Geoffrey B. Small

[Geoffrey B. Small]

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.

Dear negroygris,
Thank you once again for your wonderful and inspiring comments. Innovation and creativity are at the heart of our efforts to continue to push the envelope of making clothes by hand and what all that stands for. But it is not a solo-performance or a one man story. It requires the combined talents, energy and contributions of other great people across a wide spectrum of contribution, capabilities and teamwork from our almost thirty in-house design and tailoring team members now working together at Cavarzere Venezia, to our GBS key suppliers who truly are the very best ofMade in Italy today, to the rare and special dealers who over the years we have been fortunate enough to know and be able to work with. All are focused on our mission to raise the art and science of human beings making clothes for other human beings. For example, we have been inspired recently by the stunning editorial Instagram work done by Chanh Vo and Romain Fouchere coming out of a vibrant and exciting concept store called Essapmi in Lyon. Essapmi is found inside the legendary menswear luxury brand emporium called Graphiti, and is taking things to a new creative horizon that is building an exciting cult following among a small but very advanced and growing community of young design people in the Lyon area. Lyon has a well-known history of textiles and hosts design programs at the University de la Mode and Esmod Lyon which have produced several GBS team members including design team staff member Lois Dionisio who has now worked on four GBS Paris collections and recently started GBS intern Zelie Traversier, of whom we have great hopes for in the weeks and months ahead. Perhaps no less creative and exciting is the duo of Fouchere and Vo, who divide architectural installation work and graphic design responsibilities respectively, while taking care of the customers who eventually hear about the radical space and environment that is starting to shake up one of France's most established capitals of the bourgeoisie. Nothing underlines this more than the experience for visitors who enter Graphiti at street level and are met with an array Italo-corporate luxury brands from Brunello Cucinelli to Gucci to Balenciaga to Kiton to Brioni- but if they manage to make it upstairs to Essapmi- they enter a whole new world. A big part of that world sits on the shoulders of Chanh Vo, who also walked in our historic January 2018 men's AW2018 collection presentation "Get Ready"...






Chanh Vo walking in "Get Ready" AW2018 men's collection presentation in Paris.
(photo by G. Barbagelata)



"VITRUVE TRIPALIUM"

is the title of the recent editorial Instagram piece which includes an eclectic philosophical
explanation for the images as well which possibly sheds some light on Vo's background at
the Universite Jean-Moulin in Lyon where he studied philosophy…



"Editorial attempts to stage the Man of post-modern society characterized by
the fragmentation of the individual.It is multiplied or compartmentalized
between different or even opposing attitudes. Depending on the moments of
life, the being does not project itself into models but plays his person through
several masks. We are moving towards greater identity flexibility. This
postmodern thought is situated in the perspective of overcoming the
disenchantment of the world, after the disintegration of cultural or religious
references resulting from modernity,and the patent failure of the revolutionary
utopias it had brought."



. ..............
















Above: GBS handmade HUJ13special Fratelli Piacenza Super 150's Emotions with Silk 700
2-button handpadstitched canvas front jacket, with RSP04special Luigi Parisotto stamped
linen suspender trouser, HUS04 Varese cotton and linen 1940's reproduction work shirt, and
HUA01handmade Varese linen and Como silk lined Pescatore fisherman's cap are featured
in this editorial spread by Essapmi in Lyon. (photos by C.Vo)









. .. ..............






























GBS reversible 4-in-1 handmade HUJ01 Sydney Pollack "Slender Thread" inspired Baracuta
jacket in handwashed Varese handkerchief superlight pure linen and exclusive pure Como silk
raso satin mandolin print lining story, with handmade deep double-pleated wide leg super-khaki
short trouser in L.Parisotto "Garfield" superfine pure cotton gabardine raso satin twill chino
suiting and Varese linen and Como silk lined exclusive fish print cap in the Vitruve Tripalium
editorial spread by Essapmi in Lyon. (photos by C.Vo)






All in all, the entire scene around Essapmi and Lyon's new enthusiasm for independent design movement is a refreshing thing.

One that contrasts with the vast corporate sea of overpriced luxury streetwear brand vapidity that so many consumers and young design students and media people are falling prey to in so many other parts of the world. Thank you Romain and Chanh and everyone involved with Essapmi with your beautiful work. And negroygris too. We salute each of you and look forward to carrying on with the art of making beautiful clothes for human beings in a mad crazy world.




Best wishes,
Geoffrey & the team




.

