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  • Geoffrey B. Small
    Senior Member
    • Nov 2007
    • 618

    (continued from above)

    So TriggerDiscipline, I am warmed and very glad that you liked the handwriting, but I need to make sure everyone out there reading SZ understands that it is far more than just about adding a personal touch to the product to make it look like it came from some "artisan designer."

    No, as you may have noticed with the feel and experience of trying on some of our work, it is far from that.

    It is a symbol of a personal commitment to making the visible evidence of our extreme belief in the power of our own minds and hands to challenge and defeat the Corporation at making the best clothes in the world.

    It is also a testament to a mission to reteach that world how to make clothes again in the 21st century. For instance, we are fed up with the totally corrupt fashion-design-school-industrial complex that is also now bought-lock-stock-and-barrel by the Corporation, and is more intent on squashing education, skill building, critical thinking and creativity than cultivating it- taking student's money (or their parent's) and turning out corporate cogs for a machine that does not intend to employ even one in 50 of them on average upon graduation, just to feed itself ever more on higher tuition fees and corporate sponsorship.

    And it is a reconfirmation (that adds significant time and risk to the production and delivery of each piece), that contrary to much of the industry's lame business-school thinking, we do not believe in "scaling up." We believe in scaling down. And don't worry, all you MBA-fashion-wannabes-out-there, business can still be done. In fact, we may have some numbers that would make some of the bean-counters running things at Kering and LVMH take notice.

    But we don't need them or their banks. We don't need their "prize-money" or their creepy Vogue-or-whatever fashion awards, and even less (if you are unlucky enough to win one of those trojan horse awards) their in your face "consulting" or "advice" for a full year or whatever. No thanks. Been there. Done that. Nor do we need their lackey retailers who feel the need to lie now to their customers in an attempt to show that they too are now in on the "artisan thing". And God forbid, we certainly don't need some stupid Twitter celebrity on their payroll, to be "seen" and photographed wearing our pieces, in the hopes of going viral.

    Viral indeed.

    No, our power lies in our passion to create and build the most incredible clothing products that customers today have ever experienced. It will take longer, but in the end, we will prevail. And we will do so one individual piece at a time. Each and every single piece we make and sell within our tiny group of courageous and visionary dealers is playing a crucial role in the development of this great story of making clothes for human beings again.

    And each one of those pieces has my total personal involvement in its development and its creation- from beginning to end.
    You may even find some of my blood on them sometimes.

    And so, yeah, I sign it.
    And I number it.




    It is my Art and it is my work. It is not a brand thing or a label thing. It merits the proof that a real human being is behind it. And that human being wants the eventual owner of the piece and anyone else who views it to know it as well. It is one human being passing a piece of his soul, a life's work, and passion, along with that of those who work beside him, to another human being in the form of a garment designed and built to surpass any previous preconceptions of a what a piece of clothing can possibly be.

    And even among our supporters, this story still needs to get out more.
    For example, a recent article on our work in Singapore here mentions that:

    "Exclusivity is the key to the appeal of Geoffrey B Small. The Made-in-Italy line is reported to be restricted to only ten or so retailers in the world, and the limited editions have a quantity of 500 pieces per style, per season. Each garment has an artisanal quality to it (right down to the hand-written hang tags!) that inevitably draws out your curiosity about them."

    Whoa… 500 pieces per style per season? A little off the mark, I daresay. We make 500 pieces per season, not per style, but of the entire collection. Our entire production is 500 pieces. That is only about 1,000 total pieces per year for men and women combined for the entire world. An average of only 4 pieces per style per season. The tightest production and distribution in the business for any designer working at our level, and far, far less than the article, as positive as it was for everything else, implies. Yet in this day of e-commerce being so supposedly necessary to do anything, "mass luxury," and the spiraling over-consumption of plastic bullsh_t that befits a civilization so dumbed-out and unconnected with the realities of what is happening all around them on this planet: it is not surprising that it might be difficult to grasp what our production numbers really represent and signify… and that is nothing less than a total revolution, a direct and absolute challenge to go forth and slay the dragon with nothing but a product.

    A product that defies all tentacles.

    From the signing of the pieces, to the type of retailer you will find our work in, to the extreme hand making and creation technologies we use day and night to build the most labor and time-intensive designer clothes collection on the market today, to our more than 20 years of design leadership in environmental and ethical sustainability, everything we do is based upon bringing the value of the intelligent human being back into the clothing experience in very a big and bold way. The personal touch is real, and it's dead serious. Every person who works with me here in the new expanded Via Spalato workrooms at Cavarzere Venezia does indeed touch- each and every piece- as it follows its unique and magical path of creation, with their full attention, heart, and passion. That's why it looks and feels so personal, because it is, to each and every person here.

