[CLIP] "We've never pitched a single client" — The secret behind GKC's rise | Gia Kuan (GKC)

**Gia Kuan** (0:00)
Using fashion as a traveling medium to think about something a little broader. I think that was quintessentially what I was always really interested in. Why did you move to New York ? I always wanted to move to New York. I was craving something else that was a little bit more maybe underground. Peer is really hard to explain these days because it changes every year or so. Because if you think about it, us as human beings are born to communicate, and it's basically the art of communications.

**Adrien Garcia** (0:24)
What is the state of fashion in New York ? Is it still buzzing, still bubbling ?

**Gia Kuan** (0:29)
And you come here and you're still weirdo, but it's okay because everyone's a weirdo.

**Adrien Garcia** (0:32)
So what makes a good show ?

**Gia Kuan** (0:34)
You're really making me think with these questions. What makes a good show ? A lot of interesting people in the field are non-linear. A lot of us have many different interests, have many different paths. We want to get a little funky and creative with it. If you're looking for something of the big box agency approach, then maybe we're not the right agency for you.

**Adrien Garcia** (0:52)
What has been the nice turn up to the opening of your own bureau ?

**Gia Kuan** (0:55)
In my mid-twenties, I had no idea what I wanted to do in life, and I just ended up taking a bit of a risk.

**Adrien Garcia** (0:59)
What drives you ? I mean, on a daily basis and in your business ?

**Gia Kuan** (1:03)
Honestly, New York City itself.

**Adrien Garcia** (1:05)
You think you could have done what you've done in your house ?

**Gia Kuan** (1:08)
Sometimes you see substacks or newsletters break the news, more than websites itself. I get really excited when I see whether an artist or a designer doing something completely on their own that they're not caring about. How others are projecting themselves to the rest of the world. Stay curious, just don't be too comfortable.

**Adrien Garcia** (1:32)
How long have you been running the Pure Agency ?

**Gia Kuan** (1:35)
Six years.

**Adrien Garcia** (1:36)
Six years.

**Gia Kuan** (1:37)
Same with this, this is six years too.

**Adrien Garcia** (1:39)
So you study everything at the same time ?

**Gia Kuan** (1:42)
Yeah. I think we both just quit our jobs when we're like, let's do this. And then...

**Adrien Garcia** (1:48)
And here we are.

**Gia Kuan** (1:49)
Yeah, here we are.

**Adrien Garcia** (1:49)
Very successful.

**Gia Kuan** (1:51)
It's crazy though, because the year after we started, the pandemic happened and we're like, oh well, what do we do now ?
Which still worked out. We just worked from home. I guess we had nothing to lose because at the time I didn't have any employees. I didn't have an office. Yeah. So, you know, it wasn't like I had a lot of overhead or rent or anything like that.

**Adrien Garcia** (2:12)
So what's the future of you and the gunnery ?

**Gia Kuan** (2:15)
Oh, yeah. And the PR Bureau ?
It's the future. I mean, I guess I'll just, I'll take it as it goes. I'm really, as you can probably see, I'm not a planner. I'm very, I really go by instinct. So I feel like I just want to keep on having fun doing what I'm doing. I feel like the day that I'm not having fun anymore, then I don't want to do it. I want to be excited too for what I'm working on.

**Adrien Garcia** (2:41)
I just have a question from an outsider point of view. It seems like you're in a wall.

**Gia Kuan** (2:49)
We're going to call it a wall. I love it. You just got very successful, very fast. I mean, six years is not a lot. Why do you think it happened ? What happened ? I think about that sometimes.
I feel like, I mean, honestly, we've been so lucky. I mean, I guess it is a combo of, I wouldn't say just luck. Let's say luck and hard work. But I think it's also, we've been lucky in the sense that we've never had to pitch something. We've never had to go out and so far in the six years, we've never had to be like, hey, I want to work with you. It's been a very organic type of relationship and traction or by referral that's happened so far, which I've been really grateful for. I think that maybe I want to attribute some of it to the New York creative community is so small. When I first started, it's with these set of designers and artists, and we all run around in the same circles.