My post had a link to an online listing to an older garment of yours that was made with poly. I thought your brand hadn't used poly and was confused if there were fakes/replicas of your older clothes. Thanks for the clarification!Originally Posted by Geoffrey B. Small
Dear HugAndWug, thank you for the clarification as well. The design is an SK3 from our spring/summer 2005 men's "Aboukir and the Able-Seaman" collection from our Napoleonic series period (see press article in Uomo Collezioni below). It's pricing on Grail reflects an unknowledgeable seller and is way below value as is the world availability listed which after 13+ years is half than what is stated. It was a successful design for us commercially and reflects one of many fleece advanced design rework streetwear pieces we did back then and before for many decades, and featured a very cool recycled vintage military button story on a dual-wear buttoned or zip central front. We were unable then and now to ever find or get access to 100% percent cotton fleece at the limited quantity and quality levels that we wanted and be able to hit certain price points that were critical then for our market and distribution in that time. So the staple fleece material we had to use by necessity was the 80/20 seen in the photo. There were also many things we did not know about back then that we know now including many scientific studies on plastics and sustainability that had not been done yet. Since then, other factors including our rising level and buying power in the industry, our ever more increased commitment to sustainable, ethical and environmental design, production and creation issues - and our incessant push for higher and higher quality in every aspect of our work - had led us to drop that type of product and fabric completely by 2008 and we no longer do anything with that fabric or similar composition since then. The biggest challenge however today, for us is in sewing thread and finishing accessories where more and more we are facing the elimination of natural fibre use. Our answer lies solely in growing our buying power in the industry to force suppliers of these goods to change direction away from poly--and we are succeeded step by step slowly with the help of the growing demand and support of our work around the world from our dealers and endline consumers who are concerned about these issues. If you are concerned as well, please keep us in mind when you are making wardrobe and garment purchases. Hope this is helpful. And thanks again for your posts, question and clarifications. Best wishes, Geoffrey & the team
Last edited by Geoffrey B. Small; 03-11-2018 at 06:04 PM.
"100" Men's spring/summer 2018 collection in Uomo Collezioni
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Beautiful coverage in Uomo Collezioni Magazine by Editor in Chief Alessandro Ferrari of "100"... our 100th collection presented in Paris, now arriving at exclusive GBS men's dealers worldwide.
"100" is also the subject of a new ultra-limited edition art and design book photographed by legendary Japanese fashion editor and photographer Toru Kitahara, coming out this month.
Collezioni magazine has been published in Italy since 1982 and is the industry's leading international runway coverage print publication.
With many thanks to everyone,
Geoffrey & team
Dear Mr. Small,
As a relatively new and inexperienced SZ user, I am also very passionate about self-education and absorbing as much knowledge as possible. To clarify, is there any other area besides this forum and the Seasonal Collections where I could indulge myself in your work? I have a lot of respect for your label and its ideologies, and as a brand I consider "on my personal radar" I would love to learn more. I plan to go to Atelier NYC to view your works some point soon; however, until then I would like to learn more online. One last thing, sorry if this post sounds like I work as a paparazzi. To put it simply, I discovered your work a few months ago and would just like to know more about your work before my trip to Atelier.
Thank you,
Hon
I was wondering the same some time ago and I found http://www.geoffreybsmall.net very informative: check the menu to the left, it has a lot of data for the past and the current for the brand. Most of the publications are covered/reposted here or on the website. This brand is very lowkey, it's not like others who tend to invest a lot in marketing and then happily include these costs in a price, moving it to the customer in the very end, so I understand the lack of information :)
This said, your Atelier visit should be great: I bet they will be happy to talk to you about it.
Thanks newp, I previously browsed the site but got sucked into the ‘special pieces’ tab. With that said, you’re 100% right about the entire left side of the website being full of knowledge, thanks for the swift and respectful response. :)
Hon
reply to Hon
Thank you newp... dear Hon, thank you for your interest, the SZ thread here has a lot, as well as our site. Our work and our story are evolving continuously so no single media source or place can keep up or have it all. It's just too much, especially now that our organization is growing so rapidly. We can invite you to check out/follow our social media pages on Instagram and Facebook as well as other online pages about us:
https://www.instagram.com/geoffreybsmall/
https://www.instagram.com/geoffreybsmallsartoria/
https://www.facebook.com/geoffreybsmall
http://www.modemonline.com/fashion/m...geoffreybsmall
there is quite a bit on youtube and vimeo in different channels and places as well for video, plus there is always something coming up on search engines. We have no single person yet focused on organizing and putting together these things in our firm yet, so you will just have to have some patience.
