HOW IT STARTED - IN A PUB AFTER A FEW DRINKS​

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It started, as many good ideas do, with a late December night in London.

A friend and I were having Christmas drinks just off Piccadilly Circus in a pub, the kind of place where conversations drift between honest and unfiltered. Somewhere between catching up on life and laughing at how unpredictable people can be, she asked about someone we both knew.

'How is Ashley?'

Without overthinking it, I answered: 'Alive and delusional.'

Not as an insult, but as a kind of affectionate shorthand for the strange mix of optimism, chaos, and persistence that defines a lot of people we love. There was a pause, then laughter, then the kind of silence where an idea lands properly.

'That’s a good brand name,' she said.

And just like that, something clicked.

Later that night, walking back through the glow of Piccadilly Circus, the phrase kept repeating in my head - not as a joke anymore, but as a statement. Something raw, human, slightly unhinged in a way that felt honest rather than polished. Aren't we all a bit alive & delusional?  

By the time I got home, the idea had stopped feeling optional. The domain was bought, and aliveanddelusional.com was real.

What started as a throwaway line became a framework for a brand: a collection of T-shirts and hoodies built around 'Alive & Delusional,' supported by additional designs that expand the same world - imperfect, self-aware, and a bit unfiltered.

It’s not about pretending everything makes sense. It’s about acknowledging that most people are improvising their way through life, and somehow still moving forward anyway.

The brand lives in that space between confidence and contradiction - where you can be both grounded and completely making it up as you go.

And it began, like most honest things, with a drink, a conversation, and a sentence that refused to be forgotten.

At that pub near Piccadilly, The Horse & Guardsman, it just happened to find its name.