What is the idea behind Laboratory?
If you break it down into simple terms, its about building a great company that supports the creative economy. It’s not just about producing a great collection that is going to sell. It’s about highlighting the talent that builds the collections, supporting the community that provides the resources behind it, etc. Anyone can start a fashion brand, it’s about creating a company that has something more to offer. This is merely where we want to start, we have big plans for how we want to grow Laboratory into a company that gives back to its community on many levels.
How did you start Laboratory?
We met in college in San Diego and both interned for the same designer as well as heads for school facilitated clubs. We started our friendship through working together which kind of built a great foundation for this partnership. Once Chanel transferred to San Francisco, we were both working full-time and on the side for startups or small companies where we would bring each other on. Working together just came so naturally and we’d always talked about where we wanted to go in our careers, but never fully embracing. It wasn’t until we both realized that where we were at wasn’t where we wanted to be. We always had this idea that “one day” we would both have our own companies under our belts, then it was a very organic merger of both our ideas coming together to create this brain-child, Laboratory. We never had intentions of building a company and changing our entire lives for it, it all just came about so organically which made it feel like it was the right move. We would work 2 or 3 nights a week via skype since we were both in different cities. Chanel being in San Francisco as stated and Julia in San Diego. We’d even take weekend trips back and forth to build our ideas together. After around 6 months of doing this we made the decision to move to New York and start to officially build our business out of the city. It’s always been an adventure and I think that is one of the many things that keeps us going.
Q&A:
Laboratory
on the Brink of
Discovery
New York City-based startup Laboratory sells customizable casual menswear, based off of collaborative work with entrepreneurial designers, graphic designers and textile artists. The Connector spoke with founders Chanel Harper and Julia James about their concept and how it has evolved.