    The emotion you feel when you experience the product is our emotion that we put into it as we created it. In the end, I sign and number it on behalf of each and every one of us who are working together to build the dream of making the greatest clothes the world has yet to see and experience.

    Each piece forms a unique and historic part of this totally unique story in clothes-making.

    So thank you again TriggerDiscipline for your kind message and the inspiration to take some time and post these thoughts as they came to my mind.

    And thank you Faust, for keeping SZ alive and still the only room in the media world today where thoughts like these can be expressed to the few who may still care.

    Best wishes to all and thanks for reading.


    Geoffrey
    for everyone




    For reference, you can see the article in Singapore here…



    Coming up next: our latest Paris collection presentation…


    Comment

    • Anwar
      Member
      • May 2012
      • 47

      I felt the need to post even though i don't post often. Love the collection, got me re-evaluating my entire wardrobe... Would wear any of your clothes in a heartbeat!
      Originally posted by Lendar
      The price is a bit high, but the leather is very quality.

      Comment

      • Pumpfish
        Senior Member
        • Sep 2010
        • 513

        Geoffrey,

        I love you and your care in communication. In a world of fakes and empty bullshit spin, you have earned it and can supremely articulate your beliefs.



        Thank you.
        spinning glue back into horses. . .

        Comment

        • Faust
          kitsch killer
          • Sep 2006
          • 37852

          Originally posted by Pumpfish View Post
          Geoffrey,

          I love you and your care in communication. In a world of fakes and empty bullshit spin, you have earned it and can supremely articulate your beliefs.



          Thank you.
          Agreed!!!
          Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

          StyleZeitgeist Magazine

          Comment

          • surver
            Senior Member
            • Oct 2007
            • 638

            great selection of GBS @ eth0s :)

            Comment

            • Geoffrey B. Small
              Senior Member
              • Nov 2007
              • 618

              Geoffrey B. Small in Many of Them

              .












              O
              UR work has been recently covered in the new issue of Many of Them
              along with a piece they asked me to write on the state of fabric today
              in fashion. As an exclusive to SZ.com readers- and with the kind
              permission of Many of Them, we provide you with a brief reproduction of
              selected pages from the new book with photographs of Koos Faber by
              Antonio Macarro and our new essay entitled "The Fabric of our Civilization."

              As always, thanks for reading.

              Best wishes,
              Geoffrey






























              Many of Them is created and published in Spain at San Sebastian.

              .

              Comment

              • snafu
                Senior Member
                • Apr 2008
                • 2135

                lots of love to you and the team, looks stunning as expected!
                .

                Comment

                • TriggerDiscipline
                  Senior Member
                  • Apr 2013
                  • 859

                  Wow.

                  I had no idea that I had been replied to and for that I am sorry I was not able to answer any earlier.

                  Geoffrey, thank you for taking the time and writing that. It was very insightful, and I learned a great deal from this.

                  I was actually having a very nice conversation about you at AL Select, and now I come back to find to learn more about you straight from the source.

                  They were very enthusiastic to expand on your work, and they let me know about how you are for the preservation of fabric, maybe it's being lost in translation, but essentially the conversation circled around conservation and passing on your garments on to future generations as they did back prior to the Meiji Period, being mindful about the waste that the fast "fashion" creates.

                  The other thing was the peculiar No Nuclear pieces produced for them and how it was such a unique creation, particularly that japan has had so many mishaps with nuclear energy due to many unfortunate circumstances, I would love for you to expand or comment on this when you have the chance.

                  once again thank you for participating in the community!
                  Originally posted by unwashed
                  Try to use a phone camera in broad daylight or use a proper camera.
                  Originally posted by Ahimsa
                  I've found it extremely pleasant and enthralling over repeated whiffs so I would highly recommend.

                  Comment

                  • Geoffrey B. Small
                    Senior Member
                    • Nov 2007
                    • 618

                    .

                    Dear Trigger Discipline,

                    No apology necessary. Thanks for your post, and your visit to see AL Select in Kichijoji. To answer your questions, much of these topics have been discussed extensively here on this thread on Stylezeitgeist. As a leader in the sustainable, ethical and environmental design movement since the 90's, we have felt it part of our responsibility and civic obligation to speak out on these issues and utilize our collections to do more than just sell beautiful products. Here are some links where the SZ narratives, conversations and posts first started. You can scroll forward from these points to get the whole story.

