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Photo: Courtesy of Sam Noél
Noél Aiwerioghene and his twin brother, Samuel, never intended on launching a fashion label. The 27-year-olds, who were born and raised just outside of Copenhagen, certainly had entrepreneurial pursuits—but once they found their own niche in the wide world of Instagram fashion and gained a loyal following, they decided to roll with it. The pair started a style account called Akins Collective, which served as a daily diary of their love of beautifully crisp, minimalist menswear. Now they’re launching their own label based on that aesthetic called Sam Noél. Think sharp gray and black overcoats paired with plain baseball hats; black tees with classic blazers; and clean trouser pants in beige, white, or navy. Noél describes the look as “casual formalwear,” something “understated and based only on a few key items.” Samuel says that it’s “about being subtle, simple, and classic.”
The Aiwerioghene brothers say that despite being twins, they never, ever dressed like one another growing up. “I would say that we actually tried really hard to not look like each other,” Samuel notes. “Our style was not minimal when we were younger. Back then it was all about standing out and trying something different. It wasn’t about being simple or minimalist, but instead doing what felt comfortable to us while still being adventurous.”
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Photo: Courtesy of Sam Noél
After years of practicing making their own clothes and learning to sew, began to buy and fix up vintage pieces they found in London. (They moved there after high school, and both worked various jobs while experimenting with repurposing and tailoring old Burberry trench coats and Aquascutum suits.) “Even though we never thought of ourselves as having similar approaches to fashion, we really discovered that we liked the same things once we were both in London,” Noél says. “We’d go to stores like Rokit on Brick Lane or the markets in Camden Town and find these beautiful old traditional menswear pieces that we could fix up or tailor for ourselves.”
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Photo: Courtesy of Sam Noél
It was at this point they really began to discuss the idea of creating a line of their own, something that felt as organic and personal as their outings to London’s vintage outposts. Plus, they wanted to make clothes for people to war “for many years, not just for one season.” Timelessness and wearability is important to them both. As far as the look and feel of their new collection goes, they were also inspired by certain music legends they’d always idolized. As Noél explains, “My first love and passion was always music growing up, and I think that my music heroes inspired me. Pete Doherty was a big influence in terms of his long trench coats and hats, but also as Samuel and I began to look further back, we realized how much we loved the styles of old jazz musicians like Thelonious Monk and Gerry Mulligan. We like how these musicians always wore clothes in a nonchalant kind of way, as well as mixing straightforward suiting with odd accessories.” Samuel adds that they “like this fusion and try to incorporate juxtapositions in our clothes.”
These idiosyncrasies are subtle: the way they add workwear materials to a traditional wool blazer or cut a pair of pants with an exaggerated loose fit. The point is, for the two of them, to be singular in their point of view and to be “honest and true” when it comes to what they’re creating. For the Aiwerioghene brothers, fashion is personal.
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Photo: Courtesy of Sam Noél
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