Noél Aiwerioghene and his twin brother, Samuel, never intended on launching a fashion label. The 27-year-olds, who were born and raised just outside of Copenhagen by a Nigerian father and Danish mother, certainly had entrepreneurial pursuits—but once they found their own niche in the wide world of Instagram fashion and gained a loyal following, they decided to roll with it. The pair started a style account called Akins Collective, which served as a daily diary of their love of beautifully crisp, minimalist menswear. Now they’re launching their own label based on that aesthetic called Sam Noél. Think sharp gray and black overcoats paired with plain baseball hats; black tees with classic blazers; and clean trouser pants in beige, white, or navy. Noél describes the look as “casual formalwear,” something “understated and based only on a few key items.” Samuel says that it’s “about being subtle, simple, and classic.”

The Aiwerioghene brothers say that despite being twins, they never, ever dressed like one another growing up. “I would say that we actually tried really hard to not look like each other,” Samuel notes. “Our style was not minimal when we were younger. Back then it was all about standing out and trying something different. It wasn’t about being simple or minimalist, but instead doing what felt comfortable to us while still being adventurous.” Despite the fact that they experimented with various styles during their young-adult years, they were always influenced by their father and his “conservative, classic style.” Looking back at family photographs, the Aiwerioghenes were fascinated by the fact that, despite living among so much vibrant color in Nigeria, their father always took his own approach with beautifully tailored neutral-hued ’70s suits. “He always did his own thing,” Noél says. “We really liked that when we were younger, and we would just study how he would dress and got very inspired.”

Their mother too had a profound influence on the way the twins approached fashion and personal style. “Our mother was artistic,” Samuel explains. “She was also always interested in making clothes. She made her own trousers and dresses and tops when we were growing up. I think her mother taught her how to sew, and she taught us. From a very young age, she taught us to fix our own clothes if they broke or ripped. We learned how to fit all of our clothes because of her.” The twins took what they learned from their mother and began to buy and fix up vintage clothes in London. (They moved there after high school, and both worked various jobs while experimenting with repurposing and tailoring old Burberry trench coats and Aquascutum suits.) “Even though we never thought of ourselves as having similar approaches to fashion, we really discovered that we liked the same things once we were both in London,” Noél says. “We’d go to stores like Rokit on Brick Lane or the markets in Camden Town and find these beautiful old traditional menswear pieces that we could fix up or tailor for ourselves.”

It was at this point they really began to discuss the idea of creating a line of their own, something that felt as organic and personal as their outings to London’s vintage outposts. They were also inspired by their father, of course, and by certain music legends they’d always idolized. As Noél explains, “My first love and passion was always music growing up, and I think that my music heroes inspired me. Pete Doherty was a big influence in terms of his long trench coats and hats, but also as Samuel and I began to look further back, we realized how much we loved the styles of old jazz musicians like Thelonious Monk and Gerry Mulligan. We like how these musicians always wore clothes in a nonchalant kind of way, as well as mixing straightforward suiting with odd accessories.” Samuel adds that they “like this fusion and try to incorporate juxtapositions in our clothes.”

These idiosyncrasies are subtle: the way they add workwear materials to a traditional wool blazer or cut a pair of pants with an exaggerated loose fit. The point is, for the two of them, to be singular in their point of view. And even though they aren’t fashion designers in the traditional sense, they see no need for conventional labels or for taking the typical course of action in the industry. As Noél says: “We decided a long time ago that we didn’t need to go to school for this kind of thing.” For the Aiwerioghene brothers, fashion is personal.