Agenda trade show, New York, 2014
Mecca USA
Moved to New York in the summer of 1995 to launch Mecca USA with Tony Shellman and Lando Felix. Jeans, tees and outerwear that helped set the template for what the industry would later call urban style.
Designer · Brand builder · Since 1995
Tony
Tony
Magnetic
Three decades of building clothing brands — from the New York streetwear boom to denim made to stand beside the houses, without the haute couture.
The idea
“I wanted to create a product that could sit next to Gucci or Comme des Garçons, yet not use the haute couture concept.”
Tony Magnetic — South China Morning Post, 2007
Chapters
Full index
Marienplatz, Munich, 2015
Munich
A retail platform in Munich — taking American streetwear into a European market that was still learning the language, and learning what travels and what doesn't.
The Year of…
A denim line built on a deliberately awkward brief: premium enough to hang beside Gucci or Comme des Garçons, but refusing the exclusivity that usually comes with the shelf space.
Hong Kong
The middle volumes of The Year of… were made here — shot on the tenement streets and under the neon, and closed out with a lion dance collaboration with the city's reigning world champions.
TonyMagnetic INC
The house behind everything since 2002, and the name on the trademark that The Year of… was published under. Tops, bottoms, outerwear, headwear and footwear, developed close to the factories in Ho Chi Minh City.
Who
The work behind the label
Anthony “TonyMagnetic” Thorne has spent thirty years on the making side of fashion — the part that happens before a logo means anything.
The pattern repeats across every chapter: find a culture that is already dressing itself a certain way, build product good enough to earn its place, and keep the door open. It started in New York in 1995 and it currently runs out of Ho Chi Minh City, a short drive from the people who actually cut and sew.
Read the full story
How the work gets made
Approach
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Product before positioning
A brand story cannot rescue a badly made garment. The make comes first; the marketing describes what is already true.
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Culture is the co-author
The clothes that lasted were never invented in a boardroom. They were a response to how people were already dressing, made properly.
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Quality without gatekeeping
Luxury-grade construction can arrive without the velvet rope. Premium describes how a garment is built, and anyone should be able to walk in and buy one.
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Build where things are built
Proximity to the factory floor shortens every loop — sampling, correction, and the honesty of knowing exactly what a garment costs to make well.
Contact
Let's make something
Open to brand development, product and denim consulting, sourcing partnerships, and collaborations.
Get in touch