Interview with Benny Kusk, designer for Le Fix SS18

What’s better than clean, Danish design with a heavy classic sportswear influence? Probably something, but we’ve not found it yet. To celebrate the release of Le Fix’s SS18 collection, ‘Happy Nothing’, we took 5 minutes to sit with graphic designer and an all-around top guy, Benny, to pick his brains about their latest release.

Le Fix has taken pride of place this week across the Number Six store, with a full window and table set up for the collection. It’s worth a look if you’re about in Shoreditch if we do say so ourselves. The ‘Happy Nothing’ collection isn’t just making waves in East London, either. The concept film by Ian Isak won the award for Best Idea in the International category at the Copenhagen Fashion Film Awards 2018. That’s what you call a strong foundation for a collection.

Congrats on the award! What was it like working on this film and how long did it take?

It’s always nice when we get recognition for the ideas we work with. For me, I find that making films is the best way to show an entire concept through one style of media. I like to write about music and short stories, too. I love making small, seemingly unimportant things into something. It took us about a month to complete the film in total.

Who are the people in the film?

The people you see were all cast using Facebook. We spent time trying to join a closed Facebook group to do with the cars and racing that you see in the film. Once we’d been accepted into the forum we managed to get a whole group of friends to join us and be part of the film. We wanted to do a real story initially, and thankfully we were lucky enough to find these great friends who helped us out.

What was it like working with director Ian Isak?

It was great. He really understood the idea from the start, so we got started on the project as soon as we met him. We both knew about the world we chose to look at because it was a part of both our childhoods. We both found the concept nostalgic, which helped us to make something even more powerful and real.

What’s the SS18 collection about?

The ‘Happy Nothing’ is about finding happiness in the small things in life. That’s why we went to the rural suburbs in Denmark, to find out what the people who live here do to have fun, when they don’t have as much on offer as those in the city centre. That’s how the film and the collection went hand in hand. The whole collection vibe is centred around rave culture, which I experienced heavily myself in the 1990s. It was really nice to remind myself of all the great times I had with my friends back in the day.

Favourite graphic design or piece of clothing from the collection?

My favorite graphic this season is the wavy smiley faces like you can see on the Aciiid Tee. I think it’s a perfect example of how we’ve updated something old to fit into a fresh context.

What’s in store for the future of Le Fix?

Right now we’re working on some great collaborations that I can’t say so much about yet. All I can say is it’s something to do with football in the UK… On the whole, we’re looking to make Le Fix bigger in the UK, it’s my favourite place in the world.

Biggest design influence?

I’m mostly inspired by vintage items, I always go to vintage stores whether it’s bricks and mortar or online. Of course, I always come and see what’s going on in Number Six when I’m in the area. Shoreditch is great for me, there’s the Number Six crew, great vintage stores, and graffiti everywhere I look, I love it.

Thanks for your time mate, here's to the next few seasons!

Looking forward to seeing you all soon :)