Bronte’s Louie Collins Takes the Road Less Travelled

By Nicola Smith on November 30, 2021 in News

The man about town. Photo: Jack Bennett

For those who love to travel, the only thing better than actually being there is the feeling of being there, and Bronte local Louie Collins has set out to achieve just that with his new clothing label, Five by Flynn.
Mr Collins’ latest locally designed collection, Flynn’s Airways, launches in December 2021 and aims to take you down a road less travelled.
The affable entrepreneur gave The Beast an insight into the inspiration behind the pieces.
“I’m definitely making them for people who love travelling and who want to find those hidden gems; I want people to feel worldly when they wear these clothes,” Mr Collins explained.
Started by Collins in 2019, the Five by Flynn project began as a line of five camp collar shirts and soon expanded to a range of clothing and accessories for men and women, including items as diverse as a selection of ceramics from Mud by Chester. Whereas previous collections had focused on capturing the essence of a specific place, Flynn’s Airways evokes the nostalgia of air travel.
“Obviously right now people still can’t really travel, but I wanted to inspire people to love travel again when they can,” Mr Collins told The Beast. “If they can’t travel, then maybe wearing a piece of clothing from our collection will help them feel like they are.”
The new collection features light blue and white tones that replicate the sky in forms almost reminiscent of a retro airline uniform.
Where fashion can often be about exclusivity, Five by Flynn takes its name from a fictional character created by Collins to prevent exclusion.
“I never wanted people to feel left out by not being friends with the right person,” Mr Collins mused. “I think its easy to feel left out and cliquey in the Eastern Beaches, so I wanted to create a character who no one is actually friends with, to be as inclusive as possible.”
The Five by Flynn website features a blog that charts the musings and travels of the imagined Flynn.
“The beauty of him not existing is that we can write whatever we want and no one can tell us that we’re wrong,” he laughed.
Through his work on Five by Flynn, Mr Collins is realising his ambition to do something creative, independent of the parameters of society.
“When I left school, I wanted to start something but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. A few friends were up-and-coming DJs and we started a company called Dans Ave, and that company kind of grew. I really enjoyed staying niche and doing whatever I wanted to, and it made me really want to start my own project,” he told The Beast.
Mr Collins credits his creative family and his studies in business with giving him the right lens to create each line of clothing.
“I always try to flesh out what I want to do specifically, rather than just making clothes because they’re cool.”
You can shop the collection at www.fivebyflynn.com or follow @five.byflynn on Instagram.