Hello boys! It’s your turn to get zhuzhed up in Britain’s finest fashion offerings as Bicester Village’s British Designers Collective pop-up gets a menswear focus. Boasting rails laden with London Fashion Week’s favourite names, from the energy of James Long and Lou Dalton to the classicism of Richard James and Margaret Howell, some of us got a first look last week. (more…)
The third and best yet incarnation of the BFC’s British Designers Collective pop-up shop has finally arrived at Bicester Village. A gaggle of press and bloggers got the 9.07 from Marylebone, arriving at a country-house-with-a-twist store stuffed with the best of contemporary British fashion. Following speeches by Value Retail’s Desiree Bollier, British Fashion Council chairman Harold Tillman and British Designer Collective spokesperson Alexa Chung (in Bella Freud’s classic Je T’aime Jane sweater), we were let loose on the rails of Preen power dresses and Jonathan Saunders knits. (more…)
Preen’s Justin Thornton is talking me through their design research process. It involves books, mood boards, deconstructing their archive and a veritable blogroll of online resources. “We photocopy from books and create mood boards from that to focus where we want to go. An element of the mood board might be a detail, or else it might just be an attitude of a woman,” says Thornton. (more…)
“Wearability”, “quality”, “consistency”, “quiet luxury”…These words are tripping off Jane Lewis’s tongue with barely a pause for breath. Of course I’m hanging on to every word. As the founder and designer of Goat, Lewis has been translating those words through her collections for the last ten years. Famous for her immaculate trousers, tailored knits and precise tunic dresses, she has created a successful business where her customers keep coming back. (more…)
