Geoffrey B. Small

[Mojo1990]

Faust are you able to share pictures of the coat you own? Will you also be posting a link here to the shop when it is ready? When will the shop go live?

Thank you :)

[t3hg0suazn]

from waywt: http://imgur.com/gallery/mnkZ4Ny

[Faust]

Faust are you able to share pictures of the coat you own? Will you also be posting a link here to the shop when it is ready? When will the shop go live?

Thank you :)

[Geoffrey B. Small]

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Now in the air with DHL
over the ocean
and on its way to NY.
An incredible fabric by Luigi Parisotto.
3 weeks of work to cut, construct, dye and finish.
4 spectacular handmade special pieces.
Happy 10th Birthday StyleZeitgest.com.
from the Via Spalato Workrooms at Cavarzere Venezia.
Best wishes and warm regards to all,
Geoffrey & the Team






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[Mojo1990]

When the event starts will there be a special VIP access to view GBS collection online ? Or will this be exclusively in stores?

Thanks for the information! :)

[Faust]

.

Now in the air with DHL
over the ocean
and on its way to NY.
An incredible fabric by Luigi Parisotto.
3 weeks of work to cut, construct, dye and finish.
4 spectacular handmade special pieces.
Happy 10th Birthday StyleZeitgest.com.
from the Via Spalato Workrooms at Cavarzere Venezia.
Best wishes and warm regards to all,
Geoffrey & the Team






.

Thank you, Geoffrey. We received them and they are truly stunning!!!

[Geoffrey B. Small]

Thank you, Geoffrey. We received them and they are truly stunning!!!

Thanks Faust, we hope SZ fans in New York enjoy the pieces as much as we did creating them for you!

OUR workrooms continue to explore remarkable new possibilities in shape, fabric, unparalleled comfort, and relaxed elegance- as we create and produce a new record-breaking season of orders for our retail partners around the world. Here below, a glimpse of an elegant, impeccably urban, new interpretation of "Town & Country"... starting with the new HBC03 Renoir handmade d-b topcoat cut from an ultrasoft new double-faced pure cashmere houndstooth weave coating fabric developed for us in Biella Italy that provides an exceptional price/value ratio and phenomenal wearing performance. Equally remarkable is Luigi Parisotto's use of a fascinating combination of fat yarn silk, and special randomly-printed linen yarns to achieve a chenille pindot-weave velvet (created only for us), which has been cut, built and then specially hand-dyed and finished in our workrooms into a superb single-breasted peak-lapel slim-fitting jacket and relaxed curved taper leg trouser suit, worn with an incredibly soft handmade shirt in Super 120's double-twist Venezia luxury cotton (also woven by L. Parisotto only for us), and pure Como silk twill geometric print cravatte scarf. The special Vicentina leather and calfskin evening formal trainer shoes were also made for us, exclusively by our long-time collaborating footwear artisan-partner Giuseppe Rebesco in San Zenone. All part of the Paris AW2016-17 "Heartbeat" collection made exclusively in our legendary workrooms on the Via Spalato in Italy at Cavarzere Venezia, now arriving at Hostem (London), Darklands (Berlin), and Arts & Science and Journal Standard Luxe (Tokyo)...

[newp]

This topcoat is gorgeous, Geoffrey. I really love the silhouette.

[Mojo1990]

Dear Geoffrey, would it be possible to submit a special order for the NVP02 trousers in Black? I already own a pair and I would really love to have another! I'm fearful my wearing of them constantly will cause fading, and increase the risk of other altercations.

I would also like to consider the possibility of having the beautiful lining extend to the knee area to provide strength and wrinkle resistance when sitting and whilst bending. :)

[Geoffrey B. Small]

Dear Mojo1990,

Thanks for your message, we are unable to make another NVP02 as both the special exterior herringbone linen and Varese cotton lining fabrics are no longer available and cannot be produced at this time as both of the mills in Varese which produced them are no longer in operation. The vast majority of our pieces are true limited edition articles, and these are no exception, and they need to be recognized as such, accordingly.

If sufficient demand exists for these fabrics, we can try to recreate them with one of our key GBS fabric suppliers for production in the future, however at this time we do not have any plans to do so as certain minimums apply in regards to costs and meters before we can ask one of our weaving partners to proceed with this type of request and investment.

