26/11/24
Founded by Sophie Cabourn and her partner Thomas Smith, RE:BOURN has held over 10 pop-up events around the UK. But she doesn’t have an online or permanent store; here’s why.
There is a small ground floor room by the river Ouseburn, and if you go at the right time, the walls are lined with Stone Island, military style trenches and even hand painted murals on garments. It’s packed with rare gems. Menswear makes up the majority of stock, with selected womenswear and accessories also carried. The room is a blank canvas, transformed in a matter of days, and reborn as a pop-up store.
I visited the store in October, fully decorated with spiderwebs and pumpkin-headed-mannequins. With Sophie’s cool girl vibe and a selection of gorgeous transitional jackets and jumpers, it’s hard to resist having a rummage. She was kind enough to show me around and explain the inner workings of the brand.
RE:BOURN is somewhat of a sister enterprise to her father Nigel Cabourn’s own brand. Having inherited her love of collecting vintage and archival fashion from her father, Sophie holds herself and the brand to a similar ethos. Sustainability is at the core of everything they carry and do, the pop-up stocks new brands and an extensive vintage collection. The majority of new apparel is manufactured in Japan, Europe and Hong Kong, both Cabourn’s make an effort to support British manufacturing where they can.
“So the reason why I’m really passionate about Japanese designers is that they’re very sustainable with the way they make the clothes, the quality lasts. It’s why you’ll see on like all of our labels, where the garment is made. Because I’m quite passionate about sticking to Europe, England, Japan“, “We try and stick to European manufacturing, British, Japanese because their laws are particularly tight on how they look after their factory workers , working hours and the materials they use, the quality. So as I say, the vintage stuff we can’t stick to so much, but the new stuff that we bring in, like Aries, is a new brand we just got in, everything is made in Italy. And Anwander, Snowpeak, everything is made in Japan, so the new brands we try and bring in, we try to stick to that ethos.”
A selection of the menswear on display
The couple are expecting their first child in 2025 and they’re not planning on settling down any time soon. RE:BOURN has had pop-up events throughout Newcastle and around the country. After returning to Ouseburn’s Bottleworks for the third time, Sophie is sure that temporary spaces like this are the way forward, she confesses that she “couldn’t think of anything worse than being stuck in a shop permanently”. They are stripping back the shopping environment. Prioritising in person customer interactions, and quality, unique sustainably sourced pieces. Simple but effective.
