Basic Rights
Exceptional materials, considered finishing. Elevated essentials. Made for wearing. A pursuit to constantly refine men's essentials.
Basic Rights was born with the idea of providing today’s man with the essential building blocks of an effortless wardrobe. Out of NYC and tailored in London, our identity is shaped by the community of musicians, designers and artists that wear it. We are the result of a collaboration between guitarist Freddie Cowan and rockstar tailor David Chambers. Ultimately getting dressed should be simple. There’s more to life than clothes.
06/03/2023
28/02/2023
At home in NYC with Albert Hammond Jr. Albert wears the Buffalo Sweat and our High Waisted Trousers. A timeless BR silhouette. Stock is running out fast. Thankyou ! 🥺
27/02/2023
David Chambers. The master tailor behind some of our most loved patterns. David was at times personal tailor to some of the most stylish men in history including Brian Ferry, David Hockney, Sir Paul McCartney, Harvey Keitel and David Bowie.
24/02/2023
Continued 50% off all items. ✌🏼
22/02/2023
wearing Basic Rights. All items are now at least 50% on the website.
20/02/2023
These days, for most of us, a suit is not daily wear, but that doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate the same sharpness and focus that good tailoring provides.
Our trousers have been created with durability and comfort in mind whilst maintaining that sharpness of a good suit and the relaxed, functional silhouette of the modern day.
Following on from last weeks announcement, we currently do not have an end of trade date as we will be selling through all of our stock online, which is discounted at 50% off. Orders will still be taken online, however due to the circumstances items cannot be returned.
The main takeaway from this is that there's 50% off all trousers.
16/02/2023
Following yesterdays announcement we will be trading until the stock has sold. EVERYTHING on site is at least 50% discount. Don’t miss this chance to get your favourite uniform pieces for the last time.
23/01/2023
Manchester born, LA based Cartoonist nails the brief wearing
19/01/2023
As a pioneer of modern culinary content, has tapped into a new wave of curious eaters with his social series "All Things Butter" using his expertise as a chef to challenge the possibilities of such a common ingredient, whilst exploring his own creativity in a forever changing landscape, social media.
Here he is whipping up the BR team the perfect "Tostadas" wearing
16/01/2023
Long term fan of the brand and cartoonist hits the red carpet wearing Basic Rights
04/01/2023
Creativity doesn’t have to be in a studio or on a stage. In fact, all the world’s a stage, said someone who had a bit of a way with words, and so we spoke to Craig Meggs, head barber at Liberty London’s in-store barbershop Ruffians, about everyday craft.
26/12/2022
With restocks and a load of great new pieces coming in the new year, we wanted to give you 25% off nearly everything to conclude the year and get you ready for what’s to come.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Use code 25OFF at checkout on basicrights.com
22/12/2022
Competition Time: The Uniform Year
Nothing feels as good as some new clothes, and Basic Rights will be releasing some great ones over the course of next year.
We’re offering the chance to win £100 of clothing every month for the whole of 2023, allowing you to stock up on your creative uniform for the year ahead, and the years after that.
Fill out the form on our website https://www.basicrights.com/pages/competition and the winner(s) will be contacted in the new year.
17/12/2022
We are at @00.thestore until 22 December. The only place to try out pieces on before buying.
They also offer click & collect, one-hour and same day delivery in London.
02/12/2022
Ever wonder what makes a Christmas song sound, well, Christmassy?
Mark you calendars for December 12th as we'll be getting into exactly that, featuring one the most exciting new London bands around
29/10/2022
John Keats called Autumn the ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, but that’s really just poet-speak for things getting chilly.
Luckily our new shirts, trousers, and jackets for Autumn/Winter are here to get you ready for it. Keats would have loved them (probably).
27/09/2022
Our Western Shirt is a pared-back version of the classic style, with pointed yoke detail on the front and back, pointed pocket flaps on the double pockets, and a triple button deep cuff, simply topstitched and featuring snap pearl buttons.
Born out of the American border at the turn of the 20th Century, the Western Shirt brought together the shirts worn by the Mexican cattle ranchers, or vaqueros, and, and the combat shirts of the Civil War, and has been a creative icon ever since.
