Watch: Forty clothing open third store in Silverburn

Approaching its tenth anniversary, the brand has now successfully conquered the City Centre, East End and Southside. An idea that was sparked by a child’s drawing Forty is now a firmly established business that thrives from its local identity. 

We visited the store following its opening to speak to Managing Director Harry Miller to hear the story behind the brand and why they’ve decided to branch out:

“We’re ten years old this year. We’re here because of the amazing community we have round about us who share what we do as people and as a brand.

“What’s Forty? It started because my son drew the monster logo when he was three years old. I posted it on Facebook and I got one like and one comment from my friend, Peter, who is now head of design. He said it would make an amazing t-shirt. Peter actually designed my first ever club flyer years and years ago. 

“Why it’s called ‘Forty’. You know when you’re looking to your peels for recognition and approval. Well when I turned forty it was that watershed, I started thinking to myself, ‘well what do I like?’. It’s about taking that opportunity and that chance. Forty was about a new part of my life and moving forward. 

“Forty is about taking the chance. Forty is about doing what you love. It’s stepping into that unknown. 

“As a young guy, in the 80s and 90s, youth and music culture, football culture, it just exploded. I don’t know it was like an awakening for me. I was always fascinated as well by the social aspect of clothing - why certain groups wore certain things. The music aspect as well, it has a big influence on the brand, electronic music. Especially from the rave culture perspective because it was about that togetherness, being able to share a common love for something with someone you didn’t know. That feeds through everything that we do. That openness. 

“We weren’t really brought up with a lot, so when you seen people wearing Stone Island or John Richmond and those labels, that was your peer group, the people you kind of emulated. 

“I worked in Cruise for twenty years. I worked closely with brands like Stone Island and CP Company and they always fascinated me because it was almost like garment engineering. Again, it wasn’t just about the cultural aspect - but that is a massive massive part of it - again it was because so much was behind the brand, it wasn’t just a badge on a sleeve it was ‘how did they get that fabric that colour’.”