Mastermind Behind The Brand.
If you’re from Sydney, and you’re not shit, you’ve definitely heard of Sweet Dreams Bitter Reality. A cult streetwear brand born and bred in the streets of the inner west, masterminded by Nick Macris, an inspiring and dedicated individual who puts his heart and soul into every collection.
Nick and I met doing yourshot together at Bodega Studios where we were both learning to DJ and he invited the group into his studio where he works from. The walls were covered in graffiti and the whole building kind of smelt like weed but the entire group fell in love with the brand, me included. I immediately bought two shirts and still wear them to this day, with my collection ever-growing. Fast forward a year and i was looking for stories, i thought who else better than Nick?
SDBR started as a passion project, making clothes for fun for him and his mates, over the years it evolved into a respected and highly recognisable brand with a sort of cult following across all genres of fashion. Nick draws inspiration from all kinds of aesthetics when designing a collection, we chatted about rock and punk and those influences in the denim, the emo and punk scene and its influences on the brand aesthetic and of course the local hip hop scene that continually reps the brand proudly.
““It was just like a side project. It’s just an outlet and it’s my way of like, ‘cause I used to do modeling and I used to wanna be like the center of attention, do you know what I mean? But now like I’ve created this thing as my life, my thing to put out in the world and to like, I guess express myself and just show what I can do as well. I dunno, I just love clothes in general. They’ve just been my shit for like eight years now. Clothes are so sick.””
“You create this thing and you put it out into the world you have to feed it and keep it alive to try and do better than last time.”
Nick and I chatted a lot about the Australian fashion scene in general and his desire to keep the brand’s core values alive. Yes of course the end goal of any brand is to create profit but Nick wants to propel the brand forward in a way that still keeps the brand and its fans both original and fresh. Too many brands rely on trends and hype to sell product and yeah that’s going to generate profit and community, but it fails to create real brand loyalty when the hype dies down.
SDBR has superseded trends. I myself have been caught at events and in the street in the brand and been stopped by strangers and told me how much they love the brand and love Nick. I have made friends and met new people solely because I was wearing the clothes and that is the kind of community that has been built from scratch, from the mind of one person.
Nick says however, the most rewarding thing is seeing people he’s never met before wearing the clothes. It’s one thing to have your friends support your brand, but seeing random people putting their hard earned money into your brand is like an expansion of family for SDBR.
“Its the coolest thing when random people I dont know wear my stuff because it means that they actually want to wear it. These people went out of their way and spent their money because they really like it and they want to be apart of it., not just because they want to support their mate.”
When talking about the SDBR family its hard to not talk about the Sydney music scene. With its roots in the inner wests’ Bodega Studios, an iconic collective and recording studio ran by some of the most dedicated individuals in Sydneys music scene, it wasn’t hard for musicians to start to recognise SDBR as a branch of the scene.
With some of Sydneys and the worlds biggest artists coming in and out of the studio on a daily basis it isn’t a shock to see them leaving with a branded tote bag, or posting a pic in some product every once in a while. There isn’t a week that goes by where I don’t see SDBR on someones instagram. From Huskii to Rico Nasty, everyone wants a bit of Sydney’s most iconic brand in their closets.
All in all, I could go on for days about how much this brand deserves respect and how it is the catalyst for what a streetwear brand should be. But at the end of the day I can’t say much to convince my tiny audience to buy it other than, if you don’t, you’re shit.
