After meeting in London, through mutual friend Oliver Hooson (@olvh), around a year ago it’s been an Instagram heavy adventure back up North for the pair better known as @mklyns & @anthonyylee_.
After joining us at the store launch back in December, we invited the pair back to talk through our new brands for SS18 and how they became “influencers”. With their perfectly curated feeds it’s, admittedly for them, difficult to show the story behind what they share on Instagram. Sitting down with Anthony and Mike opened up a world of understanding of the future of social media, branding and different perspectives of what it’s really like to be a Menswear "influencer" in 2018.
Alongside a tour of the Coggles Store, we chatted to the guys about their brand preferences and style identity. With an understanding clear between the two that their combined near 10K following share a mutual interest for clean cut, minimal yet well finished style, they admit branding is important “we like to work with brands we have an interest in” Mike says “I don’t want a wardrobe full of things I don't like”, Anthony chips in “I think if you’re new it’s quite easy to just say ‘Yeah!’ to anything... but I don’t want my Instagram feed to look like a catalogue of advertisements”, it's easy to understand why these guys have such an authentic feel about them.
For a pair of guys so perfectly put together in the feed it was interesting to discuss feelings about Instagram both on a personal and career level,"we wouldn't call ourselves influencers, people just like to label it" Mike comments, "yeah I'm a freelance photographer but I just do the fashion stuff as a hobby, I'm glad people like it though"says Anthony. From looking through their feeds it's clear to see the pair have similar fashion interests but each manage to portray it with a unique style. “Mike likes the more tailored look I’d say” Anthony laughs, with brand favourites from the pair named as Our Legacy and Oliver Spencer as well as a few new finds for them at Coggles including Wooyoungmi and Herno. “I find it hard to move away from what I know, but I definitely have an eye on Herno and Wooyoungmi, they're something different” says Mike.
“As good as Instagram is, it’s like MySpace or Bebo, it peaks and everything changes… for now we just want to make relatable content, which people really seem to like” Mike says. For somebody who maintains such a well-kept blog and with a clear photographer’s eye, it is interesting to learn that Mike works day-to-day in finance and discovered the art of his feed through “being told by other people” as he puts it. "People kept saying make a blog we want to know about your outfits, so I did... admittedly I don’t update it very often as people just want an Instagram post these days and that’s pretty much it, that’s why you have to be picky about what you put out there”.
Anthony is a freelance food photographer by day and architecture and portraiture photographer in his free time (you can find some of his work here), but the pair work together on building their Instagram feeds through a genuine love of content creation and a natural eye for style. Being based up North gives them a definite USP in the Instagram world, where most people tend to be London based. Anthony comments “I like Manchester a lot, I’m trying to get Mike over there more but he doesn’t like the parking”, “I prefer Liverpool”Mike says “it’s quieter”. It is clear the pair play on one another’s strengths when building their imagery portfolio budding from a weekend hobby, it just happens that Instagram is the outlet. The pair have a really refreshing outlook, “we’re not hugely bothered about following, it’s all come very naturally” Mike says“and we’re probably too late in the game to make it big like some people do, but we don’t really want to so it works for us” says Anthony.
Interested to see what brand’s peeked the pair's interest, our Head Buyer Ryan talked through the curated Coggles brand mix and why each product is important to us. “I really like Officine Generale, I’ve heard of them briefly but I never get to see it in the flesh, that jacket is so nice[Officine Générale Men's Liam Suede Jacket]” Mike says,“I nearly bought a pair of their jeans when I used to work at Harrods, but I like to understand the brand and I just didn’t know anything about them” adds Anthony.
"Officine Generale is a Parisian label which creates simple modern clothing with an emphasis on quality. The brand takes inspiration from the designer’s roots to create something very refined and still feel relaxed. We think the brand strikes a good balance between workwear and traditional tailoring which sits well amongst the likes of Margiela and a good alternative to more fashion forward brands like Wooyoungmi” Ryan adds. “Everything about Coggles is relatable that’s what I like about being here, you guys are clearly behind this brand and it’s great to talk through how the products really work together”, Mike says as he gravitates towards the Officine rail.
“It’d be good to shoot some stuff in the homeware room the light is really great in there”Anthony suggests as he chooses what Mike calls a“typical him outfit”. Trying to venture out of their comfort zone a few Acne Studios in store exclusive jackets and aNeil Barrett bomber are pulled out, but after a short time they agree that it’s difficult to veer away from the brands they truly love. “I never wear anything tight, I love to layer. Most of the things in my wardrobe are summer clothes I just wear them in so many ways that they adapt to lots of different looks and work all year round” Anthony says, grabbing a Folk Shacket and A.P.C jeans from the newly kitted out menswear vault. Mike gets his Spring style eye on and opts for an Officine Seersucker shirt and trouser, but eventually retracts back into an AMI t-shirt saying “I’m sucker for minimal basics with fine detail”, pointing to the finely embroidered logo on the chest.
Kitted out, Mike and Anthony shoot their looks in the Coggles Store’s Tom Dixon homeware room:
Mike wears:
Jacket:Oliver Spencer Buck Jacket in Reed/Navy (in store exclusive)
T-shirt:AMI Men's Small Chest Logo Crew Neck T-Shirt in White
Trousers:Officine Générale Paul Seersucker Trousers in Navy
Anthony wears:
Coat:Herno Men's Laminar Hooded Jacket in Black
Jacket: Folk Painter's Jacket in Military Green (in store exclusive)
T-shirt:Our Legacy Men's Box T-Shirt in Pearl Clean
Jeans: A.P.C. Men's Petit New Standard Jeans in Indigo Mid Rise Slim Leg
Cap: Anthony's own