Hope this helps, and thanks again for putting us on your radar list, hope you have a great visit at Atelier.
Geoffrey & the team
GBS to launch new book and collection at Leisure Center in Vancouver
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WE ARE very pleased to inform our readers on SZ that we will make a special one-day personal appearance on Saturday, April 28th at the new Leisure Center store in Vancouver Canada to personally introduce our first book and our 100th collection presented in Paris.
The new book entitled "100" was photographed by legendary Japanese fashion editor and photographer Toru Kitahara to commemorate our100th Paris collection with an extreme super limited collector’s edition print run of only 100 copies… printed and handbound in Italy, each hand-signed and numbered to ensure maximum collector's value over time.
Kitahara shot the collection on the same day just before the historic Paris show took place uniquely capturing the beauty, emotion and elegance of both the models and the collection in a photo essay that represents a master work which we believe will truly stand the test of time.
The stunning new design book was just recently introduced to the trade in Paris during the women's fashion week and marks the firm's first official book publishing project. Currently, more than three-fourths of the collector's print editions are spoken for and the beautifully shot and handcrafted publication matches the level of excellence required in all our design work and is expected to sell-out quickly and rise in value over time.
It is important to note that we believe our books need to achieve the same levels of design excellence and artistic beauty as our clothing, footwear and accessories, and after years of research, negotiations and study into the field, we decided not to do our books with any outside publishing/distribution or company such as Rizzoli, Steidl, Taschen or others. Instead, we have begun our own in-house publishing operation like our clothing, where we are able to control every aspect of the bookmaking process and content including the physical aspects of the publications themselves and of course retain 100% ownership of the intellectual and artistic materials and property rights contained within them. We feel strongly that our first endeavour into this medium has more than adequately met our commitment and our expectations.
LEISURE CENTER is a new lifestyle design concept store in Vancouver Canada designed by world-class London architects Casper Mueller Kneer (CMK) and is founded and directed by Mason Wu and MuYun Li. The stunning 20,000 square foot space executed in a 1930's heritage building in the city's center is reinventing the merging of Fashion and Art in one of the world's fastest growing luxury markets and was just recently covered by Eugene Rabkin in SZ-mag after hosting an event with London designer Yang Li. Former LNCC-London store founder John Skelton also served as a consultant to the new concept store during its development.
Leisure Center has reserved 12 copies of the collector's print editions which I will be signing during my visit on the 28th. An extensive selection from the new clothing collection for spring/summer 2018 is also now just arrived at the store, where I will be on hand to discuss both the book and the collection with visitors, customers and guests. You can contact Sophie Tang (sophie.t@leisure-center.com) to reserve a book, rsvp or get more information on the event.
If SZ readers are in the area, we look forward to seeing you on the 28th.
Best wishes,
Geoffrey & the team
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Very much looking forward to this Mr. Small, thanks for sharing!
https://www.grailed.com/listings/415...ERSIBLE-JACKET
https://www.grailed.com/listings/415...D-ZIPUP-JACKET
Any info on either of these? Season etc.
Why dont u just ask the seller?
SS19 Paris collection was amazing. I anticipate further information from Geoffrey! The IG pictures are fantastic
some belated answers...
Hello, checking in for a second after a super-busy and all-time record session in Paris, please find short answers here with apologies for the long wait and thanks as always for reading and contributing to our thread on SZ...
Thank you Mojo1990, there is quite a bit up now on the seasonal thread (including video) with many thanks to Ahimsa and Faust.