Made from a robust Selvedge fabric, which is visible on the inside placket, it is garment-washed to give it a ready lived-in look and feel.
Our Creative Director wears the Western Shirt whilst on the road with .
Photographer:
26/09/2022
The T-Shirt is the foundation of any daily wardrobe. And that’s why we’ve always ensured ours is a cut-above. It’s why it’s one of our best-selling pieces, and a regular inclusion in any list of the best T-shirts around.
Our Heavy-Weight T-Shirt is made from a versatile sweatshirt material, with subtle towelling texture to create a daily wardrobe staple with substance, a rare quality that isn't often found in a T-Shirt - that it’s purposely designed to improve with age.
24/09/2022
When it comes to wardrobe staples, few are more quintessential than the white shirt. With endless styling potential and the ability to smarten up casual items and looks, the white shirt is one of the most reliable and cherished pieces in your closet.
Our Hidden Placket Shirt is a beautifully robust everyday shirt, with a hidden placket design inspired by classic tailoring that gives it a unique twist. The lower part of the front placket has concealed buttons, allowing the shirt to be both an over-the-head half-placket, but one that can also be worn open as a standard shirt, and it features top-stitch detailing for a distinctive workwear aesthetic.
Location:
Photographer:
The classic T-shirt. A key element of the quintessential smart-casual uniform, a blank page that leaves room for self-invention. A wardrobe staple with substance, perfect for layering or to be worn alone. Our Heavy Weight T-Shirt is a hardworking essential that's designed to improve with every wear. For this style we've taken a versatile sweatshirt material with subtle towelling texture and applied it to a classic clean t-shirt cut.
26/05/2022
New for summer, our Hidden Placket Shirt is an everyday shirt with a subtle but unique touch, inspired by classic workwear. The half placket shirt was originally worn in sporting life and manual labour in the days before elastics, where men needed a shirt that could go over the head, but the lower buttons wouldn’t interfere with the task at hand.
Our Hidden Placket takes this idea, where the lower buttons are simply concealed, giving it a truly distinctive look, but still allowing it to be worn closed as a standard shirt, or open over our Heavy Weight T-Shirt. It features top-stitch detailing for a distinctive workwear aesthetic, and is made from a robust, twill fabric, and is garment-washed for a lived-in look and feel. It’s truly a shirt for everyday life, but with just a little something extra.
15/05/2022
"Rather than thinking, ‘Well, we can buy more stuff because it’s responsibly sourced,’ we need to have a mindset that sees us buying fewer clothes in the first place, but ensuring that the ones we do buy are better quality — and taking care of them. To do that we need to elevate to a higher consciousness and be secure with ourselves on the inside, and not use buying stuff as a way to make ourselves feel better, which is how I used to be. This is the very reason that I started the company: to create a uniform that helps you get there.” - Freddie Cowan, Creative Director.
Freddie wears Basic Rights for Esquire and Audis Game Changers feature.
Photographer: Dan Wilton
14/05/2022
Whatever you're doing this summer, we strongly advise doing it in a pair of our new Linen Pleated Trousers.
Made from a deadstock enzyme-washed Japanese linen, they offer true lightweight comfort and work hard to keep you cool as the mercury rises. Designed in the classic 1930s style, with double knife pleats for tailored movement, they have a tapered leg for a more modern silhouette, and are available in Navy and Olive.
09/05/2022
“If I knew where the good songs came from, I’d go there more often.” - Leonard Cohen
02/05/2022
"This eco-friendly outlook combined with pieces that champion timelessness over trends is why Basic Rights has become so desired
by Hollywood’s elite; it’s been worn by the likes of Ryan Reynolds, Donald Glover, Robert Downey Jr and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. But Cowan isn’t starstruck by blockbuster actors choosing his threads. Instead, he has eyes on creatives closer to home." - Jamie Carson.
