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(continued from above)
OUR CONTRACT with the PR from hell was up finally, so we began a search and negotiations for a new one. Paris PR agencies are generally a nightmare for designers, but by this time, I was learning some of the ropes, and was trying to choose even more carefully than before. One of the offices we had decided not to go with earlier was now becoming more and more powerful, and had helped catapult another member of the Antwerp Six to huge a new exposure level in yes, the new men's streetwear movement (to avoid too much controversy I am going to leave out names from this episode). They were a little mad at me for not having chosen to work with them previously, and had watched our progress since then, but nevertheless one of the 2 partners agreed to see me for a meeting in Paris after our women's show in March 1996. The agency was getting very big and their demands seemed out of my reach, the money budget was one thing but the real problem was that they wanted no less than 5 duplicate press sample collections to house in their pressroom. Our samples were always pure art piece prototypes (even today) and we don't do duplicates of them. Logistically, financially, and artistically it just never made sense for us. I understood their reasons though, the same dress or jacket could be sent out to 5 different magazines in Italy, Paris, London, Tokyo for example, all at the same time, and be generating editorial coverage in amazing efficiency and quantities. And that is what they were doing with their "Antwerp 6" star at the time. I mean it was like a Kim Kardashian thing for the fashion press. All over the planet. In fact, it was too much for me, and I informed the guy that I had to think about it, but probably would not be able to provide all those duplicate samples they wanted. I was coming from an older-school-more-organic approach to press and image, more along the lines of other members of the Antwerp 6 like Demeulemeester, Dries and Bikkembergs who took years before they began to ramp up their press investments and efforts to this kind of level.
One thing we did agree on though was our latest men's collection. I brought a full presentation book of "Homme Bleu" with front and back photos of every single design article in the collection and all the runway look photos as well, and the guy loved it. He was so interested in it, I enjoyed discussing everything from the philosophy to the materials and of course, the recycle techniques that we had innovated to create the collection. We spent about an hour looking over the collection photos, and only about 10 minutes on the budget and duplicate press samples issues, and I left thinking he was a pretty nice guy… but there was no way I was going to be trying build 5 duplicate press sample collections either before or in the 2-3 weeks right after Paris. We were so out there on the cutting-edge all the time, that it was hard enough just to make the one first prototype, let alone another 5. And that is still true today. Our Paris prototypes are our real art. And I don't believe in duping them. Besides I would need an army of about 35 tailors and assistant designers to be able to pull it off in the time frame necessary for the seasonal fashion magazine collection photo shooting schedules which are right during and after Paris. I left the office and eventually signed up with another PR who we ended up worked with for the next 7 years.
At just about the same time, Linda Loppa was pushing one of her star students from Antwerp. In Milan, she searched out the super-agent (whom Carol Christian Poell and we later worked with as well) who was behind Helmut Lang's long but steady climb from Zamasport to Gibo to super-stardom at the time and begged to have him sell the student's first professional collection. The agent agreed and sales were not very strong. But the student had an ego (probably blown-up by Loppa and the school) and after a month went back to Milan and into the super-agent's office and defiantly screamed "Where are my orders?!!" The super-agent booted him out forever, and the student, temporarily banned in Milan, decided to show the next time in Paris. The student went to the same PR office whom I had talked with that was working with the Kim Kardashian-level PR campaign for the "Antwerp 6" designer (who was another ex from Loppa's school), and unlike me, signed on with them. About 10 months later, the student came out with his first runway show in Paris during men's week in January 1997. He was the newest Antwerp thing at a time when you could be Ronald McDonald, but if you were coming out of Antwerp everybody would take you. By now, after a decade, the Antwerp 6 and Margiela had paved the way for a 2nd generation to have it easy for them. The press, the buyers, and the industry were all sucking Antwerp as quickly as it could arrive. The student hit it big with his first show. Inordinately big. The PR did their job. The ego hit the roof and would never come down (even today). And the stores bought it. But the student's collection that went out on the runway was ours. It was not recycled. But its look, colors, concept and spirit were a dead ringer for the "Homme Bleu" collection we had put out a year earlier. And I knew exactly where he got that collection… a one hour meeting 10 months ago in Paris with all of those photos and that nice guy in the office who was just loving that collection so much he couldn't stop looking at it and asking me about every single piece and how it was done. I still had some ropes to learn. I never looked at a big Paris PR the same way again. And I never respected that student as a designer, no matter how far and how high his career climbed, and his accolades as one of the "greats" piled up. To me, he was and remains nothing but a faker who was smart enough to get a good PR and play hype to the max and ride a wave that others before him had created. Literally.
In the meantime, we were continuing on our own roll, pushing our recycle technology even further by introducing a new fusion of country style clothing and recycle techniques that we called "Neo-Country," which was presented in Paris in January and March 1997 setting record sales and press coverage, and amazingly ending up doing a world tour of exhibitions and performances in the US, Japan, and Hong Kong.
