LONDON, United Kingdom — In just 18 months, 25-year-old Arthur Yates' London-based brand Bruta has attracted a number of influential wholesale stockists, including Liberty and Dover Street Market, with its sharply cut workwear shirts that are tastefully embroidered with graphic and cultural motifs.

Launching his label with a single product category was an intentional choice by Yates, who was inspired by the simplicity and seasonless nature of Savile Row tailors. “Our brand is about taking all this heritage, punching it in the face, and waking it back up,” he says.

Yates’ career in fashion began in 2008, when he launched a small manufacturing company producing jersey and denim apparel for British high-street retailers. “I had a business that used to manufacture clothes that I sold to stores like Topshop, River Island and Asos, which would sell them under their own labels,” says Yates, who dropped out of his European Studies course at King's College London to fully direct his attention towards the company.

Bruta Autumn/Winter 2016 | Source: Rory DCS for Bruta

Although his apparel making business was a success, the Londoner was left uninspired by its repetitive process and instead turned his attention to the art world. “It became very soulless. I would put on art shows with my work and would just experiment with stuff. I decided to bring the two worlds together and create a brand and really work at that,” explains Yates.

The brand's collection of unisex shirts range from cotton poplin button downs for £110 (about $135) to embroidered white viscose blouses at £180 (about $225) and currently sells via Bruta's own e-commerce platform, which launched in May 2015, and also through four stockists; Liberty and The Mercantile in London, Idea by Sosu in Tokyo and online boutique Young British Designers.

Last season, the designer sold over 150 personal orders through Bruta’s website, although wholesale is playing an increasingly important part in the company's growth strategy as well. Bruta’s first stockist was Liberty, which picked up the brand’s Spring/Summer 2016 collection. “Liberty came in for a meeting — completely off-schedule — and they picked it up, loved it and bought the whole thing,” recalls Yates.

For the Spring/Summer 2017 season, the brand has attracted 17 new stockists, including Harvey Nichols, Dover Street Market Singapore, Beams International, Joyce and Need Supply.

Revenue is currently split 70 to 30 percent across wholesale and own e-commerce. “You have to do it all, but we can't open up a shop, so we need wholesale because people make it credible and they support you as well,” says Yates, adding, “we don't want to keep growing and growing it and have hundreds of agents on different territory, we want these few stores and then the rest is online where we can talk to our customer directly.”

Our brand is about taking all this heritage, punching it in the face, and waking it back up.

Bruta is run by Yates and company director (and Yates’ girlfriend) Phoebe Saatchi, and the pair recently hired a sales associate to manage global wholesale accounts. Yates projects a 345 percent growth in revenue between Spring/Summer 2016 and Spring/Summer 2017. The year after that he forecasts the company's revenue growing another 294 percent.

However, Yates is conscious of growing sustainably. “Cashflow is really difficult. You really need to make sure when you're manufacturing that you're making the right deals and try to get credit from your manufacturers.” With this in mind, the designer is moving his production from Hong Kong to Greece, to take advantage of more generous commercial terms with his manufacturer. “I managed to get this deal where I get 60 days credit and that has transformed the business,” he notes.

Source: Bruta for BoF

For this month’s Spotlight, Yates has designed a custom BoF logo that mirrors his artistic background and depicts Bruta's own logo. “The palm logo is a handprint, which was inspired by the first recorded paintings at the Argentinean caves, la Cueva de las Manos. The handprint is befitting as our brand ethos is to make clothes where you have a strong sense of the hand of the artist.”

For its Spring/Summer 2017 seasons Yates intends to launch new product categories starting with overcoats and leather goods in aims to build out each distinct category individually.