Genderless Sydney label To Hear Colour is exploring the intersection of fashion and art
IMAGE VIA @TOHEARCOLOUR/INSTAGRAM
WORDS BY IZZY WIGHT
“Inviting, fun and explorative.”
When friends Noah Gallagher and Marcus Kemp decided to start a fashion label, the whole process admittedly “felt pretty smooth”. Combining their skills in photography, marketing, production and art direction, the pair created To Hear Colour, a genderless project exploring the intersection between fashion and art.
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Characterised by punchy graphics, boxy silhouettes and asymmetrical details, To Hear Colour is made “for everyone”. With a focus on collaboration, each piece is printed locally in Sydney, designed to spark conversation. Below, Noah speaks on the label’s beginnings.
Tell us about you. What’s your fashion background?
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My name is Noah, I grew up in Byron Bay and I am the Co-owner and Creative Director of To Hear Colour. My interest in brand building and in particular, clothing, started at the early age of 12…
Since then, I have worked with a number of Australian labels in different capacities, mainly in photography and marketing. I have always wanted to create a label for storytelling purposes, and [to] combine the skills I have learnt over the years. It’s an outlet that seems to be endless and super collaborative as well.
How did the label get started? Talk us through the process and the challenges.
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It was just good timing. The label was born out of a conversation I was having with my good friend, Marcus Kemp, who I have the label with. We were driving and discussed both our decisions to move to Sydney and what we wanted to do while living there. He was telling me about his ideas of starting a label and a production company, and I was telling him about mine of art direction and photography.
A few days later, we had lunch together and told me he wanted to start a label together. Before he could finish his sentence, I immediately said yes. The process began with aligning ideas, which was easy for us.
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This then led to creating a brand book and analysing the current market. Throughout this time we were trying to land on a name, which was difficult. And finally, [we ended up] designing and producing the first season all while moving our life to Sydney.
This took around nine months from the initial idea to our first collection [being] released online. I’m not going to lie, the whole process felt pretty smooth for us. The proto[types] came back pretty spot on, we felt a lot of support, our friends helped us out and let us shoot the collection on them and everything arrived on time.
What were you trying to achieve from the project at the time? How has this evolved and what are you trying to communicate through the brand now?
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We were trying to communicate a new and unique look and feel, which I feel like we achieved in our first collection. That ethos still runs deep within the label, but [we’re] always trying to improve on the quality of the collections and storytelling.
We’ve just recently launched a four-piece collection collaborating with a dear friend and multi-talented artist, Isaiah Galvin… and [I] have a few more collections with some interesting people and friends in the works at the moment.
How would you describe your label to someone who’s never seen it before?
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To Hear Colour is inviting, fun and explorative. It’s made for everyone.
What are you most proud of in your work on your label?
I love how rewarding everything is on a personal level and what we have achieved in our first 11 months of operating. The synergy is on another level. I am also really excited about where the label can go! The future is a vacant space for us.
What do you wish you knew when you started?
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Nothing was unexpected, to be honest. I feel like it’s more I’m happy we started when we started when we did. I think the timing was perfect.
Who do you think is most exciting in Australian fashion right now?
I’d say how much variety is out there at the moment but equally how much room there is to grow and move.
Dream Australian collaborators?
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Gesture Eyewear, Song For The Mute, House of Darwin.
Go-to dinner party playlist?
The playlist Isaiah made for our latest collection.
Who is in your wardrobe right now?
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Erl, Gesture Eyewear, Song For The Mute.
How can we buy one of your pieces?
We have our website but are also stocked in Sucker, Melbourne and Honour, Sydney.
Anything else to add?
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To Hear Colour has recently launched our capsule collection with now Montreal-based artist, Isaiah Galvin. The collection is four pieces and is created from the concept ‘Entirely Here’, where we explore working with those around us in the here and now. The collection is available on our website.
Browse the To Hear Colour collection here.
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