Edited By : Stuart Miller
Lois Thompson grew up just ten minutes from the North Yorkshire moors, in a quiet town surrounded by green fields and older neighbours. The pace was slow, the landscape beautiful, and it offered a quiet kind of aesthetic that would eventually shape her design outlook — even if it took leaving to fully understand it.
These days, Lois is based in Newcastle, heading into her final year of university with a growing menswear label, a thoughtful design ethos, and a clear mission: to challenge tired ideas around masculinity, while staying rooted in Northern identity and subcultural influence.
Lois’ creative journey formally began at The Northern School of Art in Middlesbrough, where she studied textiles, photography, and art history. The town’s industrial edge stood in stark contrast to her rural home — a clash of visuals that, in hindsight, helped her shape a strong design identity early on.
But it was the move to Newcastle that marked a turning point.
“Since moving to Newcastle for uni, I’ve seen a huge confidence growth in myself — personally and throughout my design handwriting,” she explains. “Partly due to independence, but mostly because of the people I’ve met and the underground scene that’s been revealed to me.”
Originally, Lois had her eye on Manchester, long seen as a creative powerhouse in the North. But what looked like a quieter scene in Newcastle turned out to be a misconception — one that only changed once she started digging beneath the surface.
“To me, Newcastle was lacking in the creative scene — but that was just because I was looking at it from a surface level.”
Throughout her degree, Lois’ ideas around branding, menswear, and emotional openness began to crystallise. Her latest work culminates in BROTHERHUD — a menswear label built around emotional honesty, vulnerability, and the dismantling of toxic masculinity.
“I’ve always wanted to create a safe space for expression,” she says. “In my latest work, I developed BROTHERHUD with the aim to ‘reconceptualise relationships which often hold dismissive undertones — especially ones holding fear over self-expression and freedom to emotional openness.’”
BROTHERHUD debuted as part of the recent show Adolescence, with designs that challenge convention while remaining deeply wearable. It’s a brand built on conversation — a soft resistance against the macho blueprint so often baked into menswear.
“The importance of overcoming toxic masculinity is more than ever before!!!” Lois adds, with no hesitation.
While Lois once found influence in skate culture (“So much so I even bought a skateboard – I can’t use it, but it’s sentimental”), her current references stretch from medieval folklore to Jungle and speed garage. She’s especially drawn to subcultures — how people dress, how they exist within a scene, how they use fashion as language.
“I’d say my influence came — and still comes — from the people who are amongst the subcultures I tend to focus my concepts around. What they’re wearing, how they style it… and it often tends to be rooted in menswear.”
As a proud Northerner, Lois is hyper-aware of the way creativity from Teesside and the North East is often overlooked in favour of Manchester or London.
“The North East — specifically Teesside — is known for its gritty, working-class industrial landscapes,” she says. “And sometimes, I feel that’s all people think of here. They overlook forms of a creative community just because it’s not Manchester or London.”
That perception has only fuelled her sense of purpose.
“Creating an attitude of perseverance and resilience throughout brand ethos or customer profiles is important to me, because I feel it reflects the attitude of the North East creative.”
Last year, Lois interned with Barbour, working with the menswear knit and jersey design team — an experience that opened her eyes to the scale and nuance of global menswear.
“It gave me a huge insight into the wider menswear scene,” she explains. “But on a local level, I don’t think I’ve fully been exposed yet.”
That’s starting to change, as she builds connections with local musicians and DJs, in a bid to understand how fashion and music are co-evolving in the region.
“Fashion is tied tightly with the music scene — they evolve with each other,” she says. “Which is why I’ve started reaching out to local creatives. To evolve my own perspective too.”
Now firmly embedded in the Northern creative scene, Lois is clear about what she’d tell anyone just starting out:
“Don’t overthink it. Staying North is something I’m incredibly grateful for.”
“Try to get involved — exhibitions, fashion shows, meet-ups, design collectives. The majority of people are pretty friendly. Don’t be afraid to reach out or introduce yourself to other creatives — they’ll appreciate it too!”
“Most importantly, stay true to your values and individuality.”