We invite those who have not seen it to do so here...
http://www.stylezeitgeist.com/forums/showthread.php?21984-Geoffrey-B-Small-S-S19-Men%92s-%96-Paris
an_individualhttps://www.grailed.com/listings/415...ERSIBLE-JACKET
https://www.grailed.com/listings/415...D-ZIPUP-JACKET
Any info on either of these? Season etc.Well ATIP, we honestly doubt the seller would know much about the articles unless they are the first time owners of the pieces. Even so we are talking about over 2 decades of time which has passed since their creation. The big question is if the seller still has the original hangtags with their handwritten information about the pieces and their provenance. At quick glance, both are from the 1990's period of our work in Boston, and one of them has a 129 Newbury Street Atelier label which would put its creation before the summer of 1994, when we relocated to the 115 Kingston Street Ateliers (which would represent a period of works from July 1994 to March 2000). Both look like excellent examples of our pioneering recycle-design work with specific techniques that we developed in the early and mid '90's (which may traceable to particular dates and collections) and still in very nice condition. We will try to examine the photos in detail and run down more information about either or both of them if we can, however most of our own archive and information on the Boston years has been kept in archive storage in the US since we moved to Italy in 2000 so it's a bit of a hassle running everything down from where we are now. Again, any hangtag information that might still accompany the piece would be really helpful if anybody knows anything about the seller, even what country they might be in (Japan?)....ATIPWhy dont u just ask the seller?
Hope this is helpful.
Best wishes, Geoffrey & the team
F94J03 1994 recycle jacket design
Dear an_individual and ATIP,
Since our last post, we have researched the 2 pieces you asked about on grailed.com, and have been able to run down some additional information on the designs.
Let's start with the first one, a superb example of an F94J03 reversible inside out recycle vintage remake piece with special contrast intarsia stitching work on the lapels (a form of drawing free-hand using a sewing machine which we pioneered and became quite famous for), adjustable-fitting ties (to accommodate across 2-3 size ranges with the same garment), and exposed assymetric overlock stitching details. This design was first introduced in Paris in March 1994 at our very first Paris fashion show "Typical American" in a small room at the Hotel InterContinental in the plush 1st Arrondisement. We chose this venue specifically as an homage to Rei Kawakubo who had done her first Paris show to a tiny group of people some 13 years previous in the same hotel as well. As we were the very first designers to come over from our country and try to present a true avant-garde design collection in Paris with no idea of what would happen (you need to understand Paris did not like American designers back in those days, indeed they hated them)--we felt strong affinity and inspiration for people like herself, Yohji, Helmut and the first-generation Belgians. Each had come to Paris from their own home countries oftentimes ignored or spit on by those from whence they came, with a vision and a commitment to place their names, their work, and where they came from on the map of the capitol of fashion. For us, Rei was one of the very first and most courageous of these pioneers, and we had been inspired by her path--and success or fail in our case--we felt it was our destiny to present our first works in Paris in the same place that the Kawakubo had shown CDG for the first time, before anybody had any idea who she was. Nobody knew who we were either in 1994, and we did not make a big deal or talk about the reason for our venue choice to anyone at the time. Perhaps it would bring us a little bit of luck, and if we ever amounted to anything years later, those who knew their history might understand a little something. All this, is part of the story of the jacket design.
The F94J03 was designed to be worn inside out or right side out as part of our concept for the collection which we called "metamorphosis" (a term and concept used over and over after us by an endless number of designers and brands, but we were the first) and special care was taken to make sure the linings offered some additional character for inside-out use. I do remind readers that this was cutting-edge research work when we were doing it, albeit today after all the recent new-wave upcycler and vetement-ish collections, it may seem mundane. When we were first introducing these ideas at that time, nobody in the world was doing them yet in this way, and we are talking about over twenty-four years ago (Demna would have been 13-years old at that time). We stand on the merits of our work, and the piece, which by the way is well undervalued at the current price on grailed and should be priced higher as it is a rare all dark piece probably made for the legendary Mr. Osawa of Midwest in Japan during its legendary years when they had only one store on the outskirts of Nagoya.
For reference, I include some analog images that we have dug up and scanned for posting on SZ, beginning with an FW1995 press lookbook photo of some of our amazingly creative Boston team members at that time who worked on our collections, walked our shows and produced as well: Erica Gould, Cookie Howard and Reilly McLaren in Boston. On the left, Erica was wearing an F94J03 jacket in grey tattersall check vintage wool in inside-out mode with the ties in place. The strategic lines, 2-in1 versatility, uniqueness of each and every piece due to their recycle vintage basis, and their outstanding price-value ratio made this design extremely successful during its time...
here, a magazine article page reprint from Hong Kong in 1995 with another image of Erica in the F94J03 from the same shooting...