[Geoffrey B. Small]

Following up on our post from 28 July, some images from the new campaign shot in Paris by Guido Barbagelata for "Get Ready" the new GBS men's extreme handmade technology collection for Autumn/Winter 2018-19 of some superclothing pieces now beginning to arrive at exclusive authorized dealers worldwide.

GRJ13 extended back-pocket handmade superjacket in exclusive Fratelli Piacenza 1733
"cashgorissimo" angora, cashmere and wool herringbone cloth (Hostem Archive London,
Calculus Victoria, Cathedral Osaka/Ginza, Eth0s Shanghai) over GRS07 handmade L.Parisotto
Super 120's double-twist luxury cotton hand dyed stripe double-button down collar supershirt with
mother-of-pearl buttons and pure silk Bozzolo handsewn buttonholesand GRP10 hand dyed
Biella Super 120's Tasmanian wool trouser (exclusively at Calculus Victoria, Cathedral Osaka/Ginza).
Horn buttons by Claudio & Cinzia Fontana.Handmade boot Giuseppe Rebesco for GBS.
model: Yaro (Studio Paris Management).







































GRJ07 and GRJ08 single-breasted notch-lapel handmade jacket and matching waistcoat in
hand dyed Luigi Parisotto heavy India winter linen with Fontana incision cut horn buttons
and all handsewn bozzolo silk thread buttonholes (for Darklands Berlin, Ink Hong Kong,
Atelier New York, Looq Zurich, Leisure Center Vancouver, Gullam Daikanyama, Liberte Kobe,
Secret Service Taipei, Eth0s Shanghai) over GRS08 handmade supershirt in Como pure raso satin silk
'uccello' bird print with mother-of-pearl buttons and pure silk Bozzolo handsewn buttonholes
(for L;Eclaireur Boissy Paris, Darklands, Das Chegini Vienna, Essapmi Lyon, Eth0s,
Gullam, Hues Fukuoka, Leisure Center, Persuade Bilbao, Provogue Nagoya) and GRP07
L.Parisotto winter linen curved bottom trouser (Darklands, Ink, Leisure Center, Secret Service).
Handmade boot G. Rebesco for GBS. model:Ahkim.





















































GRC01 long back pleated-vent design dustercoat in hand dyed Luigi Parisotto heavy India winter linen
with Biella Super 120's Tasmanian wool linings, Fontana horn buttons and handsewn Bozzolo
silk thread buttonholes (for Darklands Berlin, Chapter 1 Seoul, Ink Hong Kong, Arts & Science Aoyama,
Looq Zurich, Gullam Daikanyama, Provogue Nagoya, Secret Service Taipei) over GRJ01 single-breasted
peak-lapel handmade jacket in Biella Super 120's Tasmanian extrafine wool lined hand dyed winter
heavy L.Parisotto linen (Hostem Archive London, Darklands Berlin,Ink Hong Kong, Leisure Center Vancouver,
Gullam Daikanyama, Liberte Kobe, Provogue Nagoya, Cathedral Osaka/Ginza, Das Chegini Vienna) with GRP01
narrow-leg matching trouser fully-lined in pure Bemberg cupro (Darklands, Ink, Leisure Center, Secret Service),
GRS02 handmade rounded-collar supershirt in hand dye dark stripe L.Parisotto Venezia Super 120/s
doppio-ritorto double-twist luxury cotton shirting with mother-of-pearl buttons and pure silk Bozzolo
handsewn buttonholes (Atelier New York, Darklands, Eth0s Shanghai, Cathedral, Leisure Center)
Handmade boot by Giuseppe Rebesco for GBS.
model:Chanil (Studio Paris Management).

Additional big credit and thanks need to go out to Nicholas Giannelli and Lois Dionisio, our developing research designers on these pieces, as well as their design department assistants-in-training Brandon Leung and David Wild, with commercial team design contribution work from Nobuhiko Akiyoshi, Yusuke Shiiki and Ryne Burns--and of course, the entire GBS Sartoria workroom team at Cavarzere and our incredible GBS Made in Italy Key Suppliers and all of our clients around the world for making these super pieces possible on our most successful Paris collection to date.

Thanks for your viewing, please contact the dealers listed above for further information on the individual pieces/outfits shown. We emphasize more than ever that we are not authorizing e-commerce selling of our work, nor are we selling the collection direct to consumer. Please do not email or PM us asking to buy directly. "Get Ready" is available worldwide only through exclusive authorized GBS dealers.