1997 Article on "Neo-Country " written by Sarah Daglish. The collection examined non-urban elements for the first time such as corduroy, nordic and Irish sweater knits, bold plaids, flannel shirts, suedes and leathers reassembled in a modern new avant-garde street manner. The industry led by Prada loved it and copied the hell out of it within 2 seasons. And the skulls, well, I don't even want to begin to talk about where that went...
In July 1997, we presented "Skag Boys" a very strong and very successful collection that expanded our designer streetwear concepts into a new dimension that continued our exploration of American recycled vintage clothing, workwear reproductions, and graphic use of tapes and zippers quickly picked up by many others including Raf Simons and Helmut Lang. We also introduced for the first time in Paris what we called a relaxed overlock stitch on the very successful no.24 trouser design and a slew of other pieces in the collection which sold all over the world in top research stores. The look of the stitch was later used and applied (albeit respectfully, with a different type of sewing machine) and became synonymous with the 1999 and early 2000's work of Austrian designer Carol Christian Poell--and other followers of his in the past decade.
1997 Uomo Collezioni, Gap Japan and Sport & Street coverage of "Skag Boys" a successful collection that expanded our designer streetwear concepts into a new dimension continuing our exploration of American recycled vintage clothing, antique workwear reproductions, and graphic use of hoods tapes and zippers, vintage college prints and new stitch techniques that inspired many others.
Our fundamental concept of recognizing a new young customer, continuously pushing limits of recycle-tailoring technique, intense creative research, and extraordinary pricing based on this technology had carried us far since bringing our first collection over to Paris in 1992 in a suitcase and knocking on doors of Paris stores. A new boom market in men's designer street was making itself present and we were well positioned at the forefront of it. But competition was heating up as the market expanded and so did a trend towards more commercial kinds of looks and lines from established Paris players like Paul Smith, Dries, and Comme Shirt and Homme Plus to brand new guys like Christophe Lemaire, Jose Levy and Paul & Joe, Joe Casely Hayford and Dexter Wong. At the same time, eccentric decon (deconstructionist) avant-garde was getting flooded with copies and look-alikes. And very soon, on the tails of D&G and Helmut Lang Jeans, the big sneaker and denim multinationals from New Balance, Puma and Adidas, to G-Star, Diesel and Levi's would come in to the fray as well, in a very big way. But we were far from done yet, and there was still a lot more up our sleeves coming up on the horizon.
OUR CONTRACT with the PR from hell was up finally, so we began a search and negotiations for a new one. Paris PR agencies are generally a nightmare for designers, but by this time, I was learning some of the ropes, and was trying to choose even more carefully than before. One of the offices we had decided not to go with earlier was now becoming more and more powerful, and had helped catapult another member of the Antwerp Six to huge a new exposure level in yes, the new men's streetwear movement (to avoid too much controversy I am going to leave out names from this episode). They were a little mad at me for not having chosen to work with them previously, and had watched our progress since then, but nevertheless one of the 2 partners agreed to see me for a meeting in Paris after our women's show in March 1996. The agency was getting very big and their demands seemed out of my reach, the money budget was one thing but the real problem was that they wanted no less than 5 duplicate press sample collections to house in their pressroom. Our samples were always pure art piece prototypes (even today) and we don't do duplicates of them. Logistically, financially, and artistically it just never made sense for us. I understood their reasons though, the same dress or jacket could be sent out to 5 different magazines in Italy, Paris, London, Tokyo for example, all at the same time, and be generating editorial coverage in amazing efficiency and quantities. And that is what they were doing with their "Antwerp 6" star at the time. I mean it was like a Kim Kardashian thing for the fashion press. All over the planet. In fact, it was too much for me, and I informed the guy that I had to think about it, but probably would not be able to provide all those duplicate samples they wanted. I was coming from an older-school-more-organic approach to press and image, more along the lines of other members of the Antwerp 6 like Demeulemeester, Dries and Bikkembergs who took years before they began to ramp up their press investments and efforts to this kind of level.
One thing we did agree on though was our latest men's collection. I brought a full presentation book of "Homme Bleu" with front and back photos of every single design article in the collection and all the runway look photos as well, and the guy loved it. He was so interested in it, I enjoyed discussing everything from the philosophy to the materials and of course, the recycle techniques that we had innovated to create the collection. We spent about an hour looking over the collection photos, and only about 10 minutes on the budget and duplicate press samples issues, and I left thinking he was a pretty nice guy… but there was no way I was going to be trying build 5 duplicate press sample collections either before or in the 2-3 weeks right after Paris. We were so out there on the cutting-edge all the time, that it was hard enough just to make the one first prototype, let alone another 5. And that is still true today. Our Paris prototypes are our real art. And I don't believe in duping them. Besides I would need an army of about 35 tailors and assistant designers to be able to pull it off in the time frame necessary for the seasonal fashion magazine collection photo shooting schedules which are right during and after Paris. I left the office and eventually signed up with another PR who we ended up worked with for the next 7 years.
