If you’ve recently spent the day in Shoreditch, salt beef bagel in hand, wandering through the back streets on the hunt for a vintage gem, it’s likely you’ve found yourself in Garmasutra, the turquoise vintage store nestled amongst the graffitied walls of Sclater Street, just off Brick Lane.
The small store is lined with archival items from designer brands from Cop Copine to Stone Island; the music playing compliments the clothes, helping customers to visualise their strut to a natural wine bar in Hackney wearing their new garms.
With such a curated aesthetic, one would expect the owner to be a visual reflection of the store. But Rory Brown tells another story – dressed in a plain black tank top and shorts, he was able to take a quick break from renovating the store’s garden in preparation for a summer sale to chat to Snatch about his rise from humble beginnings as a builder to the owner of a hand selected designer vintage store.
“Selling vintage clothes was a side hustle until I was 26,” he says. “I started when I was about 19. When I was broke, I’d go thrifting, buy stuff, and sell it. I was working on building sites at the time, so on my break, I would go buy some pieces and come back.”
While finding hidden gems in charity shops located in the English countryside was how Brown first got the taste for vintage, it wasn’t until 2020 that he started curating clothes full time, seizing the opportunity that Covid provided – cheap, available stalls at Upmarket in Truman Breweries.
“Back then, it was £10 a day for a stall because it was during Covid, and no one wanted to be there. At the time, I would drive up to Sheffield on the weekends in my Nissan Micra and go to a kilo sale store and buy. It was shit clothes, but I would hustle until it got to the point where I could buy stuff I really liked and go down the more curated route.”
But the 30-year-old says starting in Covid wasn’t fun; it required hard work and dedication.
“Because I had been doing temp jobs, I wasn’t making any money, and I was skint. I started the market stall and got the position, but we kept on going back into lockdown.
“One time I spent £1000 on jackets, and then we went straight into lockdown in May, so I came out of that with no money.”
Brown has been running the business for four and half years now, but in the first year, he had to make big sacrifices and bet on himself.
“I opened different bank accounts, got overdrafts for each and bought my stock. In the first year, we started with £10K in overdraft and ended it by turning over £100K.”
While the way he funded his initial stock was risky, it paid off; Garmasutra moved from a temporary stall in Upmarket to a permanent stall in Brick Lane Market and eventually into its own store, which has been open for a year and a half.
Despite the evolution of the company, Brown only named it Garmasutra once he opened the physical store.
“Back when I was working on building sites, I used to do this thing called pun-day Monday where I would post puns on Snapchat,” he admits. “One time I found a Stone Island in a charity shop, and I captioned it Garmasutra. I thought it was great, so when I opened the shop, I called it Garmasutra.”
Brown acknowledges that the market for vintage clothes has massively expanded since Covid, affecting the price of garments.
“It’s so competitive now, this industry has really blown up, the prices are being driven up because people want to buy and sell the same things.
“I definitely think there’s room to start out now, but it’s not always going to be fun; that’s the thing with any business. It’s going to be hard work, and you’ve got to really like clothes. I’ve seen it time and time again when people don’t make it; it’s because they don’t care about it enough.
“I care about what other people would want to wear rather than what I’d want to wear. When I buy something, I always imagine the type of person that would wear it, and it’s a satisfying feeling when you see the person you imagine wearing it buying it.”
Garmasutra has a large number of repeat customers, something that can certainly be attributed to Browns welcoming and humble nature. At the moment, he’s focused on the now – making their Victorian lobby presentable so that they can have a recurring garden sale in the summertime and curating great pieces.
“I’m gonna keep doing this for a few years, and then maybe I’ll get a larger shop, but all in due time.”
Vibe Check
Clothing genre: Curated designer vintage.
Price range: Mid to expensive.
Writers favourite item: Black Missoni t-shirt with pink embroidered flowers.
Ambiance: Edgy without airs.
Pictures: Rosaleen Harris-Davison
Featured Image: Rory Brown (owner of Garmsutra) left, Archie Sykes (works at Garmasutra) right
Designs: Pius Bentgens