Forty Clothing celebrates 10 years since child's monster drawing helped launch cult Glasgow brand

Cult favourite Forty Clothing turns 10 today - and boss Harry Miller tearfully admits it blows him away to be known as a Glasgow brand.

Forty began life when Harry’s son Bryce drew a monster face and his fashionista dad teamed up with old pal Peter Love to put the design on a tee. Initially they designed t-shirts with the monster logo and a wild range of designs with zero plan, rhyme or reason – just having mad ideas and doing them because they could.

With limited runs of just 40 of each item, the brand quickly became a part of Glasgow’s cultural scene – something that Harry is still blown away by.

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He said: “It’s incredible to me that people talk about us as a Glasgow brand. It’s how we are described all the time. That means the world to me. We are really passionate about our city and we love that we’re seen as part of that amazing culture.

“It’s a huge compliment because that culture has given so much to me, from Cruise to DJing in all the iconic clubs and so on. To think that people see Forty as an ambassador for Glasgow, as part of the amazing range of things Glasgow gives the world, is just … it’s wild.

“We never tell people what we are or who we are, we let them make their minds up – and I love that that’s what comes back. Feeling a part of our city’s culture and something people have embraced so much, I honestly don’t know how to take it, it’s too big a thing.”

Harry insists being loved by Glaswegians means more because it’s a real endorsement form people who can tell when someone is not genuine.

“In Glasgow we can smell sh*** at 50 paces so the fact people have really embraced us and what we are doing, means they know we mean this stuff. They know it comes form the heart and the right place, an honest place. That’s why people take to us and support us. Theres no bullsh**, this is who we are.

"People pick up on this and that it’s not about selling a tee. It’s relationships and pride in what brings you happiness, celebrating art and life and being part of something together.”

Harry admits it was terrifying in the early days in that basement, with no furniture, just old wooden pallets with tees folded on them – a look he has carried forward to the iconic, stylish new stores at The Fort and Silverburn as well as the flagship on Royal Exchange Square.

And he also reveals a bit of that is still with him, so his joy when a customer comes through the door and he greets them is absolutely real.

“The gratitude I felt when anyone came down those stairs into that freezing basement is still there completely - I feel that way to anyone who even looks in our windows and admires something. It's still there, I still am that guy in the freezing shop basement, I still stand there delighted when anyone comes in our door, whether it’s a cold basement or a beautiful massive shop in Silverburn.

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“That gratitude will never stop, that peop[le want to look at what we made, people want to wear our designs and feel they help them express themselves. It’s incredible when you think about that – people choose our clothing to help express and represent who they are. You really cannot ask for more than that.

“Of course there was fear back then because I’d left a great job to launch a new brand and had to pay my mortgage and feed my kids and wife – and now we have 33 staff so there are a lot more families depending on us.

“But at the same time we had a rawness and freedom at the start where we just did what we wanted with no through of business or reasoning – there’s an idea one of us had, and it was on sale in the basement a couple of days later.

“It was madness but I think sometimes a wee bit of that can be lost and that’s not a good thing – we maybe listened to other people or let ourselves put rules and walls in place for a while. But that’s gone now, we have smashed through those walls, so the Spring Summer 25 Forty stuff is….special.”

Ten years on, Harry is thankful to everyone who has joined the Forty family – but most of all, the boy who started it all with that drawing when he was five.

“It was a visceral thing, it was the best thing I had ever seen, that monster Bryce drew one day. I had to do this. I risked it all but I had no choice, I loved his drawing and it meant the world to me so I had to show it to the world.

“I HAD to do this. Forty is not a choice, it’s me and my son, me and my wife and daughter, Pedro and the team, all of us. So many people have invested emotionally in us we have an obligation to them as well as the team.

“We don’t look at other brands, we don’t have all that stuff – it’s us, doing our thing our way. There are times we have lost our voice in the noise over the ten years but that’s done now.

“Bryce gave me the most amazing gift, he gave me a legacy not the other way round. I’m trying to build something special with it so he and my daughter Blaire have a legacy from me in turn.

“It all started with that drawing – and I can’t thank him enough.”

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