The Bureau: Jason Jules

Promoter, Writer, Designer, Man About Town

When I was just a kid I somehow got the job to programme and promote the Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the Limelight Club on Charing Cross Road. Back then, in the mid 80’s, Limelight was a huge club - it had a VIP room where all sorts of celebs went to let their hair down and a reputation for a having a really strict door policy. I’d been hired to do the cooler nights, more underground nights that really tapped into whatever was going on, or about to be going on in London’s emerging music and dance scene. All sorts of things happened on those nights – things that you can’t imagine happening now because of social media and mobile phones – like the night the Beastie Boys and Run DMC came to the club after a gig and literally hijacked the turntables and did a freestyle set – together. It was their first time in London and they’d got so much bad pre-gig press it was unbelievable – a Conservative MP was calling for the Beastie Boys to be banned because they had a twenty foot inflatable penis and a couple of go-go dancers in cages, and a Radio 1 DJ refused the play their single Fight For Your Right (To Party). The way it looked was that both bands just wanted to come to the club, have a great time and to let off some major steam. It was completely unannounced, it was near the end of the night so there were just around a hundred people still left in the club to watch this incredible performance. We stayed open an extra hour. It was amazing.

What I love about my job, or should I say ‘jobs’, is that I get to do something different every day. Right now I’m working on a number totally distinct projects - the launch of fashion show in South America, doing a book on style and a collab project for my brand House Of Garmsville. The Neat Offensive, a film documentary I started a couple of years ago, is getting back on track and I’m also working closely with Dexys [formerly Dexys Midnight Runners] as the band’s creative director.  Oh and I’m also consulting on a TV series for the BBC. 

I love clothes – from about four years old my parents refused to pick my clothes for me, because I was so particular - apparently.  But for as long as I can remember I’ve been into not just wearing clothes but figuring out the way we dress as a language, about trends and also about how clothes are made. When I left university I wanted to be a stylist, but I was really put off by the fashion industry at the time – it was way less diverse than it is now. So I did clubs and later creative consultancy instead – but even then I was always doing personal styling, branding and writing about style. In the past few years though, I think I became more associated with menswear through my blog Garmsville. I had no clue how big it would become – I just started writing about the clothes I love.

Right now I’m working on a project with a number of other creatives, the idea being to produce a kind of collab-fest of product that really explores menswear and ideas behind not just how we wear clothes but how we talk about clothes as well. The things that inspire me now are the same as they’ve always been – people’s ability to adapt clothes to their own personal style, people who seem able to innovate rather than intimidate and still look relaxed and unpretentious in their clothes.

I like brands that don't really fit into trends - they're relevant and wearable but they always allow you room to express your own point of view. I think Drakes is one of those brands.