Every GBS piece was a one-of-a-kind back then, because it was based upon an existing vintage article of clothing. I remember buying every single piece myself, like a serious chef working the markets for the freshest and the best ingredients to put on his table each day... I would go all over Boston and then later New England and New York searching, finding and buying the best used clothes to use for our recycle design pieces. I controlled and looked at everything: the fabric, the construction, the labeling, the buttons, the condition, everything--at that time, you would have been shocked to see what Americans were throwing away in those days.
Amazingly, we were finally able to find our original Fall/Winter 1994 Collection linesheet book with analog photo prints shot in our ateliers in Boston on the second floor at 129 Newbury Street of the original "Typical American" prototypes first developed and presented in Paris. The prototype piece itself was no slouch, reworked from an exquisite navy blue serge lightweight late 1970's Louis Boston The International Shop label pure wool jacket made in Germany from our city's legendary men's store with a stunning windowpane plaid lining. Here are the front and back shots of the first F94J03 ever created along with a scan of a magazine page from Collezioni Magazine coverage of the shows that season with the jacket on the runway in our first Paris runway show...
Women's Wear Daily (WWD) ran a big story on us in the U.S. a few weeks after our first Paris show. At the time, it had a mafia-like lock on the industry, it was New York based all the way and the only trade paper in the business (long before BoF usurped its role digitally) for all of North America. Being just a tiny little tailoring business in Boston that had been ignored by them for a decade and a half, we were shocked that all of a sudden they wanted to write anything about us. They asked for some prototypes from the collection just shown in Paris including the F94J03 jacket sample to shoot some editorial to accompany the story. We were glad to do so (and you did not say no to WWD in those days), but were not really crazy about the photos when the story came out and we saw them. Nevertheless, we found the tearsheet in our archives and the story reprint is provided here below.
-- for those of you following us these days, remember that we are now working on our 105th collection to be presented in Paris in September. So no doubt it is always a little head-spinning for us to think about and look back to these early days and designs in our Paris collection work.
We hope this is helpful and informative.
We will post our findings on the 2nd jacket next.
Cheers,
Geoffrey & team
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Last edited by Geoffrey B. Small; 07-15-2018 at 05:06 PM.
wow, fantastic information from the archives Geoffrey!
I think it speaks volumes about your work that those pieces are from 20 years ago
"AVANT GUARDE HIGHEST FASHION. NOW NOW this is it people, these are the brands no one fucking knows and people are like WTF. they do everything by hand in their freaking secret basement and shit."
STYLEZEITGEIST MAGAZINE | BLOG
I really love your reference of a chef picking the right ingredients, it indeed is a work of art and a magnificent true love for the craft in the way in which you and your team create. Every piece even then had so much character. A lot of these new designers claim to be the ones innovating, but hence why I truly believe they will not have longevity in the industry.
Also, I really love the fact that Erica, Cookie, and Reilly were involved in the production and the creation of the garments. It makes the pieces so much more personal and i can see from the beautiful imagery that they wore these pieces with pride and love.
Thank you for sharing the archives! Keep em coming!
We hope that people will begin to see beyond the superficial surface of things and understand that there is far more to a design than just the way it looks on the outside.
-GEOFFREY B. SMALL
X20 1997 "Neo-Country" recycle jacket design
lowrey
wow, fantastic information from the archives Geoffrey!
I think it speaks volumes about your work that those pieces are from 20 years ago
tHANK YOU so much lowrey and negroygris, so great to hear from you both and so inspiring for us as well...
