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Catching up with Joe Lauder of Satta

Born out of London’s Brixton Beach, Satta has grown to global recognition as a brand that produces high quality, consciously sourced and produced goods. Initially gaining attention through their unique hand crafted skate boards, made meticulously by the brands founder Joe Lauder out of his modest London based studio, the brand seamlessly made the transition in to clothing with earthy colour palettes and hand drawn designs applied to classic silhouettes. Satta’s ability to set itself apart in a highly saturated market without compromising it’s integrity is admirable, although you get a sense it’s effortless. Satta is a physical representation of a lifestyle, rather than a brand playing up to a new trend, and you can’t get much more authentic than that. 

This season, the collection is largely influenced by Joe’s personal experiences on his travels to the spiritually and culturally rich island of Bali, Indonesia, where the brand has been based for the past year. Heavily graphic focused, you can find Buddhist and Hindu iconography that aligns with the brands central theme of connectedness, while the colour palette aligns with previous releases. As the concise Autumn/Winter 2016 offering begins to land in stores across the globe, we had a brief catch up with the brands founder – Joe Lauder to talk more on the brands history, his travels and future plans…

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Since the birth of Satta you’ve been predominantly based in Brixton. Have your roots there influenced your vision for the brand at all?

Brixton’s quickly changing, the cross-cultural melting pot is being diluted into a gentrified mashed potato,  but it’s the richness of different cultural influences alongside the place I spent most of my time in Brixton – Brixton Beach, the local skatepark which was a perfect place to see my love’s for surfing and skating mix together that played a big part in Satta’s initial influence.

As a fairly young company, what would you say has been the biggest hurdle for yourself and Satta at this point?

The hardest thing is not having any weight with the factories. I would love to be developing and innovating new fabrics to work with but I just cant because I cant meet the minimums required.

That and trying to do a teams worth of work with no team.

You’ve been to a wide variety of destinations in your travels, such as the Amazon jungle alongside Tibet and Nepal. Do you have any more adventures planned in the near future?

At the moment I’m just trying to decide where to settle next.

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You’ve been skateboarding a long time and that clearly resonates within everything you do at Satta. Could you tell us a little bit about the impact skateboarding has had on your life personally, and how it’s influenced your brand?

I started skating relatively late, around 20, and I came to it after surfing, so I was always more into the roots of skating and seeing the fluidity of surfing translated into skating.

I think the main influence skateboarding has had on my life and Satta is the DIY spirit you find in so many skaters, the will to carve out and create your own (sub)culture.

With your travels in mind; where would you say your favourite place in the world to skate?

Brixton Beach

Do you still find time to work in gardening and furniture with everything going on at Satta skates?

Unfortunately not, that stopped soon after Satta was born in its current form

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The appreciation of the natural world is clearly an integral part of your aesthetic at Satta. Does this approach tie in with sourcing the wood and materials you use for the boards and clothing?

For sure, we try to use locally sourced wood as much as possible and are using hemp and organic cotton in a lot of our clothing.

Are there any new projects or collaborations from yourself and the brand coming up this year you can tell us about?

Just keeping on keeping on.

Satta’s Autumn/Winter 2016 range is available now on the brands online store and at select stockists including Goodhood

To celebrate the release Satta and WuLu teamed up to put out a special edition of the brands ‘Satta Sounds’ Mixes. The mix is available to listen to here – sattalivity.com

Interview: James P.Lees

Additional words: Kieran Sills

Lookbook Imagery shot by Joe Lauder

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Satta x Universal Works

 

 This season, two UK born brands come together on a concise capsule collection focused around honest clothing and inspired by 'Peace, Love and Soul'.

 Satta and Universal Works have both managed to carve out a niche in their respective areas, with Satta's livity-inspired, laid back lifestyle pieces and Universal Works accessible menswear designs and timeless aesthetic. Despite operating in different fields, both share similarities in their output, particularly in their focus towards quality. Built out of mutual respect of each others craft, the 'PEACE.LOVE.SOUL' collection offers highly wearable staple styles with a premium edge.  

 The release consists of a military inspired 'uniform' shirt jacket in sand, featuring subtle branded embroidery and a pin badge commemorating the release. Two t-shirt designs bulk out the release, both arriving in the same earthy tone and featuring dual branded graphics throughout, while one tee features the words 'Peace Love Soul' embroidered in to the chest. The collection is rounded off with an embroidered cap, again featuring both brands on the globe design and aligning with the collections earthy colour palette. 

The Satta x Universal Works collection is available now at universalworks.co.uk and select retailers including Goodhood

 

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Satta Launches Organic Plant-Based Incense Range

 

 Satta continue to build on their lifestyle offerings as they launch their first incense range comprised of natural, plant-based products sourced from around the world. For a company who's foundation is built off the story Livity - a lifestyle which embodies a connectedness and balance with natural world, it was only a matter of time before they naturally developed their line to include aromatic materials for a relaxed environment. The range aligns with the brands organic, sustainable ethos, comprised of several scent options including hand picked and hand rolled Tibetan Nag Champa, made in Nepal from a blend of Himalaya barks, herbs and saps, Palo Santo wildharvested in Ecuador, as well as California Sage smudging bundles.

