So, Robin, thanks for speaking to us. Wild is pretty much entrenched in the Nottingham scene. How long has it actually been around for and how did it all start?
WILD opened its doors for the first time on the 16th April 1983, twentyeight and a half years ago. Since then we have had branches in Cambridge and Leicester, but compared with the Broad St shop, these were somewhat shortlived. We opened our second Nottingham shop WILDER in 2006, in a more central location on Market Street in case people weren’t willing to go to Hockley. Which, given the size of Nottingham beggars belief! It’s quite a sobering thought, to me anyway, that Wild Clothing is now the longest running ‘independent’ fashion retailer in the City, the only one that has been here longer is Paul Smith, and I’m not really sure that he can be classed as independent anymore! But it was at Paul Smith that I worked and struck up a friendship with one of his 2 employees ! We decided that we fancied getting into this clothing business together, and seeing that this ‘second hand clothing’ but gave it a bit of a twist by selling new stuff alongside the second hand clothing, Levis, plain t shirts sweatshirts, that sort of thing. Without wanting to sound too triumphant, it was an instant success, and the pair of us never looked back.
Is there a certain ethos behind what you do here?
The Wild ethos has always been to provide our customers with the best quality used clothing around, presented in a way that allows it to be worn straight away. That means it’s repaired where necessary, laundered and pressed. Alongside the ‘vintage clothing’, we have always offered new clothing that we feel compliments the second hand. We have been responsible over the years for pioneering many brands which have gone on to be bigger things, Supreme Being, Ringspun, Insight, for example. But the biggest and most important brand we carry is Stussy, which we have been doing since 1991. However, even though that is always popular, the hottest most sought after brand at the moment has to be Obey, which we introduced to Nottingham 3 years ago.a
Are you conscious of the part you play in the Nottingham scene? It is definitely a hotspot for music lovers and more to acquire their vintage fashion.
We are very conscious of the part we play in clothing Nottingham, but we never seek publicity or look for plaudits. We are simply a business that tries to give customers a good deal and a pleasant friendly shopping experience, that hopefully they will remember, and therefore come back. And we have always been a popular destination for music lovers, as we try to play stuff that is a bit different, its very important to us and we hope people like what they hear.
What do you think makes the music scene in Nottingham so good?
Nottingham has certainly come on as a music town. When I was growing up in the 60′s 70′s 80′s, it was pretty poor for live music here ’til Rock City openned. And to this day there has never been a ‘big’ Nottingham band. But, alongside Rock City, the Rescue Rooms, the Social etc are bringing great new music to the City. And as music and fashion go hand in hand, thats good for us..
What would you say to our freshers if you had to give them some advice about their time here in Nottingham?
We are currently looking to welcome a new set of students to Nottingham, my totally unbiased advice to them would be to look no further than Wild and Wilder for all their clothing needs ! If not that, then certainly support our local independents shops
Tom Jenkin