Our workrooms can build an NVP02 in a different fabric and lining story that might meet your request needs, but that would have to be worked out as a special order service.

Our private client membership services are currently closed to new members, and require a very high minimum financial commitment that I don't believe makes sense for one pair of trousers, and due to the extreme demand growth in our wholesale business over the past few years, we are not planning to add any new members to the waiting list at this time.

To protect our authorized dealers, we also have a strict policy of not taking individual orders from non-member individual clients directly. So, you will need to work with one of our exclusive worldwide dealers who are authorized in this case to to provide limited special order and customized services that we offer from our workrooms for individual pieces made to order for selected individual clients. Please note, these services are not available at all of our dealers and are limited to the most dedicated retailers who are training with us and understand the level of our work and the extreme commitment to our customer, and who are able to invest their firm in the best selections, knowledge, presentation, customer care and service over a long enough period of time to begin to learn how to provide special order work successfully to our clients. Each one requires an individual GBS specialist person who works directly with our workrooms and the client. At this time, we are providing these services only through Mr. Nic Tan and Mr. Falcon Chen at Eth0s in Shanghai, Mr. Alex Wysman in Hostem in London, Mr. Ryne Burns at Hotoveli in New York and Mr. Campbell McDougall at Darklands in Berlin (men's only).

For an NVP02 special version, I would suggest you contact and work this time with Mr. Ryne Burns at Hotoveli, as that is where you originally acquired your existing NVP02 trouser, and he would be best equipped product and fitting-wise to handle the article details and the order for you.

I hope this may be of some help. I am sorry not to be able to write or do more, but we are only a few days away from our next Paris collection presentation and a very fully-packed showroom appointment schedule, so I must write in haste and get back to work with my staff on all the preparations.

thanks again, Best wishes, Geoffrey

[Mojo1990]

Thank you Geoffrey for your reply ;) I have contacted Ryne and I hope to proceed further very soon.

Thank you

[Geoffrey B. Small]

Thank you Mojo 1990, your support and patronage is already much appreciated. As our 97th collection presented in Paris since 1993 opens today, Geoffrey B. Small "Hearbeat" collection coverage is out now in the new issue of Please magazine in Japan with images shot by Yusuke Shiiki. Please is a new independent magazine in Japan being created by veteran magazine editor Toru Kitahara. A big thank you to everyone who has helped us get this far.

[Mojo1990]

Geoffrey, I have one remaining question.
Which stores will be receiving the lovely HBC04 Coat?

Thank you ☺

[Geoffrey B. Small]

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Dear Mojo1990,
thank you, if you are interested in the HBC04 please contact Ryne at Hotoveli. He will take care of you.
Best wishes, Geoffrey







"Summer Days of Tyrus, Alta, Clementine, Lizzie, Edith and Amanda" Paris spring/summer MMXVII women's
collection presentation photographed by Yusuke Shiiki.

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[t3hg0suazn]

Hi Geoffrey (or any other experts here),

I've noticed that the collar on my GBS Edwardian length coat is a bit too wide for my neck. I don't what parts of the garment control for this, so I just wanted to ask if the coat is designed so a (good) tailor could shrink the collar width?

Here's a fit I've been meaning to post anyways since it is a beautiful coat:

Fantastic antique linen fabric, makes me smile every time I look at it. (Coat details were posted by Geoffrey earlier in thread.)

[Geoffrey B. Small]

Dear t3hg0suazn,

Thank you for your purchase. The collar looks fine. Please note that the design you are wearing is an NVJ18 which comes from a reproduction 1850-1870 historical pattern and is meant to fit and look that way. I would seriously leave it alone. If you really feel you need to alter the neckline there is some risk... unlike other parts of the jacket, the collar assemblies in this type of jacket are generally not designed for easy alteration access or work. And certain junction points where collar is attached to lapel are normally trimmed and clipped inside to get a nice square edge or corner. If handled too much during the alteration procedure, especially when taking stitches out and taking apart assemblies, what little fabric is left in those corners can unravel and then you are in big trouble. The lapel and collar design will not be able to be put back together using the same design, shape and proportion because the base pieces will be smaller and no longer of the same shape before they were cut, clipped and then unravelled. This could result in a really bogus looking lapel/collar relationship. Understand that lapel and collar shapes and proportions are critical visual elements of any serious men's tailored jacket design. If you mess with them and they get changed, the design will no longer be as cool looking as it was before. The collar can be tightened or shortened a little, depending on fabric condition, and extra fabric availability if a new collar needs to be cut, with an alteration procedure- but this must be done by a tailor who really knows what they are doing. Please do not try to have this operation done by anyone. We can perform the procedure in our Via Spalato workrooms in Italy if you wish, and have the fabric to be able to cut a new collar if necessary (unlike other tailors), but there will be significant shipping and duty expense in and out of Italy to consider and our (also significant) workroom charges as well for the service. Again, I would strongly recommend you leave the piece as it was originally designed, it looks very good on you in your photo.

