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From StyleZeitgeist Magazine
In only a couple of years of its existence, LN-CC, the London multiple-brand boutique has gone from an open secret of the fashion cognoscenti to a major player whose business model is quickly being imitated by other shops. John Skelton, the store’s co-founder and creative director, has played a major role in its meteoric rise. I recently caught up with him in London to talk shop…
- You’ve just come back from scouting for new designers in Poland. How was it?
⁃ There are interesting things happening there, foodwise and otherwise, but when it comes to fashion the product is still very young and underdeveloped, to be honest.
I don’t want to be detrimental about anything, don’t want to say what’s good and what’s bad, but what we found there was really costume-like, whereas we were hoping to find some raw industrial energy like, say, that of Gosha’s [Rubchinsky].
⁃ It must be difficult to do what you do – trying to find young fresh talent, while not lowering your high product standards.
⁃ Yes, and in that sense fashion is very different from, say, music. You get incredible tracks that people with no money and no name make in their bedrooms, but you cannot really make an incredible collection in your bedroom.
⁃ Fashion, unlike music, is right in the middle between material and immaterial production: it’s as much about ideas as it is about physical product.
⁃ And this is why young designers can never compete with big brands – the quality is never that good, the fit isn’t right. In fashion, having the backing of a production facility makes a real difference. Sometimes you get the odd youngster who has access to really good production – like Yang Li who uses Prada’s manufacturers – but it is very rare.
⁃ Speaking about ‘youngsters’ who make remarkable product: what happened to Tze Goh – you don’t stock him anymore?
⁃ Sometimes the product is not developed enough for the customer, and with Tze it was the customer who was not developed enough for the product. People who paid for it and own it will have it forever and ever; it’s so real, it makes mainline product look shoddy – it’s that good! Probably the best product we’ve ever had. But it’s too advanced, too good for the normal person. Tze was really pushing the envelope. He’s more of an artist: he created something so specific that only a handful of people in the world would understand and wear. And then, his stuff is so delicate, it is sometimes difficult to care for.
⁃ I often ask myself if garments really fulfill their raison d’etre only when worn – only when referring to a body. Things like those Tze makes could be admired solely for their aesthetic and symbolic properties, like sculptures or paintings. Why are there so few clothing collectors around?
⁃ The problem is, people who buy a lot of clothes are generally very wealthy but they won’t necessarily buy clothes they want to keep and just stare at. And for someone who is really into clothes but isn’t super rich it’s not really an option financially, to collect things that retail at £1500 – this is why record or book collections are much more usual.
Great clothes are expensive, precisely because of that ‘material production’ aspect. Even in places like Japan where you expect people to have serious archives there’s not much of a clothes collecting culture – I spoke to some journalists who were doing a book on it: they went out and saw some people’s collections and they weren’t all that impressive. They’d have maybe 30 pieces, good pieces, but you couldn’t call it a real archive.
Having said that, I am a clothes collector – I do buy stuff just to put it away. It all started when I was 15 and began buying Raf and never stopped – I owned about 300 pieces at some point. Then I started Having said that, I am a clothes collector – I do buy stuff just to put it away. It all started when I was 15 and began buying Raf and never stopped – I owned about 300 pieces at some point. Then I started collecting Damir and amassed around 180 pieces since he started in 2008.
⁃ Let’s talk a bit about Raf: in most of your interviews you go on about how he was a real inspiration to you. So what did you think of what he did for Dior?
Read the rest of the interview here
In only a couple of years of its existence, LN-CC, the London multiple-brand boutique has gone from an open secret of the fashion cognoscenti to a major player whose business model is quickly being imitated by other shops. John Skelton, the store’s co-founder and creative director, has played a major role in its meteoric rise. I recently caught up with him in London to talk shop…
- You’ve just come back from scouting for new designers in Poland. How was it?
⁃ There are interesting things happening there, foodwise and otherwise, but when it comes to fashion the product is still very young and underdeveloped, to be honest.
I don’t want to be detrimental about anything, don’t want to say what’s good and what’s bad, but what we found there was really costume-like, whereas we were hoping to find some raw industrial energy like, say, that of Gosha’s [Rubchinsky].
⁃ It must be difficult to do what you do – trying to find young fresh talent, while not lowering your high product standards.
⁃ Yes, and in that sense fashion is very different from, say, music. You get incredible tracks that people with no money and no name make in their bedrooms, but you cannot really make an incredible collection in your bedroom.
⁃ Fashion, unlike music, is right in the middle between material and immaterial production: it’s as much about ideas as it is about physical product.
⁃ And this is why young designers can never compete with big brands – the quality is never that good, the fit isn’t right. In fashion, having the backing of a production facility makes a real difference. Sometimes you get the odd youngster who has access to really good production – like Yang Li who uses Prada’s manufacturers – but it is very rare.
⁃ Speaking about ‘youngsters’ who make remarkable product: what happened to Tze Goh – you don’t stock him anymore?
⁃ Sometimes the product is not developed enough for the customer, and with Tze it was the customer who was not developed enough for the product. People who paid for it and own it will have it forever and ever; it’s so real, it makes mainline product look shoddy – it’s that good! Probably the best product we’ve ever had. But it’s too advanced, too good for the normal person. Tze was really pushing the envelope. He’s more of an artist: he created something so specific that only a handful of people in the world would understand and wear. And then, his stuff is so delicate, it is sometimes difficult to care for.
⁃ I often ask myself if garments really fulfill their raison d’etre only when worn – only when referring to a body. Things like those Tze makes could be admired solely for their aesthetic and symbolic properties, like sculptures or paintings. Why are there so few clothing collectors around?
⁃ The problem is, people who buy a lot of clothes are generally very wealthy but they won’t necessarily buy clothes they want to keep and just stare at. And for someone who is really into clothes but isn’t super rich it’s not really an option financially, to collect things that retail at £1500 – this is why record or book collections are much more usual.
Great clothes are expensive, precisely because of that ‘material production’ aspect. Even in places like Japan where you expect people to have serious archives there’s not much of a clothes collecting culture – I spoke to some journalists who were doing a book on it: they went out and saw some people’s collections and they weren’t all that impressive. They’d have maybe 30 pieces, good pieces, but you couldn’t call it a real archive.
Having said that, I am a clothes collector – I do buy stuff just to put it away. It all started when I was 15 and began buying Raf and never stopped – I owned about 300 pieces at some point. Then I started Having said that, I am a clothes collector – I do buy stuff just to put it away. It all started when I was 15 and began buying Raf and never stopped – I owned about 300 pieces at some point. Then I started collecting Damir and amassed around 180 pieces since he started in 2008.
⁃ Let’s talk a bit about Raf: in most of your interviews you go on about how he was a real inspiration to you. So what did you think of what he did for Dior?
Read the rest of the interview here
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