Henry Selden '22 combines knowledge and entrepreneurship in “Lazy Dog” clothing – The Denisonian – The Denisonian

ROHAN ARORA, Editor-in-Chief—
For many, their passions and what they choose to study are separate, but not for Henry Selden, who started his own clothing brand called “Lazy Dog.”           
Henry Selden ‘22 was born and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut. He grew up as a middle child in a family of five, with two brothers. His younger brother, Nick Selden ‘24, is also a current Denison student. 
As Henry said “We started Lazy Dog as a way of expressing myself through an artistic outlet. I’ve always loved design and production but had never put the two together. I didn’t realize until I did it that they work together pretty amazingly. “ 
Henry started learning more about clothes and tried his hand at making cut and sew garments sophomore year. When COVID hit, Selden saw an opportunity to hone his skills and also reevaluate what he was trying to do, as he found that while producing cut and sew clothing was fulfilling and fun, it was not financially viable. With this, he turned his attention to embroidery and screen printing. 
“Screen printing has been sick because you can take anything you imagine and put it on fabric. It’s a hard process which I’m learning through TAing as the chief printmaking TA for the print studio. Taking on small jobs outside our brand also gives us practice and gets us closer to perfecting the process,” he said.
On how Lazy Dog began, Henry said “The Brand started in 2020 when I was researching typography for my design class. ‘The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’ uses every letter of the alphabet and is used to show off full typefaces within one sentence. I think my relation to dogs in the past combined with my love of design inspired me to use the lazy part of the phrase as my brand.” 
The brand was both an opportunity to combine Henry’s interests, and express his admiration for dogs. “We wanted the brand to represent the world through the lens of a dog- that’s why we like to use bright pastel eyes colors or brown/green earthy tones. I have had four dogs throughout my life so their carefree, anti-judgmental disposition has always been of interest to me.”
Henry is very happy to see his latest venture into the fashion world going as well as it is. “We surprisingly did super well on our first release. This helped us figure out more of production (embroidery/screen printing). With this new machinery we are able to bring our designs out in the best way possible. As of last week, I partnered with Emily Truong, a former Denison Student to help aid in facilitating designs and branding. This will give me the ability to focus on producing and scaling without taking away from the quality of designs. I’m super excited for what’s to come out of college as I can give it 100% of my time. Denison doesn’t do a great job supporting entrepreneurship, especially when I am taking five classes, so I’m very excited to give it my full attention”.

After the transition to embroidery/screen printing, Henry began focusing on the aesthetic of his clothing, experimenting with new garments, designs, and dyes. His latest iterations of Lazy Dog’s embroidered hoodies, ‘cozy dye hoodies’  feature tie dye designs and bright colors.
After the transition to embroidery/screen printing, Henry began focusing on the aesthetic of his clothing, experimenting with new garments, designs, and dyes. His latest iterations of Lazy Dog’s embroidered hoodies, ‘cozy dye hoodies’  feature tie dye designs and bright colors.
Henry has also been taking a fresh approach to marketing the brand, utilizing stickers with the brand’s logo and a QR code linking to the website. The square stickers are stuck on residence hall doors, in academic buildings, and almost everywhere in between.
The journey doesn’t stop here for henry. “For the future we are hoping to have our next release within the first two weeks of December. It’s a collection designed by Emily which is inspired by vintage advertisements like car wash or diner ads. If that does well we want to start scaling and hopefully get a warehouse in Colorado where we can produce on a larger scale.”
Also, Selden plans to do screen printing and embroidery design outside of Lazy dog, for aspiring entrepreneurs and designers who don’t have the knowledge or access to printing materials which he does. 
Whether or not lazy dog is your ‘vibe’, be sure to look out for a sticker and check out Henry’s website!
Getlazydog.com

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