Hope this info/advice is helpful.
Best wishes, Geoffrey

[t3hg0suazn]

Thanks for the prompt reply Geoffrey! Now that I know this is the intended pattern, I will leave it alone as you suggest. I was just unsure because it looked different from the "usual" suit collar fit. And thanks for the detailed information about the collar and lapel tailoring process, it was educational.

[AVerdantShore]

I just had the opportunity to view some of the PDFs with images of your work over at the Gullam site. The interior detail shots were just lovely--there is one pair of trousers, in particular, that I found completely admirable from a construction and finishing standpoint--quite breathtaking in it's own way. Cheers!

[Geoffrey B. Small]

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Thanks so much AVerdantShore.... Now back and somewhat rested and catching up from recent Paris women's presentation. As long-term participating designers in Paris fashion week (it was our 97th collection presented there since the early '90's), we feel we have a rather special perspective on what goes on each time from the other side of the "show" that most journalists, buyers and even designers, rarely see.




Above: entrance to our showroom in Paris. As we abhor the majority of the industry,
and to prevent walk-in attempts to see our collection by uninvited buyers and journalists
without appointments, we withhold divulging the address and location in our invitations.



And this past session was no exception. Much is changing, or seems to be changing, in the fashion capital of the world as well as other control centers of the fashion system at the moment.


First, is the endless line of commentary about a new dearth of real design product in the vast offerings of collections that was shown last week. Some one thousand five hundred collections are presented in Paris alone during the women's week across the gamut of brands from big corporate owned luxury houses to first-time young designer independents, and it was embarrassing to see so many first-time press and purchasing professionals looking at and touching our prototypes and suddenly exclaiming in amazement that this was the first collection they had seen in over a week of shows that had anything close to this level of real fabric and real design. My first reaction was that they were not going to see the "right" collections, but invariably after querying where they went I was surprised to hear that their lists were in fact, the "right" ones. What on earth were they seeing and what on earth was going on out there in our competitor's (or colleagues should we say) showrooms?


Second, apart from a very small minority, the massive amount of bad clothing and for lack of a better, or more diplomatic term... ridiculous and amateurish styling that so many designers and companies sent out on the runways, notwithstanding the huge budgets that many of them had spent on these operations. Topping the list were the richest, biggest funded lux-houses owned and run by Kering and LVMH. You would think the companies selling in the tens of billions of euros per annum, who are- unlike H&M and Zara- not targeting low-price mass markets but defining themselves as luxury top-end companies, might somehow be able to do a little better than what they just showed, no? I make note of this, because this situation has become increasingly evident to trained eyes in recent seasons, and this season,like global warming… it struck a new level of alarm. Clearly something is going on inside those corporations and their systems.


And finally, the new "trend" towards a return (if you can call it that) to a so-called 21st century version of designer streetwear being pushed by the likes of Vetements, Off-White, Gosha Rubchinsky, Hood by Air and a slew of other "designer-stylists," "DJ-creatives" or "just-plain-incredible-genius-of-whatever-types" from Justin O'Shea to Kanye West to Tory Burch to Gloria Beckham is now being seen among buyers for what it is...

perhaps as oftentimes eloquently addressed by SZ founder Eugene Rabkin in an array of online media articles he has written (for example you can see his "What Revolution?" or "Instagrammable Fashion" pieces on SZ-mag.com, BoF and others)…

or as beautifully and succinctly called "The rise of over-priced, over-hyped streetwear" by The Rosenrot's Gracia Ventus, or even better yet defined in a recent piece by her as follows:

"If you've been reading this blog for some time, you would be aware of my disdain for Hedi Slimane's Saint Laurent, and how he has destroyed a reputable Maison in favour of pandering to commercial success by reproducing derivative stereotypes of youth culture. But there is a new zeitgeist that may have trumped Slimane's laziness. I call it faux luxe-streetwear, i.e., streetwear masquerading as high fashion..."

even commercially-driven store buyers, owners and brand producers are starting to realize the quick-fix, temporary nature of this so-called new "direction" in Paris fashion and perhaps even more importantly, the type of consumer that it attracts who is willing and susceptible to buying it.