More news on 'Get Ready' coming soon.

Best wishes,
Geoffrey & the team

.

[dvd]

We emphasize more than ever that we are not authorizing e-commerce selling of our work, nor are we selling the collection direct to consumer.

Best wishes,
Geoffrey & the team

In other words, when scrolling through all the respected retailers like Hostem et al, there really is no reason to plan any purchases, UNLESS you can pick them up at the store personally?

I can understand the reasoning behind this tight distribution, but ofc it's disappointing - would have to plan my summer holidays to the other side of the world to get hold of certain items.. :)

[Geoffrey B. Small]

In other words, when scrolling through all the respected retailers like Hostem et al, there really is no reason to plan any purchases, UNLESS you can pick them up at the store personally?

I can understand the reasoning behind this tight distribution, but ofc it's disappointing - would have to plan my summer holidays to the other side of the world to get hold of certain items.. :)

Dear DVD,

Thanks very much for your post. We strongly advise and encourage physical visits to our dealers to learn about, experience and purchase our work for a myriad of very important reasons. It's not about just "picking something up." It's so much more than that, believe me. A real GBS is never a minor investment, indeed, our collections are known as some of, if not the, most expensive in the independent avant-garde and artisanal sector. We think it highly unwise to be spending this kind of money with only a couple of clicks of a mouse or touch screen. We build the Ferraris of the clothing industry, the extreme limit of handmade technology, art and design as applied to clothing- and we would challenge anyone out there to try to buy a Ferrari via an e-commerce site. It is an anethma to everything we and Ferrari, are all about. Indeed, with less than 3,500 pieces being made for the entire world this year with every drop of blood, sweat, tear and soul going into each and every single one of them, the last thing we would ever want to do is waste them on people who have no idea of what goes into them and what they are all about.

There is also the image and pricing issue that must to be addressed here. We do not need, nor have any interest in our work being portrayed in the ugly, vapid and shallow manner that 99.99 percent of e-commerce clothing sites merchandise their offerings today. How anyone could imagine allowing beautiful works to be portrayed in such ugly surroundings for the hope of making a few more empty sales baffles us. And then there is the risk always that some idiot merchant out there who lacks sufficient knowledge and competence of his or her own job as a luxury or high-end retailer, in panic or stupidity, starts messing around with the price and drops his margin to try to beg for a few more sales. Indeed, it seems that the majority of e-commerce websites are always on sale... and that is the end of the game for a real artisan. Want to know why so many artisan designers are disappearing? Their margins are insufficient to sustain their people and their operations, and their prices more often than not pushed down by e-commerce selling, are too low. Our margins at all points are what is needed to get the job done right, consistently and into the future--to pay all human beings what is needed to continue to do the work with nothing less than total excellence, total sustainability, and total ethical treatment of all people in the entire supply chain. There is a reason why the top-of-the-top don't sell on e-commerce, and that is probably the biggest one. All it takes is one bozo to start discounting a brand and the whole worldwide value of that brand is collapsed and put in jeopardy. Sorry DVD, but after almost forty years of building this movement, we don't need any of that, and we avoid it like the plague that it is. If you live far away from a dealer, it means 2 things... one, perhaps the retailers in your area are not doing their job very well, and two, it is not impossible to buy our works from existing dealers. You are welcome to communicate with them via email, weChat, telephone, whatever works, and they are authorized to work with you directly using these channels to inform, assist, sell and service our work over distance. We choose our dealers very carefully, and we base much of our selection on their intention and commitment to provide exceptional service to their customers who are serious about acquiring and owning our work, and we are continuously teaching, training and developing their capacity to serve the GBS customer better and better now and in the future.

GBS is available worldwide on the internet, you're just not going to see it in your face all over the planet on a dumbed down click-through, ugly and totally inadequately uninformative e-commerce merchant's site that is being run by an IT tycoon whose ego has overrun his reality like a Bezos, Neves, Marchetti, or worse, a small independent trying to be like one of them. We are tailors and our work is a very, very analog thing, not a digital or virtual one. We believe and insist on discretion, impeccable taste and very personal expert and knowledgable service. It's a part of our design.

Let us know where you are, and we will be more than glad to begin to introduce you to some of our dealers and their GBS in-store specialists. Don't be disappointed. The dream is alive, and its all about real human contact with real human clothes.

Hope this is helpful and thanks again for your post.

