Simon Whitehouse wants you to wear your Heart on your Sleeve
He really does
by Marcello Cortese
In an age of fashion where absolutely nothing is off limits, is it possible to wear one’s feelings?
To perhaps slip into something a little more reflective of any person’s innermost experiences? Or even to design a brand whose clothes speak to different areas of the emotional and mental landscape? Simon Whitehouse, founder of Enjoy Being in Transition (EBiT™), wants to do just this.
Mr. Whitehouse has stepped through many rooms of fashion and commerce throughout his career, having worked as CEO of various brands and agencies such as JW Anderson, Art Partner, Eco Age, Reference Studios and MODES. His own personal story involving experiences with mental health problems, familial struggle, and creative verve has brought his trajectory to a new innovation of mentality, humanity, and industry. EBiT™ is this newest venture: a brand new e-commerce platform that’s interested in the convergence of fashion, sustainability, and mental health.
The website, which just launched December 4th, celebrated its inauguration with an open casting call for all models and creatives who have experiences with mental health problems. Listed under the Projects section of the website, this casting call offers a variegation of testimonials and reflections on how the brand works in perpetuity with its models. At the very bottom of the page, contact information is provided for young and budding talent that would like to join EBiT™’s platform.
The nature of EBiT™’s casting process, thanks to Casting Director Irene Manicone, appears less interested with conformities or checked boxes than it does with sincere openness about storytelling and relatability. Given the launch, Manicone collaborated with three debutante talents for the brand’s narrative aspects: Nina, Leonardo and Elena (all mononymously listed). These three models are set all over the website alongside collaborative stories featuring faces such as Indya Moore, Soo Joo Park and Rosie Viva. Their mini-vignettes are sandwiched between and interwoven with the commerce which, according to the site, is a decision “at once humanizing the commercial experience.”
On their About page, it is noted that “Casting in EBiT™ clothing campaigns centers real life personalities who live openly with mental health conditions, whether autism, bipolar disorder, depression, suicidal ideations, ADHD, or other. Featured characters also include those with compassion for anyone touched by mental health, such as psychiatric doctors, mental health advocates, and those who raise consciousness of the topic. Human beings who embody the spirit of the EBiT™. A communal strength in vulnerability and solidarity.”
The casting call page may be accessed here: https://www.enjoybeingintransition.com/pages/e039-open-casting-call
What is more refreshing to see is the embedded narrative in the FOH shopping experience. A simple click on the link for EBiT™’s “Octagon Patch Denim Jean” will take a browser to a standard listing for a pair of jeans, but one that reads “people first.” Before even the “About the Product” section for the clothing itself, the listing has a primary “About the People” section which highlights the stories of these models. Each testimonial is paired with the photos of its respective model to provide a voice and face simultaneously. Before the clothing is even regarded, the stories of the lives of its wearer are now on display, in tandem.
Emphasizing selectivity in the brand’s production habits, each item on the EBiT™ website has roughly 12 to 24 pieces produced, making each design a limited release “collector’s item.” The stake of quality over quantity is ubiquitous in Whitehouse’s brand, with clear material and care descriptions on each listing, as well as notes like “100% Made in Italy, always” all over the website. If only as a reminder, EBiT™ wants to make sure there’s no confusion about its origins or contributions.
Which brings us to the primary intrigue of this new platform: synergy. Not only is there a distinct flow to the website, with clear mission statements and informative database-like tabs available for immediate immersion into the brand’s history and trajectory, but Whitehouse has offered something further: tenderness.
The infusion of information and emotion is seamless almost to the point of being gentle in its delivery. Fondness and care are thrown into discussions about production and design technicalities, even to the most distinct detail of the brand’s label. Under tab [E012] “Mental Care EBiT™ Label”, visuals and paragraphs alike delve into the vision and intention behind putting certain reassurances on the label, boasting phrases like “NON-TOXIC, ALGORITHM FREE, ANTI-STIGMA”, almost like a mantra. The cheeky humanity seeps right through the technicality of informational material, like a mother who’s written “BE GOOD” or “I LOVE YOU” on her child’s napkin inside their lunch box. These messages take up their own space, sitting with just as much importance as the information on the care labels.
This isn’t even the fullest extent of the hidden messages in EBiT™’s clothing. Each garment features an open, octagonal hole in the back, through which the longer, extended label can be pulled through, wrapped, or cut off entirely to expose the wearer’s undergarment or skin. As noted, the cut out was initially a circle shape, then evolved into the octagon per a collaborative effort between Whitehouse, John Skelton (founder of LN-CC) and Mattia Donadi (product design). The choice of octagon is reflective of Whitehouse and Skelton’s mutual love of football/soccer, infinity, rebirth, transition, and functionality. The octagon in psychological fields is also used to represent the Eight Dimensions of Wellness, a collection of existential sects that contribute to holistic and balanced living; the parts that make up “wellness.” According to UC Davis Student Health and Counseling Services1, the Eight Dimensions are known to be:
Emotional
Occupational
Intellectual
Environmental
Financial
Social
Physical
Spiritual
The octagon, across all areas of geometry, psychology and spirituality, is indicative of balance and symmetry. Holistic. Closed. Infinite. With regard to its place in EBiT™’s mission, it serves as both an encapsulation of possibility, efficiency, and intention. The imagistic nature of the octagon and label provide surreal and mortalist details to the brand’s sense of humanity. A label that over time, and with successive washes, will begin to fray and discolor as an artistic representation of “the trauma we all go through during the various stages of our lives” goes beyond the expectable thoughtfulness of sustainable problem solving, and imbues a personified nature to the garments themselves. Humans wearing humanity. Storytellers flaunting their stories. Generational inheritance, and all that is left behind.
The brand is littered with reference, right down to the minutely crafted details of a thread placement or message hiding in plain sight, just beckoning anyone curious enough to it and the subtext it may carry.
By far the most impressive cornerstone of the brand’s identity, however, is its Ethics tab. Under this section, the site dictates, “In this section we should write about corporate things like ‘sustainability’, ‘equity, diversity, inclusivity’, et al. However, EBiT™ is not corporate. We’re not going to write some superficial report or hollow objectives.” Whitehouse has no interest in the framework of a message, nor talking around a goal. He means what he says, plain and simple.
Also under the Ethics tab is an extensive database of mental health resources, all catalogued reverse-alphabetically and geographically for ease of search. Beginning with Zimbabwe and ending with Afghanistan, the page lists the resources available by country with detailed information on how to contact these organizations, plainly for any and all who need help. As the introduction of the list points out, mental health is “baked into the fabric” of EBiT™, and Whitehouse has made a very direct point of practicing this sermon.
An extensive and intricately woven network of fashion and advocacy, EBiT™ is a demonstration of providing to the world a holistic alternative to the insatiability of fashion and its culture. With meticulous forethought and tender afterthought, this new brand boasts itself as more of an adventure and opportunity for the advanced improvement of human connection and productivity. Mr. Whitehouse has proven this to be a pursuit based on distinct vision and has executed such with patience and discipline; he’s certainly done his homework. A new branch of luxury has arrived, one that asks us all to be a little more thoughtful with ourselves and those around us. Let’s all say welcome.
Feel free to explore the brand and all its cultural insight HERE!
Dec. 6, 2025