Robbie Fidgeon Kavanagh
Emporium is a streetwear and lifestyle brand founded by friends in 2018.
Starting as a project designed in our bedrooms, Emporium has risen to become a cult favourite streetwear brand in Dublin and further afield. Myself and Charlie met during college, where an interest in streetwear and the subcultures surrounding it brought us together. Neither of us has a background in fashion design or business, but our ‘love of the game’ drove us forward.
Our mission is to create something meaningful to Dublin’s fashion culture.
We want to plant a flag for Ireland on the global scale and to produce high-quality pieces that stand the test of time.
I fell in love with the subcultures that surround fashion before anything involving design came into the picture.
Everything that followed has been a happy accident.
Emporium produces seasonal collections of cut-and-sew apparel.
Everything from heavyweight graphic tees, right through to workwear jackets and accessories. Starting out printing on blanks in 2018, we’ve morphed into a brand producing high-quality pieces from head to toe.
We honestly didn’t think about things too much when we started out.
We used money from our part-time jobs to make a run of T-shirts, and we were just happy to be able to break even. It wasn’t until we started dreaming bigger that we had to start thinking like a real business!
Lead with your best line.
Be it an Instagram post, a pitch deck, or a wholesale catalogue – if you don’t catch someone’s attention in the first couple of seconds, they’ll look away. Make the most of that opportunity. (Thanks Ed for the advice!)
There are so many Irish brands I love.
Too many to name – I am biased, but Arnold Park Studios is the truth.
It’s a work in progress but we’re learning to delegate and to place trust in others to get us there.
Making the most of each other’s strengths, and covering each other’s weaknesses, has been key in our success thus far.
Opening day was wild, seeing artists like Kojaque and KhakiKid wearing pieces on stage never gets old too.
We’ve got a couple of projects coming up that we’re hyped about, you’ll hear more about them soon, but keep an eye on us around Electric Picnic, keep an eye on Brown Thomas too…
I want our brand to be remembered for changing streetwear culture in Ireland.
I want our customers to remember us for being a brand for the people, by the people – one doing it right.
