It all started with two girls, a dorm, recycled fabric, and a dream. Alden Kramer and Presley Campbell were your typical UCLA freshman year roommates, until they came up with a business plan to give a fresh new life to deadstock fabrics. Their story of being young adults in the fashion industry is truly inspiring, so I set out to ask them a few questions!
HC: What were the starting stages of Campbell & Kramer like?
Presley: It started in our freshman year dorm room. During our third quarter at UCLA, our other roommate moved out so we had an extra desk. We bought a sewing machine and thrifted like $50 worth of fabric. From there we made some sketches and started making things with no prior experience. We started selling things around campus and at our sororities, and then during COVID we started tie dying sets out of our laundry rooms. We had an influencer domino effect that propelled our social media, and it was really when we graduated that we started to focus the brand on making elevated basics from deadstock fabric.
Alden: The brand started with resources that we were able to get our hands on, and we had a great community of support at UCLA. Now, we’re focused on elevated basics from preexisting materials, and design everything from scratch in LA.
HC: What has been the most rewarding outcome of the brand?
Alden: I honestly think the most rewarding outcome is seeing our customers wearing the pieces. Especially girls who I respect their taste and all that, that’s the authentic support that makes me the happiest.
Presley: I feel like a lot of the collabs and opportunities that come along the way are very organic, and it’s always someone very cool that directly aligns with our audience. That’s really rewarding to know that we’re aligning in the right way. Doing all of this with your best friend also can’t be replaced! It’s such a different journey to go on. We never think to give up, because it makes it so much easier to lean on each other.
Alden: To add onto that, during any hardship it’s really nice to have someone there and go through it with you. There’s nothing like having your best friend with you as you’re achieving this huge milestone in your business.
HC: In a world where the word “sustainability” is thrown around frequently, what does sustainability mean to you?
Alden: It has so many different definitions and I think that’s what’s unique about it. There’s so many different parts of life where sustainability is applicable. For fashion, and our brand specifically, sustainability is about making new products with idle resources so we aren’t spinning virgin fabric. There’s just too much that already exists and we’re trying to put those to use. We want to stop people from buying a new white tee from virgin fabric, so instead we say “Use our white tee, we’re using fabric that’s already existing.” But, there’s a bunch of other sustainability methods like vintage and consignment. We love the RealReal and what they’re doing with making second hand luxury shopping available to all of the U.S. I think sometimes that buying really nice pieces or luxury purchases every once in a while can actually be a sustainable way of sho[ping because when you buy something designer you’ll resell or pass it down, so it’s not going to landfill. Usually too, designers are doing a very good job in their production to be clean, pay healthy wages, and use very nice fabrics.
Presley: I feel like the main thing for me personally, and implemented at CAMPBELL & KRAMER, is just not buying anything “new”. So I only buy vintage clothes or from other small sustainable brands because I also just don’t want to give money to corporations anymore. I’d much rather have a unique vintage piece or that niche sustainable brand from Instagram. There’s already so many cool clothes that you can get for the same price point, but it’s just for you. The other pillar that we implement is “timelessness” because if it’s something that can be paired with so many different outfits and versatile, then hopefully people won’t want to give that away for a long time.
HC: As a sustainable and locally produced brand, do you feel like you have an advantage in the fashion industry with the new tariffs?
Presley: Probably, but we don’t really have to worry about it because we don’t have to shift anything since all our production, development, and sourcing is all local in LA. Our production consultant was saying she was getting inundated with new brands now since they’re needing to switch things over, but we don’t have to worry about that right now.
Alden: Yeah, it’s really nice to be able to work exclusively within our local community, it obviously makes things easier for business in terms of speed, turnaround time, and communication, but it’s also so great to know that there’s so much industry in Downtown LA. It feels like such a privilege to be able to work within our community.
HC: What was the most prominent setback you faced as a brand, and how did you overcome it?
Presley: I feel like the main ones that came to me off the bat were just when we were first going through the transition to the factory in the tie dye set time. The traction got huge, and we were hand-dying hundreds of sets in our laundry rooms so our families were like “You need to figure something out”, so we literally were Googling factories to work with and trying to find ones that would have low minimums for us. We definitely got screwed over by a few in the beginning because we didn’t know what we were doing, and they knew that. We were able to continue to pivot and find a new factory to try to work with, and then in post-grad we found an awesome production consultant who helps us with all of our factory communication, development, and everything.
Alden: For so long we were basically just using resources we had at hand to start the brand which that meant upcycling, sourcing, and reconstructing all by ourselves. I think there was a time in the brand where we were crossing the bridge between taking these really small steps and then taking the first big step into what we actually wanted to do, and what was really authentic to our mission. So it was that bridge time where we had to say, “We’re discontinuing everything we’ve done in the past, to focus on this dream we’ve always had”, which was to create custom pieces from the ground up using deadstock only. We just decided to do that and rip the bandaid off, starting with our Demeter top, which was a big investment but completely a step in the right direction. It takes a lot of confidence to cross that bridge.
HC: If you could each describe CAMPBELL & KRAMER IN ONE WORD, what would it be?
Alden: I would say “effortless”
Presley: Yeah, “effortlessly cool”. A word from each of us combined!
HC: If you could go back in time and give yourself a piece of advice when starting Campbell and Kramer, what would you say?
Alden: I would say invest in perfection. Basically do what needs to be done to get the result you want. Don’t take shortcuts.
Presley: I was thinking about our little 18 year old selves when we had this Urban Outfitters New York trip where we met so many milestones, and I feel like investing in what we want to do because we don’t have to just continue with demand for what we did at the time. Also, network and don’t say no to talking to anybody, because we could’ve reached out to people that had more knowledge in the factory world, and just learned from others’ experiences.
The future’s so bright for CAMPBELL & KRAMER as they have compiled “high-profiled” faces for the brand (like Alix Earl and Emily Ratajkowski), completed a wholesale with Urban Outfitters for their Vintage & ReMade drop, as well as dropped their “Your The First Day of Spring Collection”. No matter how much they grow, the brand retains its mission as “timeless pieces that flatter and function”. CAMPBELL & KRAMER is truly the essence of “It-Girl” style, allowing every shopper to feel like their most confident selves while saving the planet one deadstock at a time. If you want to encapsulate this effortlessly cool style, keep up with CAMPBELL & KRAMER on Instagram to get an inside look on their upcoming summer collection and upcoming events in LA!