Best wishes,
Geoffrey & the team

[dvd]

(...) If you live far away from a dealer, it means 2 things... one, perhaps the retailers in your area are not doing their job very well, and two, it is not impossible to buy our works from existing dealers. You are welcome to communicate with them via email, weChat, telephone, whatever works, and they are authorized to work with you directly using these channels to inform, assist, sell and service our work over distance. We choose our dealers very carefully, and we base much of our selection on their intention and commitment to provide exceptional service to their customers who are serious about acquiring and owning our work, and we are continuously teaching, training and developing their capacity to serve the GBS customer better and better now and in the future.

GBS is available worldwide on the internet, you're just not going to see it in your face all over the planet on a dumbed down click-through, ugly and totally inadequately uninformative e-commerce merchant's site that is being run by an IT tycoon whose ego has overrun his reality like a Bezos, Neves, Marchetti, or worse, a small independent trying to be like one of them. We are tailors and our work is a very, very analog thing, not a digital or virtual one. We believe and insist on discretion, impeccable taste and very personal expert and knowledgable service. It's a part of our design.

Let us know where you are, and we will be more than glad to begin to introduce you to some of our dealers and their GBS in-store specialists. Don't be disappointed. The dream is alive, and its all about real human contact with real human clothes.

Hope this is helpful and thanks again for your post.

Best wishes,
Geoffrey & the team

Dear Geoffrey (and team),

Thank you for your input. Really appreciate you taking the time to answer us all. As you know, I have already started to plan some of my future buys from you, and that will most definitely involve a trip to Italy.

Anyways, I did not intend to play the role of a victim here. I live in Norway, and I believe the closest shop would be Hostem. I travel to London once a year, and communicating with them ahead should not really be a problem. If you have some other shops "nearby" you could recommend, please let me know.

All the best,
DVD

[Geoffrey B. Small]

Dear Arby2001 and Negroygris,

We appreciate your intensity regarding grailed.com related issues with each other, but need to kindly, and respectfully, ask you at this time to take the discussion to another place, or perhaps we need to ask for some help from the forum moderators.

We hope for and thank each of you for your kind understanding.

Geoffrey & the team


Next up we would like to move on and reply to DVD's last post...

[negroygris]

Dear Geoffrey & the team,

That is exactly my intention, like i mentioned before this is a GBS thread only and we are here to further understand your works, process and vision.

I'll kindly delete my responses.

If you like ask the moderators to do the same for Arby2001 if he doesn't comply.

Thank you for your time.

[Faust]

Arby, I took the liberty of deleting your posts - not because I am trying to sensor you, but it's really off-topic. Feel free to start the discussion in the appropriate section of the forum.

[Xander]

Dear mr. Small

As a long time admirer of your work, I have always been quite afraid to purchase one of your products. I am 17 now and have been immersing myself into this little side of clothing design since the age of 15. I’m a fairly young guy, and I have always opted for designs that were a little more rough and aggressive.

However, as I started to immerse myself more & more into your work, as well as your stance on social & environmental issues in the past & present, I started to gain an immense amount of respect for you as a designer.

Whenever I went to Paris, I always checked out your work at L’eclaireur, and tried on multiple pieces. Everytime I did I marveled at the amount of detail that goes into every aspect of such a product. It was this week in Berlin, however, that I decided to finally pull the trigger on purchasing my first GBS piece. I shall not delve into details on my in-store experience with Darklands, as SZ’s stance on the store is clear and it is a concern I do not wish to concern myself with.

My purchase was of the GRS12 accident-dyed silk shirt. And as I am wearing it right now I couldn’t have been more satisfied with it. I’m glad to have gotten the chance to support your work & views. This definetily will not be my last time purchasing a GBS product. In fact, it was my experience with your work that inspired me to finally quit lurking in the shadow of being an unregistered user and create an account. I look forward to participating in the discussion on this forum.

Kind regards,

Xander

[Geoffrey B. Small]

Dear Faust,

thanks for your help, and thanks to Arby2001 and Negroygris for your kind cooperation and understanding. Now let's move on to the fun part and get back to discussing design and our replies to both Xander and DVD's last posts. Due to character limits on posting, we will reply to Xander first…


Dear Xander,


Wow. Thank you so much for your inspiring comments and of course your first investment in our work. We are honored by your purchase and trust in our work, and really appreciate everything you have put into your decision and the GRS12 is truly an incredible piece. It is a piece that continues to raise the art of our design concept for what it means to build shirts by hand as well bringing our extreme Como silk hand dyeing technologies to a new dimension, which is in the process of establishing a new category in the industry- that we call the supershirt. Most shirts are undervalued and under appreciated today because they are produced in low-cost assembly-line factories, but if you know anything about sewing and construction, the amount of labor and time it takes to build a decent men's tailored shirt is huge and its true cost far outweighs its general retail pricing. Retailers, designers, and brands compensate for this by never changing design from the traditional standard patterns, over-producing in enormous quantities, and playing games with components and materials, often cheapening them along with moving primary production to poor countries in far away places who are forced to make mountains of the mercy at slavery wages and conditions.


