NCLGALLERY, NCL GALLERY, nclgallery, NCL…. you guys write it in so many different ways but how many of you actually know what it means? Google search trends show that it’s still, after all these years, one of the most searched terms related to nclgallery. Which makes us think that not many of you do…

So, we think it’s time we told you.

Believe it or not, nclgallery first started in 2016, when I (Jack) was studying abroad in a small town on the West Coast of France, called La Rochelle. Back then, you couldn’t ‘save’ posts you liked on Instagram and my camera roll was filling up with screenshots of various outfits and causing a bit of a headache as this was still around the time where iPhones had around 32GB capacity max. So, this is why I started nclgallery, to share the outfits I liked on a personal level and had somewhere to save/share them.

For a time, I was debating whether to call it 'Quai Duperré’ as this was the name of the main street in La Rochelle which had a view over the port, it was beautiful and felt like an appropriate name given how much of a French influence there is in Fashion. However, I thought over time, should the page ever go anywhere the pronunciation would be an issue and therefore decided not to use it… Since I liked the idea of tieing the name to a physical location, this brought me to ‘NCL’.

Until now, only a handful of people knew explicitly that ‘NCL’ is actually an abbreviation for Newcastle, just like LDN is to London or NYC to New York City. Newcastle, the city in the North-East of England and my home town. It made sense to call it that as at the time, “streetwear” was only just making its way that far North. Retailers such as END. (now global giants) had a small store on High Bridge Street which I visited regularly and wanted to have a nod to that.

This abbreviation, combined with ‘gallery’ fitted perfectly for me. A combination of where I’m from, as well as an obvious explanation of what the page is - a gallery of fashion-related images. As explained in our bio: “A curation of visual art”.

When discussions first started with the guys from Serge about a collab over a year ago now, I was honestly lost on where to start. By no means am I a fashion designer - I can barely draw a straight line in Adobe illustrator, but as nclgallery, we couldn't turn down such an opportunity.

Originally, I thought to keep it super minimal, fitting in nicely with the vibe of the page but then how would that be unique? There are enough plain pendant necklaces out there…and I think I own at least 5 of them personally.

Speaking with the Serge DeNimes team, they asked:

“Is there anything that personally resonates with you, or something about your life that ties in with nclgallery?”

I won’t be as cliché to say that “it clicked” there and then but the idea certainly came from that moment.

All my life, I’ve been a very indecisive person and often left a lot of life decisions up to a flip of a coin. It’s kind of a weird rule of mine and helps to decide anything from ordering either Chinese vs. Indian takeout to moving abroad for a year vs. getting a job. Once the decision is made, you can’t go against the coin. Sometimes, if it’s a really big decision or I’m just really not sure I do best out of 3 - but once you do that there’s no changing your mind. It’s actually quite freaky the amount of times I’ve done something I normally wouldn’t have because of a coin flip and something positive has come from it.

Therefore, it was the logical decision to design the pendant around a coin. Of course, there are so many coin necklaces out there what was going to make this one any different? I really wanted to focus on the flipping element and wanted the coin pendant to be removable from the chain itself so people could actually ‘flip’ it like a real coin. Because realistically, not many people carry change around these days and the closest people to get to actually flipping a coin is asking Alexa or Siri. The Serge team’s answer to this, a removable ‘Mallion’ style clasp that you can unscrew to remove the coin.

Once we’d identified the flipping mechanism we needed to decide on the coin itself, despite following Serge DeNimes for years and wearing their product, I had no idea that the Peacock with the Padlock in the field of barley was Ollie’s family crest. Proud Peacock, Padlock on it’s Peak - Proudlock. Mind-blowing, I know.

Based on this, we wanted to maintain a similar theme with the nclgallery side of the coin to ensure it all tied together. Since the bird most associated with ncl (Newcastle) is the Magpie because of Newcastle United it had to be that.

As a result, you’ll find on the Serge side of the coin is the Peacock with the padlock and on the nclgallery side, a magpie holding a small tag with ‘n’ for nclgallery on it because as we all know - magpies love shiny things…

Hope you all enjoyed that long-winded explanation that probably could’ve been written in three lines, but if you’re going to tell a story you might as well tell it properly.

The Serge DeNimes x nclgallery coin necklace launches on Friday 19th March, 19:00 GMT - you can shop it here.

Friday 19th March, 19:00 GMT - shop it here.