Following our last post and our promise to get back to an-individual's request for info for the 2nd jacket on grailed.com, we have dug into our records and determined that the jacket is an X20 recycle jacket with recycle sweater knit and zipper elements from our A/W 1997 "Neo-Country" Paris collection production which continued an evolution of our very successful techniques in those years to combine knit and woven recycle vintage materials in innovative ways that were very cool and streetsmart in a tailored but also relaxed easy-to-wear-and-style manner. We have scanned the original prototype photos from the collection's linesheet books and post them for SZ here:
While we were able to find quite a bit on the 1st jacket (F94J03 see previous posts above), we have had less luck with the X20. The only Paris runway shot we are able to get at here in Italy of the original design is from our press sheet of the "Neo-Country" show which took place in March 1997 in an old run-down atelier/garage space at 3, Impasse Mont-Louis near the famous Père Lachaise cemetery. I think we were the only ones to ever dare use this space except for Raf Simons who with the help of PR Kuki di Salvertes co-founder of Totem used it for his first Paris runway show. The 2 shows were a few months apart, and the building was shortly condemned by the City afterwards and never used again as a show venue. It was pretty awesome environment though, with backstage being a wooden plank mezzanine over the garage and models going up and down creaky unfinished old wooden stairs to get to the garage floor runway. You can see the X20 below in photo top row second from left worn by Guillaume a crazy and very creative rasta-style model and artistwho used to walk for us at that time. He is also in the photo bottom 2nd from right. Erica Gould who we mentioned in our previous post is seen upper row farthest to right. And another great GBS team (who still works with us collections today) Michelle Fournier can be seen in the bottom row 3rd from right...
If there is any serious interest out there, we may have video footage of the Paris show in our archive storage in the US.
But it will take some digging to know for sure. Let us know.
The X20 piece on grailed.com, like the F94J03 is probably with its black and charcoal combination, a production piece done for Midwest in Japan for their AW1997 delivery. At that time, they were operating stores in Nagoya and Shibuya Parco and were without a doubt under the leadership of their founder Masaru Osawa, the most important and the most powerful independent designer retailer in all of Japan. And believe me, Japan was a very very big market for designer collections back then.
(continued next page)
Last edited by Geoffrey B. Small; 07-28-2018 at 02:34 PM.
X20 (continued)
(continued from above)
"Neo Country" in Paris was a wild and crazy collection and presentation, which went on to tour with other special shows in our home city of Boston, Toyama Japan, and Hong Kong along with a crazy 10-year retrospective exhibition of our work at the legendary Fringe Club Art Space which was held just before the China handover of the city from Great Britain. The HK event was a surprisingly huge media thing that was organized by the very creative independent music company founder Henry Kwok who ran the Sound Factory Records label (who I originally met on the internet during the world wide web's earliest days) and Sham Kar Wai the founder of Green Peace HK our clients at the time (now known as I.T.).
One the interviews from that project published in Arte HK written by Sarah Daglish was previously posted on SZ here:
http://www.stylezeitgeist.com/forums...l=1#post522410
I post a few more here just for a laugh and to give readers an idea of the spirit of the thing…
Next magazine:
Elle:
Surprise:
Esquire:
Marie Claire:
Amoeba:
Like we keep saying, when we see all the hype these days about these radical, revolutionary streetwear, upcycle, and metamorphic, sustainable-environmental-politically-correct designers and brands who either end up going out-of-business or getting bought up by the corporations, all we can do is smile. With a glint in our eye, once upon a time there was something far more real and raw and totally alive. Ah, if only you could have all been there to experience it... Well, there is still a beautiful X20 out there on grailed.com--I guess that's better than nothing at all. :-D
God bless the internet.
Next up, if it's OK with all of you out there on SZ, we'd sort of like to return our thread discussion to things a little bit more current, like our amazing new collections for Autumn/Winter 2018, which now-- thanks to the extraordinary efforts of every single one of our 28-member workroom super team at Cavarzere Venezia, and our incredible GBS key suppliers-- are starting to arrive at our exclusive dealers around the world.
A peak at things to come…
Thanks for reading.
Best wishes,
Geoffrey & the team
This was quite the read, it is extraordinary the work you and your team has done throughout the years. The innovation, the creativity at its purest form. Also, the attached link of your interview to Arte HK was very thought provoking.
Indeed you are a master at your craft Geoffrey, sadly all your work has not receive the praise you entirely deserve. Also, it was great to know you once did streetwear, seeing you in a camo shirt and sunglasses is very interesting. It is beautiful how time tells stories and these archival documents and pictures indeed bring a beautiful sentiment.
All in all, I agree with you regarding the item being on grailed. Although, Grailed has ruined and saturated the market in many ways, it also is a bridge for GBS collectors to find pieces they have been looking for ages and for them to dearly acquire them.
Thank you once again for this thorough post.
We hope that people will begin to see beyond the superficial surface of things and understand that there is far more to a design than just the way it looks on the outside.
-GEOFFREY B. SMALL
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