We spoke to the owner of Fat Buddha about fashion in Glasgow

Situated on St Vincent Street, is Fat Buddha Store. A contemporary mix of fashionable menswear clothing, arts supplies, and books, the store manages to cater for all types of consumer in Glasgow.

The Tab interviewed the owner of Fat Buddha, Leslie Docherty, about his store, men’s fashion, and how Glasgow has got cooler over the past ten years.

Leslie

How did you come up with the concept for this?

Originally I worked in a retailers – I came straight out of uni and couldn’t get a job, and ended up working in a retail store called ‘Flip’. I worked there for about ten years and quite enjoyed it, and from this and experience at Ikea, decided I wanted to do something like this for myself.

So, I got an idea for a retail store that is more than just clothing or footwear, that’s where the art supplies comes in, that’s where the books and magazines and the toys come in, so it’s more of a lifestyle store, than a clothing store. And at this time, Glasgow didn’t really have one.

We wanted a more personal, cool, independent store. And we thought ‘how hard could it be?’. I mean looking back now, that’s probably a bit of a stupid question.

And how did you come up with the name ‘Fat Buddha’?

We were in Texas, and we wanted to start our own clothing label. We had two ideas – Fat Buddha or Black Monk, and we went to see a graphic designer, who could make the logos, and the Fat Buddha logo was cooler. So we stuck with that one ever since.

So you sell just men’s clothes?

Yeah just men’s clothes. The problem with womenswear is it is such a hard market. A guy will come back every season, and buy the same kind of denim again and again. Girl’s tend to be a lot more detail driven. With guys, fashion doesn’t change as much, so you don’t need to be so aware of the trends – you do need to be aware of them, of course, but it’s not as devilishly important as it is with womenswear.

Probably the last two big booms in menswear were snapback hats – they were huge – and then another one would be Vans. They just went mental.

From season to season, menswear doesn’t seem to change that much.

Do you ever find that girls will come in and ask for mens clothes?

Yes. Girls will come in and ask why we don’t stock the female line of a brand, but often, the clothes will be so much more expensive, just for the female line, that we don’t stock them.

For example, girls often just want a nice pair of black Air-Max ones, and so just come in and buy them from here. We buy the menswear down to the men’s size 5, so that girls can wear what they want to wear.

Have you found that over the past decade, style has really changed in Glasgow?

When we first opened, there was a big look over to America, but now, these American brands haven’t really moved on very much, and they’re not as big as they were. The British consumer would probably tend to buy a lot more British brands.

I would say that’s the main change over the past decade.

Do you get a lot of uni students in? 

Yeah we get a constant flow of uni students throughout the year visiting the store.

And, because we sell a lot of arts supplies, we have a good relationship with the Glasgow School of Art students. We probably sell the biggest range of paint in Glasgow, with 500 colours.

It actually kind of goes in like a cycle, you get a kid come in and he wants to buy a paint pen, and then he grows up and wants to do a bit of graffiti, and then the kid gets in to Art School, and do 4-5 years there, and then becomes an architect or something or a graphic designer. As they graduate through this, they tend to start buying from both bits of the store, the art, and the fashion.

Do you think students have good fashion?

I actually don’t think fashion changes much when you go to uni, like most students are just a kid that goes to uni. The only really ones that have a different fashion are the Art School kids. They’re cool.

Why Glasgow and not Edinburgh?

Glasgow is a much better fit for what we are. People seem to think that Glasgow and Edinburgh are quite similar, but they are just totally different. It’s a complete different type of customer in Edinburgh. Glasgow guys are just a lot more clued up – there’s a lot more money Edinburgh. There’s just a different vibe in the two cities.

So would you say Glasgow is cooler than Edinburgh?

Definitely. Definitely cooler than Edinburgh. Every weekend we get so many guys through from Edinburgh because the shopping there is poor. Edinburgh is like cocktail bars, and rugby guys. Not as fun. Edinburgh is nice to look at, but there’s no substance. Glasgow is just a lot more real.

So, Finnieston has just been named the hippest place to live in the UK, so do you think that it’s always been this way or has developed a lot recently?

It has definitely developed a lot in the past ten years. I think there’s always been some reluctance with Glasgow, like people just thought it’s rough.

It likes its reputation for being rough, but it’s actually just quite cool. It’s just so much more arty now, and with all the universities and colleges, now Glasgow has really developed on the education front. It’s a lot more cultured than it was before.

To visit the online store, click here.