An aspiring designer from Shropshire has hit the big time in the fashion world – after being asked to sell his clothes in London by one of the biggest names on the High Street.
Levi Thomas, 22, from St Georges in Telford, was contacted by officials at Topshop to see if he would like a space in their flagship Oxford Circus store in the capital to sell his clothes.
He travelled down to London last weekend for the launch of his Monroe Apparel line, which went on sale yesterday.
The former Lord Silkin and New College pupil said: “It was really good. There was a lot of people there from all over the world and some high fashion labels too.
“There were people from fashion labels in Russia and France. It was amazing.
“Topshop contacted me and it just went from there really. Basically, they lend me space and then take a percentage of my sales.
“Hopefully they will sell quite well and I will be able to roll this out across more stores across the country.”
Mr Thomas has managed to make his major breakthrough while working from home in Telford.
He said: “I’ve been working from home just drawing and sorting everything else out from here.
“We are hopefully moving into some offices soon, but we will still be based in Telford.”
Mr Thomas has been selling his mens clothes china wholesale through his online shop for almost four years and has set aside some special items for Topshop.
He said: “There will be a few things that you can only get online, a few things you can get in both the store and online, and some things only available in Topshop.”
His first piece of clothing was a picture of Marilyn Monroe, which is where his label got it’s name, but he said he has moved on from then.
“I used to create T-shirts with pictures and I’d put them together to make the piece to put on the shirt,” he said.
“But now there are so many people doing that it’s just got a bit boring.
“They will just take some pictures off the internet and stick them on a T-shirt.
“There’s no fun in seeing someone wearing something you can find on the internet. I prefer to draw my art now and put it onto a T-shirt that way – it just makes me feel like I can connect with the person who is wearing my art.
“If I see someone wearing my shirts it’s almost as if I’ve walked up to them and drawn on them.”
But it took Mr Thomas a while to find his feet before really breaking into the fashion world.
He said: “I’ve been doing it since I was 16 but I never knew how to get things manufactured and how to go about doing it the right way.
“When I was 18 I started seeing how people reacted to my wholesale women dresses and started playing a lot more and being a bit more creative.
“I have always been quite passionate about being creative and art.
“I used to watch quite a lot of films, especially films from Japan.
“I haven’t really got any influences in the fashion world, apart from maybe one. They’re called Lazy Oaf, and they started underground and built themselves up – they’re not obvious cartoons but they’ve not gone back on themselves either.”
But when it comes to the world of art, there are a lot more influences that spring to mind for Mr Thomas.
He said: “I wouldn’t call my dad an influence necessarily, but he was quite a good artist. He is the one who put all the art around me, especially in the films.
“I really like Yoshitomo Nara and quite a few other Japanese artists, but at the same time I like lots of other artists. There’s too many to name.
Back in school, I was always into art and I thought, what better way to get it out there than by putting it on T-shirts.
“My favourite piece I’ve done at the moment is one of a Bambi like figure with a cap on and axes underneath it.
“On the cap it says ‘revenge’ and I like to think people will think of Bambi going to look for revenge for his mother being killed.
“I think there is a bit of sense of humour in it so I like it.”
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