an idea, I say, “I’m really into this new idea,” and my boyfriend goes, “Really?” And I’m like, “Yes, actually, I am.” So that’s for him!
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NOISE?
Laughing.
WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE NOISE?
My alarm clock.
WHAT MAKES YOU WANT TO WORK?
Fun. Like, just enjoying it and having fun. If I’m not having fun, then stuff doesn’t get done. If I’m a bit like, “Oh god, and stuff has been dragging on.” But I loved my Bliss job in magazines, I had so much fun [editor’s note: Bliss is a UK teen magazine]. I did placements at high end magazines in London, and they were really good but they lacked the sense of fun and team. It’s a much more relaxed place to be, when you have that.
WHAT MAKES YOU NEVER WANT TO WORK?
Accounts. Not money, I work for money, but accounts!
WHAT JOB, OTHER THAN YOURS, WOULD YOU WANT TO HAVE?
I’d quite like to be a model. That would be quite funny! To be like, that’s actually my job. I mean, when I do photo shoots for magazines, I’m like, could you hurry up, I have to go back to work. But it would be so much fun to have that be my work.
WHAT JOB WOULD YOU NEVER WANT TO HAVE?
A model!
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SWEAR WORD?
Bollocks.
THAT IS NOT A REAL SWEAR WORD.
Yes it is, where are you from?
OH FINE. LAST QUESTION – IF HEAVEN EXISTS, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE GOD TO SAY TO YOU WHEN YOU ARRIVE?
It should really be something that rhymes… Um… Play with my wand, Henry Holland!










posted by lynan
Jul 09, 2007 1:24PM
he is too cute for words