No Dead Space, Please
A week in the life of De Dam Foundation's John Ro
John Ro and I both got into this nook of fashion around the same time. We first met at Toki in Amsterdam, where we officially sat down to discuss the project he had recently launched, called De Dam Foundation, and whether I could help him out in some way. What we ended up talking about was every possible aspect of that age-old human conundrum: how on earth do you build something from nothing?
Ex nihilo nihil, they say — but still, look around you and the opposite seems to be true, especially in fashion: designers, labels, writers, bloggers, influencers coming into (and, truth be told, going out of) existence as if they don’t care about defying a universal metaphysical principle.
Since that first conversation with John, I’ve been following him as he turned De Dam Foundation into a label, one that boasts stockists like Rising Star Laundry, Rendez Vous and &son as well as three Paris showrooms so far. He, for his part, has followed me — or so he tells me — reading and responding to what I write. This kind of connection matters, not least because its blurring of the personal and professional has become crucial to what menswear is right now. It’s important to keep your critical distance, as Louis Cheslaw said. Yet not to the extent that you lose touch with the human reality that makes the clothes you and I like so good.
When I tell you I’m a fan of John’s work — and give the full disclosure that we’re friends, too — there’s no need to suspect the former is true only because of the latter. If it were a word, I’d say we are professional friends which, in some way, is what you would hope any friendship is like: you care enough to always tell the truth, because you wish nothing but the best for each other. Let’s say I thought the armhole on a coat John has made was too wide, I’d feel comfortable to tell him — just as I’m sure he’d let me know if I would write something terrible.
My point is that John and I have been growing together — is this a terrible thing to write, John? — and that, from my perspective, it’s been great to witness first-hand what his commitment to De Dam Foundation has led to. I don’t use that word, commitment, lightly. If following John has taught me anything, it’s that running an independent label is hard. I mean, just think of John’s June and July: he’s producing Fall/Winter 2026, doing Spring/Summer 2027 showrooms in Paris and Tokyo, choosing fabrics and buttons for Fall/Winter 2027, conducting research for the theme of the Spring/Summer 2028 collection, and shipping orders for his webshop — all alongside his 9-to-5.
Last week, I traveled to The Hague by train to visit John at his home as he was packing four enormous suitcases to travel to Tokyo for fashion week later that day. Instead of talking about his big vision for De Dam Foundation — Duchump has done that beautifully here — we got into the down-to-earth realities of running it and making its Dutch-culture-and-weather-inspired functional garments really good, even better and, who knows, maybe one day, financially viable. After we exchanged some thoughts on the Paris heatwave, but before we really got started, John already dropped a bomb.
John Ro: …I’m moving my Paris showroom, by the way. The space I have now is nice. It has a lot of glass and it’s really light and open. Did I tell you there was a buyer who literally found out about the brand when he walked by? He didn’t see the info on the front, so he zoomed in on this knit sweater lying on the table, took a picture of the label, and later reached out to me. That was pretty cool.
Lukas Mauve: Why did you decide to move?
John Ro: …it was actually quite terrible because I found out the space I’m in now was already booked for next January before I had found something else. And all the good spaces for a reasonable price — 2k or 3k, say — were sold out. So I was like, holy shit, what do I do now? This was on Tuesday, my last day in Paris. I had been waiting a bit longer because I thought, maybe if this season goes better, I can go to a bigger space.
The days before I had found a few nice and affordable spaces online, but when I reached out to the owners most of them said, sorry, this is not Paris Fashion Week price. And then they went on to double or even triple the price for the week. I can’t do that. In the end, I was thinking to myself: should I go Airbnb next time or should I join another brand with a bigger space? Luckily, this guy who owns a gallery in the Marais, right next to Centre Pompidou, responded. It’s not too far from DMSR, Kensuke [from Reverberate] and Sine & Cosine.
Lukas Mauve: You said you wanted to wait to see “if this season goes better.” Do you already have a sense of how things are going, in terms of sales, while you’re having buyer appointments?
John Ro: No buyer places orders on the spot, so you always have to wait and see. Honestly, I like to believe I can feel it when an appointment goes well, but I also know it says very little — afterwards some buyers are like sorry, we don’t have the budget right now, or they just go silent, which is definitely the worst. Sometimes it’s the other way around: the appointment was so-so, but a few days later the buyer does place an order.
Lukas Mauve: The first time you showed in Paris was in June last year. Now that you’re three seasons in, do you feel more comfortable doing it?
John Ro: It’s definitely become a bit easier. When I did the first showroom, I was very nervous. I didn’t really know what to say. Of course, I asked friends for advice. Probably the most valuable thing they said was that I just needed to do it. Even when no buyer shows up, it’s like a box that you’ve ticked, to show that you’re serious about your brand. One day, I told my wife hey, I want to go to Paris, but I don’t really know what’s going to happen.
Luckily, friends introduced me to buyers, and some even showed up, including Ben from &son in New York. He even reached out before Paris, asking whether I did wholesale. I was like no, I’ve never done it before. I didn’t even know how the margins should be calculated. But soon enough, I figured it out, and &son has been a stockist ever since.
Lukas Mauve: I believe your deadline for SS27 orders ends today, right?
John Ro: Yeah, it does. I’ve been checking my email a few times already today. I feel good about it, though. I’m working with a couple of great stockists, and will be adding a few more soon — like And Father Store and Saath Saath, a great new store in Los Angeles that’ll open soon.
Lukas Mauve: Something that strikes me is that independent designers can be extremely discerning when it comes to working with buyers and stores. Some even have a list of conditions in place. Can you explain why that is?