Shout! Style! Festivals!
Our origin story
If you want an outfit that is truly unique you need someone who has had truly unique life experiences.
Shout! was started Manu Sood, a resident of Perth, Australia.
Perth is known for its fabulous dress up parties especially if you are part of the Blazing Swan (Western Australia's version of Burning Man) tribes. Manu has been upcycling costumes for over 11 years using applique and surface embellishment techniques.
Manu was deeply influenced by Burning Man 2011. Here he realised that dressing up in costumes was more than just self-glorification of the ego, but everyone who watched a person in an amazing costume had a great time. And if 1,000 people all dressed up, then everyone had a much better experience.
Manu's adventures have included:
1. Snow Kiting in Norway
2. Trekking north of the arctic circle in Finland
3. Hobie cat sailing & fishing off the remote coast off Exmouth. Caught that many fish, we had to ring ahead in Perth and get our girlfriends to buy a freezer before we got there.
4. Burning Man 2011, Blazing Swan for many year since, Bush Doofs since 2005 including organising my own
5. Owning a business that took people of Perth out on adventure retreats. Later turned in to a glamping business and building a pop-up glamping hotel on a remote farm in Exmouth/Coral Bay
6. Introducing more than 100 people each to rock climbing and acro yoga
7. Introducing more than a dozen couple to people they ended up marrying or in long term relationships with. Yea I am a bit of a cupid.
Also, being an extrovert, his costumes were always the ultimate conversation starters. Manu has met thousands of people through his costuming. So the standing instructions for our designers continues to be that each Shout! piece should be so unique and eye-catching that they are a conversation starter.
Know your designer
Pune is a tier-two city near Mumbai.
Our workshop in India is in Pune. Pune has a rich history of control shifting between Maratha, Mughal and British rulers. Each one has contributed to the unique culture, people, food, traditions and fashions we see today.
Pune is known as an educational centre and a fast growing manufacturing and IT hub. With a vast access to young talent, setting up a fashion studio in a tier-two city just made sense. We have access to the finest fabrics, thousands of skilled artisans, huge range of embellishments and a fun outdoorsy lifestyle in the Western Ghats that are a stone's throw away. Abseiling down a Water fall, climbing to forts on cliffs, rock climbing or just following ancient trekking routes, there is a lot to do here.
Fashion Philosophy
Sustainability: Fast fashion has a hugely negative impact on the environment. We mitigate this by making durable garments. For eg. the embellishments are all glued and then hand-stitched. So unlike cheap, bulk sites from China, the garments will not fall apart after the third use. We still have a long way to go, especially because the embellishments themselves are not sustainable but we will find alternative sources and technologies.
Secondly, where possible the base garments are upcycled. Pune city gets a lot of clothes that were export-rejected in bulk for sometimes frivolous reasons. So instead of ending up in a landfill, we use them as a base garment.
Employee Welfare: As an Australian, we aim to provide a fun working environment for our staff without losing focus on quality and that hard work is required to deliver on time. This includes paying them well, offering flexible hours, decent holidays and a comfortable workplace. We have also developed a policy on preventing and reporting sexual harrassment in the workplace.
Design: We try to create unique designs using a combination of surface embellishment techniques mentioned below.
Quality: Manu was shocked to see that in Pune its near impossible to get a branded thread; so even the reputed tailors are using thread that costs Rs 8/$0.10 cents a spool. Similarly for paints people were using acrylics instead of specialised fabric paints. Please note that while we strive to use quality embellishments, the barrage of cheap stuff coming from China is unavoidable at the moment. This will change as our purchase volumes go up and local sourcing improves over time.
Traditions: India has been trading textiles with Europe for over 2000 years. We try to keep hand-made traditions like embroidery, fabric painting and surface embellishments alive by supporting local artists.
Customer comes first: As easy as it is to say this, implementing this in India isn't easy. This requires a complete change in the working philosophy of our team members and we continue to make improvement!
