Fraser Moss was not a famous designer. If he had wanted to be one, he might have given his brand, co-founded in London in 1995, his own name. Instead, it was called YMC, an acronym of You Must Create. Moss had heard the phrase during a talk on architectural design, and adopted it as an ethos. Moss — who died after a short illness in May 2023, aged 57 — often said he preferred to be behind the scenes.
Three decades after its founding, YMC remains an in-the-know brand. It has a loyal global following who appreciate its curved-seam, Japanese-inspired silhouettes, as well as its quality artisanal fabrics, attainable prices and nonconformist, left-leaning vibe. It offers understated wardrobe workhorses and easy pieces that nevertheless make a statement.
The brand is essentially a sartorial manifestation of Moss. He was a sensitive, spirited Welshman who was into clothing, music, art and counterculture. He was also personable, smart and very funny, down-to-earth and generally media-shy. Likewise, the clothes are directional, thoughtful but approachable.
What does a small brand do when its leader dies? For 27 years, YMC was the vision of Moss and Jimmy Collins, the co-founder and CEO. They met in their early twenties and had a professional relationship that both likened to a marriage. Many people might have expected the brand to close. But for Collins, stopping was never an option.
“I didn’t have a moment where I thought, ‘It’s all over,’” he says, speaking from the brand’s studio in north London. “Fraser had left us a mood board. He left us with an entire archive.” The pair had spoken about succession in the months prior to Moss’s death, and Collins had his partner’s blessing to go forth. “With the right person, we can carry that on.”
Last week, YMC launched its first collection by Sage Toda-Nation, a 26-year-old from Milton Keynes that Collins hired as the brand’s second ever creative director. Collins says he felt an instinctive connection to Toda-Nation. “It felt like meeting Fraser for the first time, somehow,” recalls Collins. “I called up my wife, Celine, and said, ‘I’ve found this cool young guy. He really stands out.’” In his hands, says Collins, the brand feels safe. “I know Fraser will be looking down on us, really happy with the decisions and how this collection looks.”
Toda-Nation’s debut is full of signature YMC pieces, refreshed with his youthful eye — think slouchy bomber jackets and cropped technical waterproofs with interesting pleat details, and ankle-length trousers with twisty seams. (YMC was offering cropped hemlines when everyone else was still calling them ankle flappers.) There’s also boxy A-line-fit jeans, playful knitwear in bright colours and generously cut, dropped-shoulder T-shirts in stripes. It’s a new chapter, filled with old favourites. “I was looking at what they were doing in the early days,” says Toda-Nation. “Some of those pieces, designed 25 years ago, still feel so contemporary.”
YMC’s slightly beatnik aesthetic — so popular in menswear now — paved the way for crafty brands including Story Mfg. The brand was also making patchwork jackets long before New York designer Emily Bode made them a cult item, and doing unisex clothing decades before unisex was a thing. “That was quite an extreme idea at the time,” says Toda-Nation of the mid-’90s fashion scene in London, which was dominated by streetwear and grunge and, for women, miniskirts and crop tops.
Being ahead of its time had commercial downsides for YMC. In fashion today, brown is the new black, but YMC was doing it when it was still considered hempy. “Black sold . . . but we were, like, 80 per cent brown,” says Collins. Collections weren’t created with sales in mind. YMC only started to turn a profit eight years ago, after Collins created a “range plan” — an overview of bestsellers across categories. It’s hard to believe that any fashion brand could exist without one.
Many designers delve into the archive on arriving at an existing brand — it’s a way of getting familiar with house codes, to then reimagine them. But Toda-Nation has no real interest in reinventing the wheel with YMC.
“The ingredients are already there. It’s not about me,” says the designer, who joined YMC in September 2023. He also has his own menswear label, Sage Nation, launched in 2020. “What excites me the most is working with their ingredients, their history, their DNA.”
The £275 Loft denim jacket is one such garment: an unreleased sample was found in the loft after Moss passed. For SS25, Toda-Nation has liberated it in a soft black and mid-blue denim, made in Portugal using organic cotton.
There’s a palpable sense of respect. “If I did my brand for [almost] 30 years, and someone else came in to take over the creative, I think to myself, ‘How would I want that to go?’” says Toda-Nation. “I know how much blood, sweat and tears goes into a business when you start it from nothing.” His own label shares similar aesthetic sensibilities with YMC but has a younger audience and its prices are double YMC’s. “At my brand, I’m creating what’s right for me. With YMC, I’m creating what’s right for the customer.”
Collins and Moss had an enduring relationship that is rare in the industry today — art and commerce often clash. “It hasn’t always been easy,” says Collins. “But we stuck with it. We learnt.” Adds Toda-Nation: “The industry is all, ‘Out with the old.’ It makes it difficult to build something authentic because there’s change happening all the time.” YMC has worked with the same European factories and mills since its beginning: the brand has been able to maintain its tiny order quantities, of 100-150 per style, because of those long-standing relationships.
With this new chapter comes a new business strategy, however. Last year, Collins bought the brand back from its owner, French Connection Group, so he can independently steer the ship. He is committed to maintaining the current pricing for customers, and is working with a warehouse in the Netherlands for all non-UK wholesale or DTC.
The big focus is ecommerce, which now represents 50 per cent of sales. YMC also has two stores in London, and Collins hopes to expand in time, maybe opening in Paris or New York. They also want to attract a younger customer — the “young, cool guy that’s super-nerdy and super-picky about clothes”, says Toda-Nation. “That’s the customer YMC was probably selling to in the 1990s.” Fans of Sage Nation will no doubt spill over into YMC for its more affordable pricing, if nothing else.
Collins is also refining YMC’s wholesale list. The aim is fewer, more prestigious stores for brand visibility — and stores that can sell the collection at full price.
“We want to be where the average trouser price is £400. Ours are £250, which is more appealing,” says Collins. “When you’re the most expensive brand in the store, that’s not ideal. I want to be in the 20 per cent of lower-priced products.” He has ambitions for YMC to be stocked in Selfridges.
Toda-Nation has gone back to the brand’s full name for the labels, now sewn inside each garment. It’s a manifesto, of sorts. An ethos to carry this small company forwards.
Collins is proud of its size. “Small is a team of 30, including our stores,” he says. “Small is over 200 wholesale customers. Small is £8mn in revenue, despite going for 29 years. I still have issues getting to order minimums with factories,” he says. “We could be further along our revenue journey. But because we only make a very small number of pieces, people can feel special.”
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