Kem Cetinay Is In Pursuit Of Perfection

Growing up, fashion has always been a big part of my family. My mum studied fashion at university and has worked in the industry all her life. I was always her guinea pig at home as she tried new styles on me and picked my clothes. I was always into dressing up but I never thought I’d be where I am now, making these clothes. 

When I first signed with Primark 2019, the clothes were very ‘me’ back then. The collections were filled with lairy shirts and shorts that were so short they literally looked like hot pants. To see where it is now, and how premium it is, it’s mad. It’s all happening too fast to take in but it’s a really proud moment for me.

We’ve worked extensively with different fabrics and suppliers and have our own label within the store now which is more premium. People are happy to spend the money knowing that what they get is great value.

It’s always been about expressing myself. An outfit can show how you’re feeling. When I used to wear lairy shirts, I always used to say it was because I felt like a cheeky chap. Now I’m starting to dress more smart, it shows signs of maturing. When you wear something and you feel good, you want to go out and show it off. It makes me feel so good when I see people getting gassed wearing my clothes.

When I first started working with Primark, it was always about implementing my dress sense into the collections. I’ve started to realise that the clothes need to be versatile and we need to think more outside the box. I’ve taken myself out of it and have started to think about what the consumer would wear and I want the collections to have something in there that can cater to everyone. There’s an element of risk because you’d naturally want to generate clothes that fit your own taste but there aren’t a million Kems in the world so that wouldn’t make sense.

My outfit is normally based around a T-shirt. Whatever I’m wearing, I always want to combine it with a classic T-shirt. Before working with Primark, I struggled to find the perfect affordable T-shirt. We started working on that a couple of years ago and went through so many suppliers because I knew how I wanted them to feel. Honestly, we now have a cult T-shirt following.

Every day I walk down the street and it blows my mind to see how many people are wearing them. The amount of people who message me on Instagram asking for boxes of them is nuts. I saw a stat the other day that we sell a T-shirt a minute globally. Sometimes you don’t have to overcomplicate the clothes and design.

Essex is quite forward-thinking with fashion. I get a lot of ideas from my friends, who dress really well. Sometimes I’ll take a photo of them or write an idea down on my phone. I had one mate who was wearing box T-shirts before I noticed anyone else wearing them and I used to say, “Come on mate, you need to get a smaller size”. I never used to understand it! Then, the more I saw them, the more I thought they looked sick. I like people who take risks with how they dress, it’s so easy to play it safe nowadays.

It’s got to be the new box T-shirts because we’ve spent so much time on them. You can wear them in any way that you want. It’s nice that Primark trusts me to try new things. They’re so open to it and I think these new box Ts are going to be even more popular than our original shape that flies out the door every day.

We’ve signed for another two years, which is crazy. Next year, I want to smash the accessory and trainer market. I’m such a trainer geek. I have all of mine lined up with toothbrushes next to them; I think it’s borderline OCD. I want to create two or three pairs of trainers that are easy to wear and that anyone can grab. Trainers make an outfit.

Not really, to be honest. When I was a barber I used to regularly cut this guy’s hair, he’s one of my best mates now, and because I used to banter with everyone, he said that I’d be really good on TV. I didn’t really believe him but he applied for me to go on Love Island, without me knowing.

He helped me throughout the process. I was so nervous, I didn’t know what I was going to wear! I had to ask my parents for some money, and an advance from my boss, just so I could get some new garms. He was the one who pushed me into it and always gave me the confidence that I’d be good. Since then, life’s changed a lot.

Still to this day, I love cutting hair. I’ve got one regular client that I can’t shift, which is my dad. When he calls me and says, “You’re cutting my hair tonight”, it doesn’t matter what I’ve got planned, I have to cut his hair. I cut my friends if they need it but they probably think I’m a bit rusty, which I am. I’m never going to be as good as I used to be.

As much as I love Primark, I’d have to say Soccer Aid. My mates take the piss because they say I’m dining off this moment, but for someone who’s grown up playing football all their life, to play in front of 70,000 people with players I usually play with on a computer game is honestly so mad.

The Primark line has become a huge passion of mine and a lot of people don’t realise how involved I want to be. But you can see that in the results of the collections because they are completely different to Primark’s normal wear. We’re working hard and pushing towards making the project bigger and more successful and the plans we have for the next two years are absolutely mad!