What is Mammal Swag and when did it launch?
Mammal Swag is an independent clothing label I started up over the summer. I launched it online in July and have since come back to uni in Exeter, where I have since been developing and marketing the brand further.
What gave you the idea for it?
The designs are pretty straightforward – stylish animals sporting particular outfits. I’m not quite sure where the theme came from; I was veering towards animals in my designs because they don’t carry the copyright burden that a topless Kate Moss does, but I didn’t immediately dress them up in unlikely wardrobes. Maybe the Foxy Bingo adverts faintly impressed upon me!
Tell me you don’t do all the drawings yourself – they’re incredible?!
I do! Thank you very much. I always did lot of art through my school years and, as I began to switch off during first year Economics lectures, I found myself ‘doodling’ the occasional chimpanzee in a blazer – as you do!
How do you have time to do this and your degree as well? That is some serious time management!
In all honesty, I’m not sure I do have time. Serious time management skills would come in handy but, making do without, I find myself working out orders, accounts and other things during my lectures and then getting home and doing nothing particularly useful at all. I’m hoping that next term, as I carry on, my focus will improve and I will be able to keep my academic hours and run Mammal Swag around them.
Where can I get hold of Mammal Swag clothes?
The easiest way to purchase is online but we have also been selling at stalls in The Forum and aim to be setting up shop at an upcoming Red Bull house party. For now, our next date is Friday 7th December at the Christmas Fair in The Forum. Updates of these opportunities to buy will be posted on our Facebook page and Twitter. These are proving our best forums: I can put forward new designs and run competitions whilst also hearing thoughts and ideas of customers. Be sure to like and follow us for the Mammal Swag latest!
HCX is currently doing ‘top tips’ for Christmas shopping – who would you recommend Mammal Swag for?
I see the tees as the ideal present for the friend you picked out for Secret Santa but don’t really know their taste, or perhaps the boyfriend you’ve not been going out with for long. They fill that awkward niche of a Christmas present; they’re simple, easy-to-wear designs that still make a statement. The jumpers I see more as a cosy purchase for a sibling or good friend; trust me, they’re really cosy.