Exclusive Interview: Marc From Das Monk
Das monk is a sidney based t-shirt label. I love the tee concepts and i recently had the chance to sit down with Marc to talk about the brand. They have recently just launched their first online store :
1. The inspiration behind “Das Monk”/ BIO
Das Monk was a character that my partner and I invented. We were sick of reading boring bio’s that were all essentially the same, so we made one up. It went like this…
Das Monk was born in a monastery just outside the rural town of Strudelberg, Germany, in 1982. From a very early age, Das realised he was different to all the other little monks. While everyone else was out cheerfully milking the cows and attending to the hens, Das would lie out in the hay, dreamily drawing monsters and dinosaurs. And while they were all on their knees praying, Das was yearning for a place where people didn’t wear sacks for robes, but the finest cotton in the land, tapered perfectly in a style that was comfortable and pleasing to the eye. Then one day at supper time, as he sifted through his watery peas, Das could take it no more. He flung down his bowl and screamed “I WANT TO MAKE T-SHIRTS”. Nobody said a word. Largely because all the other monks had taken a vow of silence, but he could see it in their eyes – he did not belong there. And he had to leave. Das fled to Sydney, Australia, far away from the hens and monotony of monastery life. A delightful land of colour and flair, where t-shirts aren’t frowned upon, but embraced. So now Das is in heaven. Das attends gigs, surfs the waves, plays scrabble with his buds, and of course, makes t-shirts.
We’ve kind of ditched that bio now though, and have gone for a bit more of an anonymous thing. Das is dead.
2. The people involved
Myself and my girlfriend/designer/DJ, Anna Lunoe.
3. The Fashion Scene in Australia
The scene is quite different here to other parts of the globe – we definitely have our own identity in the fashion world. This is great because It means that there are people out there who are really adventurous with fashion, doing their own thing, but then at the same time there are thousands of kids who look exactly the same. People tend to really get caught up with fads over here. The amount of fluoro t-shirts here last summer almost killed me.
4. Describe Das Monk
Das Monk makes super soft tees that instantly make you a better looking person! Or something like that.
5. Would you consider your brand to be more street wear?
I guess we’re somewhere in the middle. I think the good thing about our tees is that we appeal to people who are into street wear and those who aren’t.
6. What we can expect from Das Monk in the upcoming year/ stores/ sites
We’ll be keeping the store fresh by injecting new tees every 3 months so look out for some new stuff in early September! Hopefully world domination by late November.
7. Whats the most important thing people should know if they want to get into the fashion industry
Fashion is 10% design, 90% marketing your label. So even if you’re incredibly talented with a sketch pad, you still need to be able to talk a lot of shit.
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