“For me, the ultimate wearer would be Damon Albarn because I think he is one of the most stylish men. Not from a traditional sartorial sense but he knows how to find something, rock it and wear it to death. Albarn wore the same thing on his last Gorillaz tour [a striped T-shirt and leather jacket] and that was his uniform — that’s what really attracts me when it comes to menswear. It’s just like when Einstein taught at Harvard, he wore a Levi’s leather jacket every day because he knew he had a higher calling. I don’t think clothes should occupy a whole position in anyone’s life. That’s no disrespect to the great artists in fashion, it’s just for me, as a creative, it should be a secondary thing. We should find something that works for us and then get on with what is really significant.” - Freddie Cowan
Our Creative Director Freddie wears Basic Rights for Esquire and Audi's Game Changers feature.
Photographer: Dan Wilton
28/04/2022
There’s a reason a good suit is the thing it is, especially one that’s cut by a good tailor. It has a sharpness and authority that can fundamentally change the way one talks, walks, and even thinks. The master novelist, John Updike, who wrote every day in a small rented office in Ipswich, Massachusetts smoking nickel cigarillos, saw the daily grind of writing as ‘a dentist drilling teeth’, and as a result did so with the ruthless efficiency of a businessman, wearing a sharp tailored suit every day- a true style icon in both prose and clothing, who understood the link between clothing and creativity.
These days, for most of us, a suit is not daily wear, but that doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate the same sharpness and focus that good tailoring provides. Seven years ago, when Basic Rights first launched, we commissioned a master Savile Row tailor, whose client list included two of creative history’s most iconic-suit wearers in David Bowie and Bryan Ferry, to create a pattern for a pair of classically tailored high-waisted trousers, and they remain unchanged today.
Our High-Waisted Trousers have the signature silhouette of a pair of Savile Row suit trousers, but are made out of quality durable cotton for everyday wear, and feature classic waist adjusters for both functionality and a unique nod to their origin. Available in black and navy.
24/04/2022
Artists often draw their creative nous from singular sources and when it comes to our shirts, there is no exception. We like to take something from a specific time and make it feel modern by mixing it with contemporary materials and tailoring. Traditional menswear is one of our biggest influences. Especially from the 1950s and 1970s.
Taking inspiration from the style of the 1950s, the Long Sleeve Camp Collar Shirt features an open collar and boxy shape, both details synonymous with the era. Cut from premium beautiful surplus stock 100% Tencel sourced from Japan, the shirt marries a subtle oversize with a fluid and weighty drape. The loose fit and soft fabric create a casual shirt suitable for all body types.
Paul Banks of Interpol wears our best-selling Long Sleeve Camp Collar Shirt.
Photographer: Christaan Felber
Location: New York, USA
Koby Martin’s painting has made him a powerful new voice in the British art world. Born in Ghana, but now based in the UK, Koby draws on both backgrounds in the narratives of his work, which uses bold, vibrant colour and line to dramatise the beauty and chaos of human experience and identity, creating something that is deeply sincere, and wildly playful, at the same time.
Since speaking with him last year, we’re now proud to present our new collaboration with him, a limited edition version of our Black Crew Neck Sweater, featuring a bespoke and truly iconic new artwork from him. The buffalo is a symbol for creative spirit and purpose, and has been brought to life by Koby with the wild playfulness that defines his iconic style.
This is a limited edition product with only 50 available.
12/04/2022
Massive congratulations to RÜFÜS DU SOL who won their first-ever Grammy for the song 'Alive', taken from their 2021 album 'Surrender' in the Best Dance/Electronic Recording category.
"'Alive' is RÜFÜS DU SOL at their absolute best, showcasing haunting lyricism, mesmerising broken beat percussion, and ultimately captures the all-too familiar highs and lows of the year that has been." - Rolling Stone
James Hunt wears our best-selling Long Sleeve Camp Collar on the Recording Academy / GRAMMYs red carpet.
Photographer: David Becker / Getty Images
09/04/2022
"The details are not the details, they make the design." - Charles Eames
Charles and Ray Eames were two of the most influential designers of the 20th Century. Their creativity knew no boundaries. So much so, in addition to their work in furniture design and architecture, they also experimented in the fields of graphic design, photography, film and more. The four mantras that underline their creativity work just as well for any area of the creative industries: notice the ordinary; preserve the ephemeral; don’t delegate understanding; explain it to a child.
Videos (show all)
