In 2008, Jeff Abrams was wandering around LA, ducking in and out of stores and asking if someone, anyone, wanted to buy his hat. It was a black cap, with a simple little logo that he had designed himself. I say designed; but Jeff had actually had no design education whatsoever - he was working for an animation company, labouring daily over licensing images for Strawberry Shortcake, the slightly creepy saccharine kids' cartoon.
As a 27 year old bloke, you can imagine he didn’t exactly feel he was living the dream (seriously, have you seen that spooky strawberry kid?) So Jeff bought the hat, thought up a brand name - Rails - and had it embroidered onto the front.
Today, Rails is stocked in more than 750 retailers, across 53 countries. And you’ve probably never heard of it. But you know who has? Beyonce, Kate Moss, Cara D, Taylor Swift, Kendall Jenner and Olivia Palermo. And some Kardashians. And some Victoria’s Secret angels. And most of America.
Jeff has now ditched the humble hat and found his niche: slubby, soft shirts that ooze California from the seams. You will struggle to find an American girl that hasn’t heard of Rails, all thanks to that little cap.
‘Thinking back, it’s funny, I was just walking in places asking “You guys want to buy this hat? They would say, 'Umm, no…. Why would I want to buy the hat?' and I’d say... 'Err, I don’t know?’ Jeff laughs. Seven years on, heading up one of the most successful fashion brand launches in recent years, it’s nice to see Jeff’s lightbulb smile - he looks like a guy who has been through the wars to get to where he is.
The turning point came when Jessica Alba wore the hat, thanks to a tenuous, mutual high school friendship. The hat started to sell. Jeff figured he had to come up with something else to add to his brand, so he designed some hoodies and ordered their production, only for them to be delivered with twisted and contorted fabric. Most people would freak out, but Jeff delivered them to the stockist anyway, hoping it might just be ok. Turned out to be more than alright: Matthew Mcconaughey bought one. And another nine, for his mates.
But I’ve checked. Jeff isn’t paying celebrities to wear his stuff. They just see it, and love it. ‘There’s an obsessive quality about Rails shirts,’ he tells me. ‘Both regular customers and celebrities get hooked on them; even people who think that shirts aren’t their style.’ I can also vouch for this. I interviewed Jeff a year ago, just as he was making the big time, and after wearing one shirt, I’ve now developed a habit. And it isn’t a cheap one. Rails shirts sit at the lower end of luxury pricing, at around £130 each, but are still considerably cheaper than rival Equipment, and are competitively priced against similarly casual but mega-luxe labels like J Brand and Current Elliott.
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So why are Harvey Nichols selling out of Jeff’s shirts? And why are fashion editors falling over themselves to wear them? Because Jeff has truly nailed something here: he’s doing classic shirting, but in ludicrously soft, drapey fabrics that make your average lumberjack shirt look crude. Let’s be clear: it’s not rocket science. But it’s bloody good branding, and bloody good quality. Buy one of these babies and you will still be wearing it if you ever get around to having your own babies. Like, in ten years.
The almost baffling bit about Rails and its success is, in fact, the simplicity of the concept. It’s just shirts. Ok so it’s not quite just shirts, as Jeff is now developing the collection to include smarter shirts, knitwear, shorts and beach-side bits that make you want to book a flight to somewhere, anywhere, where you could be a more Cali-cool version of yourself. ‘The vibe of the brand came about because I was super into surfing culture, but I had also lived in Italy, and was inter-railing around Europe, and I wanted to blend those two worlds,’ Jeff explains.
I suspect that most of the brand’s success is due to Jeff himself, who is a grass-roots kind of guy. He’s the sort who can have a $100,000 order stolen when just starting out, pick himself back up, and carry on. When Rails was just a fledgling label, Jeff would drive all over America, day and night, visiting stockists to check how sales were going in each state. ‘Sometimes you have to do crazy things, you have to go beyond what normal people would do, especially when you’re starting out. Once you have some success at something, it builds an energy in you so that you want to continue to do what you’re doing - it validates you,’ he says.
It’s hard to know what’s left for Jeff to do. I guess he needs to keep seducing the young British customer, like he has already done in the states. His plan is to elevate the brand a little beyond its current identity, broadening the offering so that it feels more like a designer collection, without making it inaccessibe. ‘But we need to keep doing the things that we know how to do well,’ he explains. ‘It’s not about jumping onto fads of the moment, because you can lose your identity - people are buying our brand name, they all want to say they have a Rails shirt.’
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.