It’s 9AM in Los Angeles and a large queue is forming outside a warehouse in the Downtown district. The growing group of people are here to drop their hard earned cash at the first ever Entire Studios sample sale, and founders Sebastian Hunt and Dylan Richards Diaz sound a little nervous.
“That’s a lot of people,” Richards Diaz laughs. “It’s so early!” For those familiar with the brand, it’s likely unsurprising that a chance to shop cut-price Entire pieces would elicit such an enthusiastic response and encourage a swathe of people to brave LA’s notoriously awful rush hour traffic to get in on the action.
Since launching in the midst of the pandemic back in 2020, the brand has experienced a meteoric rise through the ranks of fashion to become one of the most exciting names to know right now. Initially known for its big, cocooning puffer jackets as well as elevated basics, like slouchy, oversized hoodies and sweatpants, things went full throttle when Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian both stepped out in pieces from early collections.
Soon after, Jenner invited the pair to collaborate on an offering dropped as part of her KHY line, and since then, things have been wild. “Everything we’ve done so far we’ve pretty much manifested,” says Hunt. “We were literally talking about doing a collaboration with KHY and within a couple of days Kylie was on the phone.”
The youngest of the Kardashian-Jenners has always been “super supportive” of what Entire Studios are doing, having forged a relationship with Hunt and Richards Diaz when they were working under Kanye West at Yeezy. Having first met as Tumblr teens who ran the entire gamut of 2010s trends in New Zealand, the pair moved to Sydney together to make it as stylists.
Feeling limited by Australia’s fairly small fashion ecosystem, they had both moved back home with their perensts when an email from Ye’s team landed in their inbox. “Within about 25 minutes of replying to the email we were on the phone with him,” recalls Hunt. The day after, they were on a flight to LA, embarking on what they describe as a “bootcamp” with the mercurial artist.
“It was obviously a lot, but I’m so happy that I got to experience it and learn from it,” says Richards Diaz. “We learned how to problem solve a lot, and it was great to face that head on and super young, because walking out of it, we can just about work our way through anything.” Hunt, who is dry and acerbic, and gives the sense when he talks that his tongue is firmly in cheek, is slightly less diplomatic. “When you’ve been yelled at by Kanye, you can be yelled at by anyone and be fine,” he laughs. “I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
With their four years at Yeezy equipping them with the experience, resilience, and problem-solving skills necessary to make it in the fashion industry, they launched Entire Studios with the intention of kitting out discerning fashion fans in clothes that eschew trends.
Despite forging their friendship on Tumblr and dipping into just about every fleeting craze going, Entire’s aesthetic is based largely on restraint and balance, and has grown to incorporate everything from genderless, outsized tailoring, to elegant jersey evening gowns that evoke some sort of femme fatale from a future.
“When you’ve been yelled at by Kanye, you can be yelled at by anyone and be fine” – Sebastian Hunt
Hunt is a bit of a sci-fi fan, he explains, with an early bomber jacket taking its name from the Xenomorph’s genetic code in the original Alien movie. Richards Diaz, on the other hand, has never seen Alien. “I live under a rock,” he laughs, as Hunt adds “He didn’t even know what Brat Summer was until a few days ago”.
It was also essential that the line was affordable, or as close to affordable as possible, without compromising on quality. “Neither Seb or I grew up extremely wealthy, so we had to get creative when we were doing our Tumblr thing and replicating these high fashion looks – we used to thrift a lot,” says Richards Diaz.
“When we moved to LA, suddenly we were working with these celebrities and their stylists, and felt like we needed to look the part,” adds Hunt. “We felt this made pressure to spend all this money we didn’t have on one item that was £3,000, and that if we didn’t we might be overlooked. So Entire Studios was about fucking with that system a little bit and solving that problem for other people.”
Having put solid foundations in place in those first couple of years, Entire Studio is now growing quickly. The “janky” Downtown warehouse Richards Diaz signed them up for has been transformed to become the brand’s hub, with the interior a mix of both designers’ aesthetics – just like the brand, their relationship is based on finding the balance.
“I love very Brutalist, minimalist spaces, so it’s all concrete floors, severe lines and uncomfortable furniture,” says Richards Diaz. “Whereas I wanted these really cool toilets in, like, yellow or baby pink,” says Hunt, who adds that they fight over control of the aux too. “Dylan plays elevator music, whereas I want, like, Charli xcx on. He didn’t even know what Brat Summer was until a couple of weeks ago.” “He’s right, I didn’t. And now I love Charli, but I just don’t want any distractions!” says Richards Diaz.
“We want the head-to-toe, it’s about creating the full Entire wardrobe” – Dylan Richards Diaz
With the ready-to-wear line fully established and growing every season, Hunt and Richards Diaz have set their sights on the full look. “It comes from us starting in styling,” says Hunt. “We want the head-to-toe, it’s about creating the full Entire wardrobe” Initially, this means branching out into a collection of sunglasses, which launched this month. Stripped back and sleek, the minimal style was a year and a half in the making and emblematic of the designers’ perfectionism: they’re not just in it for a quick buck. “Shoes are next,” adds Richards Diaz, but neither will say more than that.
Now making their mark on Paris with an Entire Studios showroom taking residence in the city across Fashion Week, I ask the pair if they have any plans to make their runway debut. “That’s the dream, but we’re just trying to wait until we can do it totally right,” says Hunt. “What we want to do – the set, the stylists, everything – it’s not going to be a small budget either. So let’s hope this sample sale goes well,” he laughs. Even without a show, Entire’s legions of global fans continues to grow exponentially with each passing season, and in the 40 minutes we’ve been talking, the queue outside has about quadrupled – so maybe that runway debut will come sooner than we think.
Entire Studios Drop 8 lands today. Shop the collection here.
