The young entrepreneurs putting Manchester on the fashion map with menswear brand Advocates

The designers hope to represent Generation Z with their approach and style and spoke about the challenges of getting a business off the ground.
Two young Manchester fashion designers have founded menswear brand AdvocatesTwo young Manchester fashion designers have founded menswear brand Advocates
Two young Manchester fashion designers have founded menswear brand Advocates

The founders of a new Manchester menswear brand are hoping to represent the values and ideas they hold dearest while also putting the city on the fashion map.

Advocates is the brainchild of 26-year-old fashion graduates and businessmen Jack Lloyd and Elliot Stephen who had the idea to start their own brand for several years before finally making it a reality.

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They spoke about making it through the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic to get onto the ladder in business.

And they described how Manchester has thoroughly influenced their work and the clothes they hope to put on shelves across the UK and around the world.

Who are the duo behind Advocates?

Jack and Elliot are lifelong friends from Ramsbottom who shared a passion for the arts from a very early age.

Both studied at degree level, with Jack doing fashion design at Manchester Metropolitan University while Elliot followed up his course in product design with a Master’s in fashion marketing in the city.

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They spoke about how they turned ideas they nurtured over several years into Advocates and why the brand has the name it does.

Elliot said: “Advocates is a way of expressing us. We want to be strong advocates for creativity as a whole, for Generation Z in fashion and now for young entrepreneurs as well.

“As a career path fashion is very much looked down upon and we want to represent it.”

An image taken from ADVOCATES’ look bookAn image taken from ADVOCATES’ look book
An image taken from ADVOCATES’ look book

Jack said: “From an early age we were both really interested in the arts, graphics, photography.”

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Elliot added: “We spoke about fashion brands from being about 16 and we knew it was something we wanted to do in life.

“The five or six years to starting the brand was all about getting ideas, getting knowledgeable about the industry, deciding what we wanted to represent and finding who we were as creatives.

“I think most people never really have a direction they want to go until later on in life, but we had this idea from college.”

What sort of clothes does Advocates produce?

Advocates says its debut collection (though Jack and Elliot prefer to call them “chapters” to reflect how they see each set of clothes as part of the brand’s ongoing story), which is called Stomping Ground, pays tribute to the classic clash of Mods versus Rockers.

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However, they say they do not particularly want to take a side and instead combine elements of each.

ADVOCATES is a Manchester-based menswear clothing brandADVOCATES is a Manchester-based menswear clothing brand
ADVOCATES is a Manchester-based menswear clothing brand

The business is all about creating hybrids, fusing seemingly-disparate ideas such as high-end tailoring and biker wear.

The clothes are designed in Manchester by Jack and Elliot and then manufactured in Italy, with the duo scouring the world to find the right fabrics to bring their creations to life.

How did Jack and Elliot find setting up a business?

Despite their obvious enthusiasm for their chosen field, Jack and Elliot admitted that getting a foothold in the fashion industry coming from a small town just outside Manchester was not particularly easy.

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And getting Advocates up and running was not exactly smooth sailing either, with the global Covid-19 pandemic not helping.

Jack said: “When I was first trying to find a job in fashion it was really difficult to solidify anything. One day Elliot said he was ready to start the brand and we decided to take it seriously.

“One of the biggest challenges we faced was trying to find manufacturers in the UK. We were going down to London every single weekend, setting off at 3am, getting down there and sleeping in the car park for a few hours before our first meeting at 9am.

“We then found someone and we were ready to start block production but they couldn’t do the order any more.

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“We had to move everything very quickly and it stopped all our other supply chains.

“The silver lining was that we found a manufacturer overseas in Italy which was just perfect.”

Elliot said: “Everything that could have gone wrong in an initial launch happened.”

However, the duo say they now look back on these tough early stages as a vital experience as it made them think more like businessmen and reminded them of that side of running Advocates along with the more creative work.

How important is Manchester to Advocates?

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Jack and Elliot say that the city where Advocates was founded is an extremely important part of their work, mainly due to the city’s continuing reputation as a place people can pursue creative ambitions.

Elliot said: “We’re happy and proud to be a Manchester brand. We always push that we’re from Manchester, even though our aim is to be a global brand.

“Manchester is just rife with creative influences everywhere. There are artists, other designers, photographers, videographers. I feel like the community of creatives is very close-knit here and it gives us opportunities to collaborate and easy to learn from a city that is up and coming.

Manchester-founded menswear brand AdvocatesManchester-founded menswear brand Advocates
Manchester-founded menswear brand Advocates

“Everybody has a spark here in Manchester. There are lots of little niches and it’s easy to fill any one of them.

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“There are also entrepreneurs everywhere here and it enables us to learn, connect and maybe even teach people. Everyone wants to start their own businesses and represent who they are. You see that in the Northern Quarter, with the influence and creativity of that specific part of the city.

“We’ve started to realise we’re not alone here.”

The duo also point out examples of Manchester’s growing international stature such as Ancoats being named among the world’s coolest urban neighbourhoods and suggest it might not be too unlikely for the city to be alongside established places in fashion such as Milan, Paris, New York and London within the next 10 to 15 years.

And they said they would love to see increasing numbers of “made in Manchester” businesses and products springing up.

What’s next for Advocates and would they advise other entrepreneurs to follow their dreams?

Jack and Elliot are currently focused on slowly building up awareness of their brand, expanding gradually across the UK and then planning to make inroads into Europe.

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They are also hard at work creating chapter two of Advocates’ clothing, saying they want to focus on community and lifestyle.

Intriguingly, Jack suggests they want to get away from specific attire for different activities (such as going to restaurants, working out in the gym, going to work or relaxing at home) in favour of something that is more versatile.

They have also gone into podcasting as a way of connecting with like-minded people and share it with their audiences.

Asked what advice they would give budding business owners, they said the main thing they have learned is the importance of patience.

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Elliot said: “Constructing a worthwhile brand takes years. You need to explore what you want to represent. It won’t be the first thing you think of.

“Treat the brand as your baby, don’t be scared of failure and work on it every day. You have to build your community one brick at a time.”

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