Senior Salehe Bembury manages, designs own NYC-inspired fashion line
By: Taylor Engler
Posted: 4/4/08
Last summer looked like it'd be a wash for Salehe Bembury.
The industrial design major learned he would not be offered the internship at a local industrial design company. But after thinking the summer over, Bembury and two of his friends decided to try something a bit more, well, industrious. The trio would create its own fashion line.
"It was a blessing in disguise," Bembury said of his summer plans.
The Syracuse University senior came to James Camp and Patrick Solomon with an idea to create their own label - Duane New York - named for a street in Bembury's hometown of Tribeca.
"The honest truth is it was incredibly daunting," said Camp, a freshman at Hunter College (N.Y.), on the start of Duane. "It seemed like something impossible, going from talking about something to actually getting it done. We all buckled down and started making designs and printing our own shirts. Then we started going to stores and sitting down with a buyer. We shopped the brand around to boutiques and got positive responses."
The three boys grew up in three separate areas - Bembury in Tribeca, Camp on the Upper West Side and Solomon in Harlem. Together, they shared an interest in high fashion and high art. Raised by parents involved in photography and art, Bembury and Solomon also collected sneakers together and Camp worked as a shipping manager for a T-shirt company.
The friends combined their fashion knowledge, and soon the first fashion line had debuted. Several streetware stores in New York City already carry Duane products. In the most recent season, the company had 200 orders on its Web site. The force behind Duane that set it apart from other aspiring companies was its established brand identity.
"It's a streetwear brand, but it's really inspired by New York," said Solomon, a freshman at University of Maryland. "We try to represent New York culture, New York art and the New York environment."
Bembury heads all the designing for the business. He said it can be difficult to balance his industrial design work - a career he still hopes to go into - with his clothing line. Solomon and Camp communicate with Bembury three or four times a day via phone or e-mail to discuss product ideas.
On the Duane Web site, viewers can find photograph albums of the clothing styles compiled from the owners' own cameras. The photographs depict the fashion designers' lives, including images of small beauty in the city streets and portraits of people in their lives. The site also features art created by Bembury and other friends.
"The one thing that is really key in creating a company is branding," Camp said. "We want to create an image - a lifestyle brand in the long run. There's a certain kind of feeling to it when people see the photos, art and our blog, which Bembury updates regularly, people can feel more a part of the brand."
The trio has produced two lines so far and its winter line is currently on sale on their Web site for $20. The summer line will be dropping in mid-May and will be sold online as well as in boutiques in New York City. The line will be previewed in the "Fashionably Aware" fashion show on April 12 at SU as well as at the University of Maryland.
"For the upcoming season we have six different designs," Bembury said. "And it comes out to 12 different pieces."
The new line will include T-shirts, tank tops and sunglasses. Its enterprise is already profiting, and once the group earns enough - it plans to expand to add more clothing products to the line up.
Bembury still sees the group as a side project. And Camp admits he's not looking to have clothes in thousands of stores. Still, they'd like to see a "high-end brand" that has people lining up around the block, just to get a T-shirt or a shoe - not bad for a project that started out as a simple summer venture.
"In the next few years I'd like to see us become well-established in the T-shirt industry and making all kinds of clothes - clothes for everything from head to toe," Camp said. "We haven't had any cut and sew clothing yet, but I can't wait for that because that will include much more of a design aspect in it. I want a lifestyle brand instilled in minds of the consumer."