The result has been even in the high end, men's shirts have generally been really boring and increasingly uncomfortable and stuffy to wear, more often than not replaced as much as possible in men's wardrobes by cotton knit t-shirts or equally banal and unsustainable polo shirts. So when we decided to redesign the tailored shirt, we went at it from a different perspective. Our idea was make it totally by hand, use the same level of fabrics and hand treatments that we used in our other super pieces, and refuse to make any compromises on their design, styling, and above all wearability and comfort. We would never bow down to volume. We would make less. That is to say we would make only a few at a time. And they would price where they would need to, to sustain the capability of creating them for those who deemed us worthy to continue to do so for them at the top level. That was years ago, I can tell you as of today GBS shirts are in class of their own, they may cost as much as a jacket from other collections, but that is their correct value, and at dealers around the world, their sales growth is speaking for itself. We started out with Luigi Parisotto's best Venezia super 120's double-twist luxury cotton shirting years ago, and today it continues to be the best. For example, this year's record-breaking heat worldwide hit our area near Venice in Italy as hard as anywhere. Temperatures running at 40 celsius or over 100 Fahrenheit with humidity at 100 percent in the sun! As global warming continues to spin out of control, all of us here are designing right now with extreme temperatures and humidity in mind. I began to personally test everything we already had in our repertoire, and very quickly I discovered how great our super 120's handmade shirts are for this kind of extreme heat and weather. They blew away any clingy cotton knit jersey t-shirt or polo fabric hands down. Those things just made me feel like a sausage in a sauna, but the super 120's cotton shirts were like dancing on air, I could unbutton the front, their fit was relaxed and loose enough to allow air to pass all around my torso, and to cover any body anomalies someone approaching their sixties might prefer to conceal with a modicum of elegance. And they didn't cling, so key to staying cool in such an inhospitable climate. And I could wash them by hand in the sink or shower every night with mild soap and hang dry them in front of a fan and they'd be ready to wear by morning. They even dried way faster than t-shirt jersey. And unlike the very lightweight cotton knit jerseys (sometimes called 'unstable') the Venezia super 120's double-twist fabric and the shirt made it from are built to last. I am convinced no doubt, GBS super 120's cotton shirts are superior to t-shirts and polos if you have to deal with that kind of heat and humidity--something the scientists are telling us is going to be an increasing reality.


Those Luigi Parisotto super 120's shirts are a perennial favorite, but when we began to work with the top silk printers in Como on the same idea, well….boom. We discovered a whole new market for a whole new kind of shirt. Years ago in the '80's there were 2 great shirt collections that made silk shirts. One was Punch and the other was Pancaldi & B. By 2015, after living and working in Italy for over a decade and a half, I wondered what ever happened to those two brands, and indeed, how much something like them would make sense in this new growing designer luxury market (like so many other good things that the Italian fashion industrial establishment has slashed and burned over the past two decades)… so we proceeded to create our own new concept of GBS Made in Italy supershirts in silk and in the first few seasons, except for a few daring buyers including James Brown at Hostem, Falcon Chen at Eth0s, and Ryota Yamaguchi at Arts & Science... most retailers balked at our prices. "That much for a shirt? Who do you think you are!? Impossible… nobody in my store will buy it. They can get a (insert competing designer brand name here) jacket for that price!" And so they didn't buy. Later, they learned their lesson and now they are a major selling component of our collections for both men and of course women in their stores. I do not believe T-shirts are the future with global warming. I know there is something much better. Sometimes designers just can't listen to the market or the buyers. Sometimes we just gotta lead the way. That's the story behind the supershirt concept.


And that's a big part of the story of the GRS12 and what it's all about. To give other readers an idea, we provide a few images from our workrooms of the GRS12, of which only 8 pieces are being made for the entire world this year, one of them is now Xander's and again, we are honored and humbled by his decision to make it his first purchase of our work…

Thank you so much again Xander as well as the people at both Darklands and L'Eclaireur for taking care of you to view and experience their GBS collections.


