AW Fashion — CDCo: Premium Clothing for Men
Who would have thought that the business duo, Toussaint James and Franceroy Brown, would today be enjoying success as steadily rising entrepreneurs in the fashion industry? Probably everyone who has ever seen the pair anywhere. In fact, the two Ardenne High School alumni and longtime friends have both been regarded as exceptionally fashionable by their peers years before they even thought of making a business of it. Their penchant for creating and making their own unique clothes for the events they attend coupled with the initial public interest their ideas sparked is exactly what led them to create the e-commerce Club Diamonds Company (CDCo).
CDCo gives its conceptualisers the perfect channel for their designing passions as James’s preference for menswear and, more recently, street wear and sneaker culture coupled with Brown’s lifelong appreciation for street wear (fitted caps, jeans and sneakers) have heavily influenced both instalments of the company’s designs. “The seasons” are also influenced by the pair’s subscription to “fashion blogs and magazines, including Highsnobiety, Hypebeast, GQ, Upscalehype and Sneakernews”, according to James. To keep the designs balanced between “bold, sleek and classic”, as James’s describes the line, they often look to fashion in local and international entertainment industries. “Entertainers tend to dress in ways that do not conform to society’s standards. We believe in being unique, so we take several weeks to sit and go over designs we like and create the seasons around those,” he says.
Coming off the recent launch of their second season, an extension of the first, CDCo’s website is evidence of their popularity as their shorts and shirt designs quickly sell out. The new season features “a lot more prints and colour blocking in the design and we’ve also released short pants, swim trunks and chinos”, James and Brown explain. Customers are already wanting more and their reactions are not subtle in their suggestions for the quick release of season three. The CDCo designers revealed to All Woman: Fashion that the highly anticipated third season would be released next Spring. And fret not, ladies, we no longer have to sneak James and Brown’s designs out of the closets of our husbands, boyfriends and friends because they have finally caved to the demands and will be releasing female designs in them! Even better, they divulged that they also hope to segue into leather goods such as handbags, belts, purses, shoes and home furnishings. They aspire as well to offer their talent internationally by expanding from regional and international e-commerce to opening outlets islandwide and in Florida, USA, to break into the US market.
check their heavily monitored Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (all @clubdiamondsco) or their website clubdiamondsco.com to grab a Christmas present for a loved one or even yourself. As for dressing yourselves and the men in your life for the Christmas and New Year season, their advice was simple: “Ensure that Club Diamonds Co is somehow a part of [your] outfit”.
