Brown’s of Leith: Gunnar Groves-Raines for KESTIN’s journal

KESTIN shot their SS26 collection at Brown’s of Leith earlier this month. While they were there, they asked Gunnar about the building, the Shore, and fifteen years of working in Leith.

Brown’s is a former engineering works at 4–6 Shore — one of the few remaining large industrial buildings on Leith’s historic waterfront. The gantry, cast iron columns and cathedral-like heights remain intact. GRAS has been bringing it into use in phases, working with that character rather than against it. As Gunnar phrased it: “It’s often an exercise in restraint, resisting the urge to over-design.”

The building is now home to independent food and drink partners, whisky blenders, jewellers, textile artists, florists and publishers. It sits alongside Custom Lane, which GRAS launched with KESTIN amongst founding partners in 2016 — part of a longer effort to give Leith’s creative community somewhere to work, meet and build on each other’s practice. KESTIN have been part of that community from the start. The SS26 shoot at Brown’s feels like a natural extension of a relationship.

The full conversation — on the building, the neighbourhood, and what draws people to Leith — is in KESTIN’s journal.