“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” ― Søren Kierkegaard Two weeks have passed since Archibald London concluded the Naked Campaign. We couldn’t let it pass without comment and yet for almost fourteen days, we struggled with both what, and how, to mark it. It is the first and so far only time we’ve created a structured initiative at Archibald and what it started out as is hugely different from what it became. It was a cold day in November, in 2019, when we came up with the idea. We were feeling frustrated, it’s true. So much of what is critiqued about fast and luxury fashion, the former being such terrible quality, the latter being so needlessly expensive, both being exploiting their artisans, were resolved by our brand. And yet we did not feel heard. We had a steady if small community of regular customers, but we needed to expand our audience to Archibald’s ethos to get out. But when you build a brand as an outlier, in defiance of misleading PR, you don’t slither into snake oil salesmanship because you suddenly need to grow. ‘Rebellion’ is a smart brand strategy, but we were being sincere. Enter Archibald Naked. Risky, dangerous and totally unwise - our last-ditch attempt to get a firm foothold in retail, with our integrity intact. We knew the product was our unique selling point, so we stripped everything back, sold it at cost, with zero profits or margins to make it easier to try. And it worked, it worked well, enough for us to return to form. Enter the pandemic. Dangerous, deadly and taking the world by surprise - like everyone we struggled, but our artisans struggled more. Small businesses with niche skill sets, they made items that took you places, enlivened your home, at a time when everybody was housebound and unsure what they could even afford. So we relaunched Naked, in April 2020, this time as a service. The priority was to support our craftspeople, as their large clients cancelled huge orders, as precarity spread far. We need not rehash how strange it was and why; as a team we saw three local lockdowns but nothing compared to our suppliers. A carousel of instability struck our artisans across Italy, Spain, Japan and the UK. There were regional lockdowns, national lockdowns, supplier lockdowns and more. The lone sliver of light came from the community that rose to support them, to support us. Archibald grew as a global collective of people who really wanted to help. Orders were signs of support, products delivered were of the quality all deserve. But the drama continued, Brexit brought delays in deliveries, changes in exchange rates, pricing was suddenly outdated, and we struggled. At points we bled and we bled badly. Then our community took a shock hit from within. One of our artisans, the suppliers Naked was relaunched to support, betrayed our trust, endangered the brand and left us briefly unmoored. As with anything that goes wrong, the key to recovery is to start with yourself. So we pulled up short, and began some honest reflection. Transparency is not weak, but our sincerity had made us naive. No longer. We took a few steps. Naked was closed, earlier than planned. It was an abrupt end - with our old Archibald edge. But at-cost was never a long-term strategy. A beautiful idea, impossible to sustain. Risky, dangerous and totally unwise, we bet on our quality, on our character, on the trust of the community. We bet that if you tried it once, you’d be sure to return. And this bump in the road is just a curve. Archibald Naked needed to close. We are moving forward. We’re bittersweet but not sad. We’re nimble, we’re agile. Like any good outlier, we know how to adapt. And as our community swells, we promise to always take you with us. Thank you for all your support. “I am still making order out of chaos by reinvention.” ― **John le Carre And so are we. Yours, The Team at Archibald London