In Feature 029 of Conversations Behind The Campaign, we sat down with Gabriel Rylka, the Founder behind Break. Archive.
Having launched in 2021 when Gabriel was just 18, the luxury bag resale platform has set the standard for selling a meticulously curated selection of rare and coveted pieces. Now generating over £1 million in annual revenue, Rylka has not only tapped into but continues to lead the growing pre-loved market. Much of Break. Archive’s success can be attributed to its bold, eye-catching, and playful social media presence, where Rylka teases exclusive drops and shares iconic brand campaigns.”
In our interview, Gabriel shares the story behind Break. Archive, where he draws creative inspiration, his favourite brand moment to date, and the lessons he’s learned as a founder – both creatively and in business.
1. What inspired the creation of Break Archive, and what was your initial vision for the brand’s marketing?
I’ve always been into reselling, ever since I was 14. I used to go to flea markets with my mum every Sunday to help her with her side hustle of buying and renovating vintage furniture, she used to pay me £5 a week haha. I used to take that £5, buy converse, take them home, scrub them and flip them on ebay for £10 a pair. I soon swapped Converse for vintage clothing and eventually vintage clothing for designer bags.
I started the brand as I noticed there was a big gap in the market for a reseller that focuses specifically on a Gen-Z audience. All of the resellers at the time were positioned at an older more mature audience with very sleek and sophisticated marketing. As I noticed a huge rise in demand for vintage designer products amongst Gen-Z, I knew that our marketing had to reflect that.
2. What does a typical day in-the-life of a founder at Break Archive look like?
Chaos, absolute chaos. We are currently in the process of growing our team as we have been severely understaffed for the last few months with our rapid growth. Most of my daily tasks are preparing for an upcoming drop (our drops happen every two weeks, usually around 150-200 products a drop), working on special projects like pop up shops and exciting campaigns (we have a realllyyyy fun one coming up), creating social media content for our channels and speaking to our community on DMs and WhatsApp. I really like to make sure that we are always in touch with our clients and wider community. I enjoy the fast pace of my work, I’m one of those people who can’t sit still in one place so it’s perfect haha. I think what I love most about this job is the creative freedom I have given myself to explore.
3. Break Archive’s content is fun, engaging and on-trend. Where do you draw inspiration from?
My inspiration comes a lot from pop culture, cinema and also real life experiences. For example, ‘The Hot Seat’ campaign was inspired by Sofia Coppola’s ‘Bling Ring’ as well as the experience of our store being robbed back in March 2024. After the robbery I knew that the next pop up campaign had to be inspired by this, we took something devastating and negative and turned it around into something fun and light.
Another one that was really big for us was the ‘fashion intern’ content inspired by the ever iconic Devil Wears Prada. Our followers / customers seem to love when we tap into these nostalgic moments for them, it’s engaging and feels personal.
For social media content it’s similar, me and the team are chronically online (if you work in marketing and aren’t chronically online then you are doing it wrong), so a lot of our ideas will come from current trending topics, TikTok etc.
4. What’s been your favourite bag to source and shoot? What made it so special?
My favourite bag to source and shoot has always been the Dior piercing saddle bag from the John Galliano era. Such a rare and sought after piece. Every time we post this bag on our socials it blows up. It’s one of those bags you usually get to see once in a lifetime, but we are lucky enough to see it at least once a year in the studio.
5. Break Archive has launched some incredible campaigns. Are you able to walk us through the creative process of one of the campaigns, from brief to execution?
I’ll walk you through the creation of our Black Friday campaign: BA.TV.
The concept randomly came to me in Dubai whilst we were hosting our Pop Up shop. Live shipping has gained so much popularity recently but the OG was QVC back in the 90s and early 2000s. I remember those channels always having insane discounts and ridiculous tag lines so I knew there was a way we could put our own spin on it. At the time I was also watching Mad Men on Netflix so for some reason decided that I wanted it all to feel 70s, with big hair and outfits from styling from that era.
A campaign will always begin with me and my team brainstorming as big as we can, and we always go pretty big with our ideas. At first, BA.TV was going to be a series of different videos all presenting different TV channels, we were going to do a late night show, a dating show, a teleshopping channel and even a funny advert to play in between. I find I let myself go off when brainstorming and the team is good at bringing me back down to earth haha. We decided to just stick with the QVC – Teleshopping vibe.
