It was all sparked by a word game in lockdown (Picture: Branded + Moniker)
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What do Fonda, Austen, Horrocks, and McDonald all have in common? A first name, of course.
It was a fun game that sparked the idea for Branded + Moniker, a clothing company that makes t-shirts, jumpers and bags, adorned with four terms, names or phrases, all linked by a word or person.
Think Inferno, Ball, Fever and Biscuits (Disco, duh) or Wax, Tuesday, Murray and Slippers (that one’s Ruby).
Founded by childhood friends Buzz Horsfall and Carl Harrison, both 39, Branded + Moniker items have now been worn by the likes of Zoe Ball, Grace Dent and Vanessa Feltz.
‘People always talk about them being a good conversation starter,’ says Buzz.
The pair met as teens in high school (Picture: Branded + Moniker)
The business partners met as teens at secondary school in Knutsford, where they bonded over drama club, but their friendship deepened when they both moved to London.
Buzz worked in e-commerce for fashion brands while Carl was as a freelance performer — that is until the pandemic hit in 2020.
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Like the rest of the world, Carl and Buzz were confined to their homes, only heading outside for their daily dose of fresh air on a lockdown walk.
But it was during one such stroll, that Carl had an idea.
He says: ‘I was with my boyfriend, Martyn, and I asked him to name as many different people named Laura as he could.
‘He named a few and then we were doing it with other names until I said it would look really good on a t-shirt.’
By the time the walk had ended, Carl had emailed Buzz as a potential business partner and asked her to meet to discuss it.
Buzz has recently quit her 9-5 to run the business full time (Picture: Branded + Moniker)
Buzz says: ‘I was honoured to be asked about it!
‘I was furloughed and had a lot of time on my hands and I knew how an e-commerce fashion business worked, so I put my professional head on and went deep into planning and branding.
‘I knew if we were going to do it, we needed to do it right.’
The pair worked on ideas together, including making the clothes as low-impact environmentally as possible, and spent months finding the right supplier.
And of course, name combinations kept coming to the creators.
Carl says: ‘The names came when we felt we had an interesting combination of people who would never be in the same room.
‘At the start the formula was a daytime celebrity, a politician, a rock star and a pun.’
With this in mind, they decided the first four t-shirts would feature the names Mary, Susan, Lisa and Debbie, and in November 2020, they launched Branded + Moniker.
Buzz says: ‘Having worked in fast fashion and seeing the volume of stuff going out of the door, we never set out thinking we wanted to sell loads of t-shirts.
Working together has brought them even closer (Picture: Branded + Moniker)
‘Instead, we wanted to get people involved in the game — something we do a lot on social media with word games, custom contests and seasonal games.
‘We’re not huge shoppers. We knew we were putting clothes out there, that was unavoidable, but we wanted to limit it because we felt a responsibility to the world.’
The pair researched the most environmentally-friendly way to manufacture clothes and as a result, they’ve ensured the products are both eco-friendly and workers receive a fair wage.
Carl says: ‘Our customers are coming to us for a laugh, for fun and for gifts, but it’s nice to know that if someone questioned whether we’d thought about the environment, we’d be able to say we had. Why would you not in this day and age?’
But turning their idea into a profitable business, almost happened by accident.
Carl says: ‘We didn’t aim to start a business, we never set targets. At the start we had other things going on and the business needed to be something we could pick up and put down. It felt liberating and exciting.’
Buzz adds: ‘We probably spent about £50 setting up the business, getting samples and finding a supplier. That was literally it.
‘I remember early on, we got seven orders in one day, and we couldn’t believe it.’
But Branded + Moniker quickly took off. Buzz says: ‘A friend told me she’d someone in her office wearing one. It was the first time we’d spotted a stranger wearing a t-shirt in the wild.’
Then, in October 2023, comedian Susan Wokoma wore a ‘Susan’ t-shirt on Taskmaster. ‘That’s when it went mad,’ says Buzz. ‘That really translated into sales. Even now, people tell us that’s how they found out about us.’
Now, their t-shirts have been discussed by Rylan on Radio 2, and featured on This Morning. Buzz also recently quit her 9 to 5 to work on Branded + Moniker full time.
And besides looking good, the tops also have the added bonus of getting people chatting.
Buzz says: ‘A stranger will talk to you in the pub when you have one on.’
Carl adds: ‘I’ve wheeled mine out many times at parties — asking people to guess the link — it gets people talking, music playing, there are many wonderful side effects.’
Working together has also deepened the pairs’ decades-long friendship.
Buzz says: ‘Now we know each other in a different way. I know how much of a tangent Carl can go off on, which can lead to great ideas, and I have learnt to be less risk averse.’
They hope to continue growing and having, as Carl says, ‘more of the sane and the insane ideas’.
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