Lev Tanju

Lev Tanju is a British clothing designer and co-founder of Palace Skateboards. Born in Croydon to a family with Turkish roots, he developed the label from London’s South Bank skate scene with Gareth Skewis in 2009, after the pair had worked at Slam City Skates. Palace began as a British response to the dominance of American skate brands and grew through clothing, skate videos and collaborations while Tanju remained closely involved in its creative direction.

In January 2024, Fila appointed Tanju creative director of Fila+, a new line developed from the Italian sportswear company’s archive, while he continued his role at Palace. The first Fila+ collection was introduced in 2024 from a Milan-based studio. Tanju’s Fila+ role centres on this dedicated archive-led line, drawing on the company’s historic tennis, football and mountaineering references.

Tanju’s work begins with clothing he wants to wear and with the visual culture around British skating, football and everyday sportswear. Palace’s graphic identity, deliberately informal tone and unexpected collaborations reflect an instinctive method rather than a formal seasonal doctrine. He has described making T-shirts and tracksuits first, then allowing the label to grow through use, humour and the tastes of the people around it.

At Fila+, that method is applied to an established archive. Tanju selects overlooked or unfashionable references, mixes them without treating the archive reverentially, and retains recognisable elements such as the F-box logo. Early collections drew on Björn Borg’s tennis wardrobe, Reinhold Messner’s mountaineering clothing and Pierluigi Rolando’s designs, with slimmer 1970s proportions alongside tracksuits, knitwear and technical outerwear. The recurring approach is archival but personal: familiar sportswear is edited through memory, utility and combinations intended to feel slightly unexpected.