                    For example, in regards to fast fashion you can start with my foreword for FIT's Sass Brown's "Eco Fashion" book here…




                    And for the nuclear positions we take and the activism we have done, you can begin with the SZ announcement of our very first anti-nuclear message collection in January 2010 in Paris which began our efforts to raise awareness in the industry about the real dangers, costs and risks of nuclear power. The story progresses throughout the entire GBS thread from this period onward…



                    Then in June 2010, 9 months before the disaster at Fukushima, we launched Logomania in Paris, the first Paris-level designer collection to openly come out against nuclear energy and arms proliferation- as part of our contribution to help the citizens of Italy stop Silvio Berlusconi's government program to build up to 10-15 new nuclear reactor power plants across Italy. Along with a special art installation in Venice during the 2011 Biennale d'art, and a lot of additional work, our efforts helped the country in a victorious nationwide campaign that ended up stopping nuclear power in Italy dead in its tracks. While we saved italy from a nuclear nightmare, sadly we could not do the same with Japan and after 3/11 that nation and the world itself will never be the same. So for us, the struggle continues to achieve a worldwide ban on nuclear arms and nuclear energy, before it's too late. It's all a part of what we call "sustainability." Few things in the world threaten our very existence as a species more than the true dangers, risks and costs of nuclear power. You can link to our Logomania pages at GBS here...






                    LOGOMANIA design pieces continue to be ordered, produced and delivered to our stores. Some recent
                    examples are the Italian Vicentina leather cyclista bicycle shoe made for us by Giuseppe Rebesco
                    now at DaZoO in Toronto (very near where the insane Canadian Government now wants to
                    build a massive underground nuclear waste dump right under the Great Lakes in Lake Huron)...









                    AND the new dark on dark version of the LMGB2 handcut Italian vintage
                    recycle leather bowling bag classic that we just created in a limited edition
                    of 4 pieces exclusively for AL Select in Japan, where the massive coverup
                    of the Fukushima disaster by the Abe government, Tepco, mass media, and the
                    global nuclear industry continues unabated… as does the unprecedented ongoing
                    radioactive contamination into the soil, groundwater, sea and air of the 3 meltdown
                    reactor cores at Fukushima Dai-Ichi as a result of the total failure by the very
                    same criminals, oops I mean authorities, to contain them...



















                    Hope this is interesting for you. For older SZ members this is a bit of review I know,
                    but it seems many newer members are not aware of some of this stuff nor our committed
                    involvement in it. And for me when it comes to these issues, I believe it is very
                    important for them to be aware of them. It is in fact, their world, and their generation,
                    that will be dealing with them far more than my generation has. And getting some of
                    that message out in fashion now can do a lot. Believe me, I know.
                    It already has.

                    Thanks again for your comments and for reading.

                    Best wishes,

                    Geoffrey


                    p.s. great to hear from you too Snafu and hope you are well. Thanks for the comments and there is a bit of you in that collection in Many of Them as well in case you had not noticed. Cheers from the team...

                    .

                    Comment

                    • LelandJ
                      Banned
                      • Apr 2014
                      • 201

                      Geoffrey I love a lot of your work and find it disappointing to almost never see it represented in the WAYWT thread. I'd definitely buy something myself if your work were available online.

                      The coverup of the contamination in Japan is surreal. My uncle who lives in Iwate was diagnosed with thyroid cancer a year ago, he's never smoked a cigarette and has run a dojo for four decades. I can never go back to visit my relatives now as it's not worth the risk of ingesting plutonium or cesium radionuclides. Many Japanese doctors tied in with established institutions will lie to their patients but cancer and death rates will continue to increase. There's really no safe fish to eat there anymore.

                      Comment

                      • Geoffrey B. Small
                        Senior Member
                        • Nov 2007
                        • 618

                        Dear LelandJ, I am so sorry to hear about your uncle. He is not alone. There is an explosion in thyroid cancer cases in Japan. I wish you the best and thanks, Geoffrey

                        Comment

                        • Geoffrey B. Small
                          Senior Member
                          • Nov 2007
                          • 618

                          coming to paris

                          .









                          .

                          Comment

                          • Geoffrey B. Small
                            Senior Member
                            • Nov 2007
                            • 618

                            new works : a new series (introductory announcement)

                            .

                            Comment

                            • zamb
                              Senior Member
                              • Nov 2006
                              • 5834

                              /\ More an more this is becoming an ever valuable and sensible reality

                              “You know,” he says, with a resilient smile, “it is a hard world for poets.”
                              .................................................. .......................


                              Zam Barrett Spring 2017 Now in stock

                              Comment

                              • gawkrodger
                                Senior Member
                                • Jun 2013
                                • 334

                                So today I visited Hostem for the first time

                                (Tangent 1: what an amazing shop/space
                                Tangent 2: what's the going rate for kidneys nowadays?)

                                This is also the first time I have seen any Geoffrey B. Small pieces in the flesh.

                                Wow. Just wow. Truly exquisite. This thread has provided interesting reading and I'm glad the clothes exceed my expectations. Just a shame I can't (and likely never will!) afford them

                                Comment

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