At just about the same time, Linda Loppa was pushing one of her star students from Antwerp. In Milan, she searched out the super-agent (whom Carol Christian Poell and we later worked with as well) who was behind Helmut Lang's long but steady climb from Zamasport to Gibo to super-stardom at the time and begged to have him sell the student's first professional collection. The agent agreed and sales were not very strong. But the student had an ego (probably blown-up by Loppa and the school) and after a month went back to Milan and into the super-agent's office and defiantly screamed "Where are my orders?!!" The super-agent booted him out forever, and the student, temporarily banned in Milan, decided to show the next time in Paris. The student went to the same PR office whom I had talked with that was working with the Kim Kardashian-level PR campaign for the "Antwerp 6" designer (who was another ex from Loppa's school), and unlike me, signed on with them. About 10 months later, the student came out with his first runway show in Paris during men's week in January 1997. He was the newest Antwerp thing at a time when you could be Ronald McDonald, but if you were coming out of Antwerp everybody would take you. By now, after a decade, the Antwerp 6 and Margiela had paved the way for a 2nd generation to have it easy for them. The press, the buyers, and the industry were all sucking Antwerp as quickly as it could arrive. The student hit it big with his first show. Inordinately big. The PR did their job. The ego hit the roof and would never come down (even today). And the stores bought it. But the student's collection that went out on the runway was ours. It was not recycled. But its look, colors, concept and spirit were a dead ringer for the "Homme Bleu" collection we had put out a year earlier. And I knew exactly where he got that collection… a one hour meeting 10 months ago in Paris with all of those photos and that nice guy in the office who was just loving that collection so much he couldn't stop looking at it and asking me about every single piece and how it was done. I still had some ropes to learn. I never looked at a big Paris PR the same way again. And I never respected that student as a designer, no matter how far and how high his career climbed, and his accolades as one of the "greats" piled up. To me, he was and remains nothing but a faker who was smart enough to get a good PR and play hype to the max and ride a wave that others before him had created. Literally.
In the meantime, we were continuing on our own roll, pushing our recycle technology even further by introducing a new fusion of country style clothing and recycle techniques that we called "Neo-Country," which was presented in Paris in January and March 1997 setting record sales and press coverage, and amazingly ending up doing a world tour of exhibitions and performances in the US, Japan, and Hong Kong.
1997 Article on "Neo-Country " written by Sarah Daglish. The collection examined non-urban elements for the first time such as corduroy, nordic and Irish sweater knits, bold plaids, flannel shirts, suedes and leathers reassembled in a modern new avant-garde street manner. The industry led by Prada loved it and copied the hell out of it within 2 seasons. And the skulls, well, I don't even want to begin to talk about where that went...
In July 1997, we presented "Skag Boys" a very strong and very successful collection that expanded our designer streetwear concepts into a new dimension that continued our exploration of American recycled vintage clothing, workwear reproductions, and graphic use of tapes and zippers quickly picked up by many others including Raf Simons and Helmut Lang. We also introduced for the first time in Paris what we called a relaxed overlock stitch on the very successful no.24 trouser design and a slew of other pieces in the collection which sold all over the world in top research stores. The look of the stitch was later used and applied (albeit respectfully, with a different type of sewing machine) and became synonymous with the 1999 and early 2000's work of Austrian designer Carol Christian Poell--and other followers of his in the past decade.
1997 Uomo Collezioni, Gap Japan and Sport & Street coverage of "Skag Boys" a successful collection that expanded our designer streetwear concepts into a new dimension continuing our exploration of American recycled vintage clothing, antique workwear reproductions, and graphic use of hoods tapes and zippers, vintage college prints and new stitch techniques that inspired many others.
Our fundamental concept of recognizing a new young customer, continuously pushing limits of recycle-tailoring technique, intense creative research, and extraordinary pricing based on this technology had carried us far since bringing our first collection over to Paris in 1992 in a suitcase and knocking on doors of Paris stores. A new boom market in men's designer street was making itself present and we were well positioned at the forefront of it. But competition was heating up as the market expanded and so did a trend towards more commercial kinds of looks and lines from established Paris players like Paul Smith, Dries, and Comme Shirt and Homme Plus to brand new guys like Christophe Lemaire, Jose Levy and Paul & Joe, Joe Casely Hayford and Dexter Wong. At the same time, eccentric decon (deconstructionist) avant-garde was getting flooded with copies and look-alikes. And very soon, on the tails of D&G and Helmut Lang Jeans, the big sneaker and denim multinationals from New Balance, Puma and Adidas, to G-Star, Diesel and Levi's would come in to the fray as well, in a very big way. But we were far from done yet, and there was still a lot more up our sleeves coming up on the horizon.
(to be continued)
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