Next is always creating a concise deck with all of the shoot details, the set planning, the direction, the styling, models, HMUA (the best company I will recommend to anyone in the creative industry for finding a HMUA team is EMPERA. I simply send them my moodboard and budget and they match a whole team of artists to our needs), deliverables and most importantly the scripts (which we always find ourselves writing the night before the shoot haha). This is the fun part, putting the campaign together and seeing it come to life. During this process there were so many changes, especially with the set. Nichola, my marketing manager, had the amazing idea of using pink silk curtains in the set instead of a red velvet as we originally decided. This created a much more re-shareable result, the set honestly felt like a bit of a fever dream haha, We always produce, direct and edit everything in house (I learnt editing all by myself as I really want to ensure the final result is exactly what I envisioned), so for every shoot we come across different challenges, for this one it was finding the correct material for the set curtains and physically building the set – none of us have ever built a set so you can imagine the chaos.
I find shoot days the most stressful, but to calm myself down I always ensure I’m stocked with sugar free redbull and a peach vape (unbeatable combo for a stressful day). For this specific shoot I had to feature as a TV host, I have 0 acting experience but I love throwing myself into fun projects and it definitely came out amazing. I like to have fun on set, especially with the models to ensure they feel comfortable to improvise and humour their roles a bit more. Overall the result for this shoot was fantastic and I am so proud of me and the team for making it happen on such a short turnaround for Black Friday.
Campaign video available here
6. What marketing trends do you think we’ll see in 2025? What marketing trends are you happy to leave in 2024?
It seems to me that marketing is getting fun again in 2025, we’ve finally ditched old money and minimalism. Maximalism and eclecticism is back. I think we’re going to see some insane things this year.
I honestly want to leave brands interacting with every TikTok trend in 2024. Yes, sometimes playing into a TikTok trend can be effective but only if it applies to your brand. Simply taking a trend as a template and applying your brand to it is not creative, it’s not fun, it’s boring and not engaging.
7. What has been your favourite brand moment or campaign at Break Archive, and why?
Our Dubai pop up shop was one of my favourite projects to work on. Bringing the brand to the Middle East has always been a big goal for me, the consumers there are really opening up to pre-loved and I know this is the exact time to build a name there in this industry.
We worked with the amazing team at Koncrete Space to take-over their cafe for 4 days. We wrapped areas of the store in vinyl which was our iconic neon green colour, worked with a local florist to curate bouquets for our clients, came up with a custom matcha drink that was exclusively available for the duration of the pop up and even rented a neon green G-Wagon to sit outside the cafe. This activation made me realise how many people are familiar with Break. Archive and our branding. It was so fun to curate an experience for our clients in such an amazing space. I love meeting the community face to face, discussing all things bags and fashion. It’s the most rewarding feeling ever when a client says that they ‘love our marketing’ and our brand.
8. What has been the biggest challenge in your career and what advice would you share with someone going through something similar?
The biggest challenge in my career was believing and trusting myself. It’s something I have worked on very hard in the last year and with success. When you run your own company you have moments of severe doubts, every business owner will agree with me on this. But if you dwell on that doubt and let it impact your work that’s when the problem can really start to occur. My biggest ‘imposter syndrome’ moment was during our first major campaign – The Hot Seat – the night before the shoot I was absolutely freaking out in my flat but after calming myself down I told myself to trust myself and my creativity, to let my ideas go free. We have so many challenging projects going on at the moment, but I know me and my team will succeed, how? Because failure is simply not an option. That would be my advice, believe in yourself, you’ve gotten this far by betting on yourself, go on… bet some more, take the gamble.
9. Are there any marketers or founders you look up to for both creative and career inspiration?
Anything that Poster Girl puts out is insane, Natasha and Francesca have some of the best marketing ideas I have seen and I am obsessed with them. A lot of inspiration has definitely come from there.
10. Who is the dream Break Archive customer?
Alex Consani, Gabriette or (rogue one) Jennifer Coolidge.
11. Where can our audience follow and engage with you and Break Archive on social media?
TikTok: @break.archive
Instagram: @break.archive
Snapchat: break.archive
