10 Years in, Lev Tanju Isn’t Tripping on Palace’s Success

Palace turns 10 this year. The brand’s meteoric rise is something that skateboarding has never seen. While there are bigger brands that have emerged from our culture, none have done it as quickly as Lev Tanju’s London-based skate company turned fashion label. In honor of its decade anniversary, Tanju sat down for an interview with I-D that gives the brand’s full story. The biggest takeaway is that despite the international stores, celebrity sightings, and unprecedented collaborations, the Palace founder isn’t tripping on the success.

Lev Tanju will sometimes get funny reminders of the reach of Palace, the idea he first cooked up living in little more than a personally embellished squat. When he booked Tim Westwood to play the New York store opening at Cielo nightclub in the Meatpacking District, Westwood’s manager reminded him that this was his client’s first New York gig. Susan Sarandon turned up that night. Lev spent most of it chatting in the corner with his mum and his sister. That weekend the shop was road blocked, and then police cordoned. “Madness…” he recalls.

When he sees a picture of Jay-Z wearing Palace on the Daily Mail sidebar, he shrugs it off. “People have to wear shit,” he says. When he had his first meeting with Ralph Lauren about last year’s blockbuster, sell-out collaboration, he told Ralph that he had been wearing his name inside his collar for the last 30 years. One day, a kid might say the same to the Palace boys. They’d like that.

Head over to I-D to read the entire piece.

Image Via The Cools