 You can pick up the Satta incense range over at www.sattalivity.com now. 

 

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Watch: Sidewalk present Unsung – A Third Foot, Lovenskate, Satta

 Sidewalk team up with filmmaker’s George Nevin and Louis Gane to present the second instalment of their Unsung series, paying homage to three of the UK’s most exciting independent skate companies. The short video follows Joe Lauder of Satta, Lovenskate’s Stuart Smith and Ken Gear from A Third Foot as they give a tour of their work spaces and speak on the influences and inspirations behind each of their brands.

Enjoy the full video below and be sure to check the last episode HERE. Head over to sidewalkmag.com for more.

 

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Goodhood insight – SATTA

 

With SATTA recently releasing the Summer Solstice Collection for this summer, stockists Goodhood pay a visit to the Brixton based studio/workshop/home of the brands founder and creative director Joe Lauder. They take a tour of the space and also sit down with Joe to find out a bit more about the brand itself. Here’s what he had to say…

How did Satta start?

I guess the seeds for Satta were planted in 2007 where I spent my first retreat in the Peruvian amazon staying with a shaman learning about the plant medicines of the jungle. I’d just left school and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and left with a deep love for the natural world. I knew whatever I did I wanted to be working with nature in whatever way possible, and spent the next few summers designing and building gardens around London as Studio Satta. Because of the seasonal nature of landscaping, the winters were really quiet so I often travelled through the winter months. The seeds for Satta in its current incarnation were sown whilst away on a yoga retreat I took through India and Indonesia in 2012.

I see the process of designing not separate from my yoga practice. Yoga in Sanskrit comes from the root verb Yuj, meaning union or, to join. Satta is a union, a bringing together, of all the aspects of my life, both the people, environments and cultures I experience and my personal passions for working with plants and natural materials, skateboarding and surfing, the output being my efforts to try to merge them together into a tangible and cohesive story, which I hope people can resonate with.

How did you get into design and more specifically producing hand made objects?

So starting off as a landscaper and garden designer I often got asked to produce bespoke outdoor furniture pieces for my clients, over time I developed a love for working with wood and decided to further my skills by studying a fine furniture making course. Once I’d learnt what I wanted to know I left the course and started slowly getting a workshop together in my studio.

What are the key reference points for the brand?

Roots music, Zen buddhism, the trees, the moon, the stars, the seas, rastafarian livity, strictly roots and culture.

Anything inparticular that is heavily influencing you right at this moment?

I’ve been learning about gaia psychology and its opening up a lot of stuff for me at the moment. At its heart it’s about finding ways to re-ignite the emotional connection between individuals and the natural world, in order to help develop sustainable lifestyles and to help support the feelings of separateness from nature. I can only hope that the story Satta tells points in the same direction, because for me that is what its all about, reconnecting.

How do you handle the delicate balance between utilizing nature and living in the city?

Working as a landscaper the balance was easily met, working with the land and constantly finding solutions for people in the city to best utilise their own personal plots of nature. I miss the groundedness which came from landscaping but it only feeds my hunger to integrate the natural world into as many aspects of the design process as possible, be it from the colour palettes, illustrations and graphics to the actual working with natural materials in the workshop.

What does living in London mean to you?

London is so intense, its a struggle to hold your space; for me living in London is about constantly finding balance. London is wild.

What are you listening to at Satta HQ at the moment?

Barrington Levy – Send a Moses

What does the future hold for Satta?

Only Jah know!

The SATTA Summer Solstice collection is available at Goodhood now. Check the range at goodhoodstore.com

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SATTA Summer Solstice Collection

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We have been eagerly anticipating this release since we first caught wind of it, with those earthy tones a firm summer favourite here at bythelevel. Brixton based SATTA are proud to present their solstice collection for summer 2014.

Rooted in Rastafarian culture and inspired by the simplicity and rawness of skateboardings beginnings, SATTA tells the story of livity which embodies a connectedness, balance and harmony with nature and all of creation. Since making its debut with handcrafted cruiser decks sculpted from salvaged offcuts, the ‘sidewalk surfer’ boards have put SATTA on the map as one of the highest quality skateboards available.

This summer sees SATTA develop their range into a collection of seasonal staples including tees, hoods and accessories to sit alongside their custom boards. The clothing is made from 100% organic cotton, taking cues and colour inspiration from the natural world.

SATTA’s founder Joe had this to say on the collection;

Being mindful that the vibe and lifestyle of Satta resonate beyond just skateboarding, we have launched our first clothing collection as a means to spread the Satta Livity.”

The collection will drop this month online at www.sattalivity.com as well as key skate, surf and lifestyle stores including Goodhood and Slam City Skates

(click images to enlarge)