In YMC’s North London studio, rails of clothing are lined up with garments pressed between freestanding glass panels, compressing the jackets and trousers into layered silhouettes that give the clothes movement. High ceilings and winter sun — which is unusually bright for a January morning — spill across the space as the team prepares to ship samples to Paris, where the brand is presenting its collection to buyers from January 20 to 26.
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YMC’s studio in Kentish Town, North London.
This year marks the brand’s 30th anniversary, and its first full year as an independent company. Co-founded in 1995 by Jimmy Collins and the late Fraser Moss, YMC — short for You Must Create, taken from a quote by industrial designer Raymond Loewy — built its reputation on understated workwear silhouettes, military references and a strong connection to music and subculture. Over three decades, it has become a staple of British independent fashion, stocked by retailers including End, Liberty, Rendez-Vous in Paris, Assembly in New York and Beaker in South Korea.
In 2024, Sage Toda-Nation was appointed creative director to fill the position previously held by Moss, who passed away the year prior. In December 2024, Collins bought the brand back from French Connection, which had owned it since 2004. Collins had sold it during a period of financial difficulty to French Connection founder Stephen Marks, who was a family friend.
The anniversary is as much a moment of reflection as it is a reset, says Collins. YMC is navigating what comes next as a founder-led, independent company with a new creative director and a renewed focus on commercial stability — all while protecting the brand equity it has built.
“I felt a duty to honor the brand’s history,” says Toda-Nation. “There’s definitely a customer who’s joined since I have, but the customer base is so broad.” Toda-Nation says that YMC often enters a customer’s life through its products — it was the first brand the designer ever saved up to buy from in his early teens. Collins agrees: “Our demographic can go from 18 to 80 — I have friends say, ‘My mum’s just discovered your brand,’ and others who are like, ‘My kids have just raided all the YMC out of my closet.’”
At the YMC studio.