At this point, although I have withheld commenting for over a year almost, I feel some obligation to do so now.

Because though most people today know us for something that seems quite different, few other designer companies in the game had more to do with the creation and launching of both recycle/remake design, and subsequently, the whole idea of the "designer streetwear" category at the Paris level… than us. We pioneered both in the 1990's and know both genres extremely well in their original sense, purpose and context. And we can only smile and try to appreciate the new versions that this wave of poser DJ-creators is proposing. Technique? Forget it. Not even worth discussing, let alone comparing. And when it comes to the remake aspect of things, the people who claim and use Martin Margiela's namesake as their heritage and training have been quite misleading. Their actual time working with the label was long after Margiela himself and the other real collaborators who worked with him were around anymore. The MMM that their experience took place in was the Diesel-ized version of the house-- a corporate-owned-and-operated typical Italian large industrial operation from design to distribution. A far cry from the original thing and all of its fundamental technical innovations and artistic merit. Thus, their real technical base is shallow. Using the name as a form of "street-cred" with a new generation that does not know any better just long enough to exhaust the few poorly executed ideas they have managed to try to lift from their short and meager time at Margiela, they have quickly transitioned into a collaboration-dependent, overly PR-driven, "concept" that is now using "luxury streetwear" as its main raison d'être. But the luxury offered is far from that. And only time will tell how far down price/value ratios will drop on the actual products over time.


And therein lies for me a critical difference in what streetwear was and still is meant to be. When we began to introduce the idea in 1995 with the world's first menswear recycle design collection, the design/quality/price/value ratios were unbeatable relative to mainline designer collections at the time. We were the first to put sneakers and trainers on a Paris runway with our collections then and like now of course, the clothing had to be able to be worn with sports-related footwear. But they also had to have some merit as garment designs in themselves via fabric, cuts, details and techniques. And everything and everyone was the real thing. The skaters walking and skateboarding in our show were real skateboarder people wearing our clothes. The skulls on the clothes were some of the first ever to be put on clothing. The people who were inked did so not because it was fashion but indeed for what it really was. The tags and the graffiti were real. The trans-gender and cross dressing people who were some of the first ever to walk in a Paris-level show were being themselves, not trying to fake something or fit into some trendy politically correct look. And the idea of simply printing slogans on basic goods and then ramping up enormous and exaggerated margins was completely unacceptable for both the spirit and the budgets of the market, and most importantly, the cool new very intelligent generation of customers who were keen on dressing themselves in a far more relevant and functional manner than had been previously addressed by the designer world.







A scan of some coverage of our "Take Your Glamour and Shove it" March 1995 Paris collection show (one of the first designer streetwear collections in the world) in the very first issue of Sport & Street Magazine which was launched in the same year to cover an entirely new fashion and design genre that was emerging on the market that was being called "streetwear." The photos focused on our tagged graffiti pieces, the first to ever appear in a Paris runway collection. The idea was used 2 seasons later by Alexander McQueen in London who took it to the bank and a big licensing deal with Gibo/Kashiyama. But like many of the innovations below, we were the first.

(to be continued)

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[zamb]

Hello Geoffrey,


I am very happy that you have decided to address this subject.
It is something I have been looking at and pondering very deeply. I said this to a few friends in Paris in June, that this metier is in a serious state of creative rut, as many of the companies with the resources and the historical know how, seem to have losing their way in hiring good talent. They are also failing to provide them with the resources and demanding that good work be done fitting the standard of the house.

Now there is war between "bloggers" and "journalists" started by journalist calling out bloggers while many of these Journalists make no real distinction between designers and DJ's / Copyists/ samplers parading around as designers.