Please let us know how everything works.


Next up reply to DVD which is longer and takes more time…


with best wishes to everyone,




Geoffrey & the team

[Geoffrey B. Small]

.

Dear DVD,


Thank you for your kind reply to our last post. From Norway, we would confirm that the closest GBS dealer geographically to where you are is indeed Hostem in London. But it is far more than that as they have just completed a massive reconstruction and update of their store design and service concept that needs to be seen to be believed, and is really worth a visit next time you go to the UK. London is one of the most competitive retail, media and design centers in the world and since they opened the first tiny Hostem store on the corner of Redchurch and Chance streets in the East London neighborhood of Shoreditch, James Brown, his family (not to be confused with Brown's London which was founded by the Bursteins) and the people behind Hostem, have continuously shown themselves to be the city's most creative and directional design proponents at retail. Their pioneering decision to base in Shoreditch years before anyone else, and their early understanding and adapting of the key sustainable, ethical, environmental and high quality and value philosophies in avant-garde design that our own firm was leading, steadily won over a superb, intelligent and well-informed clientele which eventually put Shoreditch on the map as the hottest retail area in London.


And it has greatly influenced many copiers and followers. Even Browns London and Farfetch were forced to team up last year and open their ridiculous new "retail concept of the future" megastore just one block down the street from Hostem, where customers have to be body scanned and ID'd digitally before they can enter the store (next thing probably they will insist on inserting their microchip in your skull before allowing you to look at their display window… among other things your data will be used to help inflate their IPO valuation when they go public soon). To deal with such a media-driven, design & trend fashion mad city, filled to the brim with huge corporate players and an ocean of dazed and confused when-does-it-go-on-sale-only consumers, only one approach was available to pierce through the bullshit in the city where the "Bullshit of Fashion" reigns--a maniacal drive and commitment to continuously push the boundaries of design and retail towards a new horizon. A horizon that would be constantly moving ahead towards human excellence, the creative experience, and unquestionable value for money.


From 2 tiny rooms on the corner of Redchurch and Chance, to the basement underneath it, to the purchase of the property in the early days before the boom, to the ambitious erecting of 4 more floors above it (the maximum height that London's historical architecture zoning laws would allow) and the creation of the immense black block on the corner, to the decision 4 years ago to tear it all down from the inside and completely rebuild it from within with 6a architects, one of London's hottest architectural firms, to create a new revolutionary space unlike any other in the world... nobody can deny that James Brown and the people behind Hostem have vision, and above all the courage and the guts to put your money where your mouth is and take the London designer shopping experience to a whole new level...

2010:
From a small two-room store in East London on the corner of Redchurch and Chance streets with interior designed
by JamesPlumb which won the 2011 Inside Award in Barcelona for best retail interior, Hostem steadily cultivated an
intelligent, well-informed clientele which eventually put Shoreditch on the map as the hottest retail area in London.






2014:
The stunning and imposing "black box" in the middle of the booming Shoreditch neighborhood expanded the original property 4 floors up and into women's with the addition of Christie Fels who began to build the women's business at Hostem along with a
new interior design direction (team image inset with Brown, Fels, Alex Wysman, Joe Ritchie and others).



2016: HOSTEM TEMPORARY STORE
By 2015, Brown and Fels had decided to completely rebuild the 6-story building on the corner of Redchurch and Chance Street from the inside out into a revolutionary new idea that would be designed by one of London's hottest architects. To continue to serve the now sizable and loyal Hostem clientele during the ambitious and extensive reconstruction a temporary store was opened around the corner from the original location at 28 Old Nichol Street. The temporary store turned out to become a resounding success thanks to its clean, simple space design, natural light, and adherence to design quality and customer service.






An ongoing shared commitment to sartorial and design excellence over the years:
(Above) handsigned and numbered handmade GBS Biella Super 120's Biella Tasmanian wool blazer with pure Como abstract print silk linings. (Below): 2017 images of store manager Alex Wysman and Joe Ritchie with GBS in-house commercial assistant Ryne Burns during a special GBS/Hostem alterations and fitting seminar course at the legendary GBS Sartoria workrooms at Cavarzere Venezia in Italy.

2018: BLUE MOUNTAIN SCHOOL
The Blue Mountain School completed in March 2018 by 6a architects sets a new bar for VIP experience and artisanal design and product selection and excellence for London and beyond; . (Upper right corner): one-of-kind GBS Alashan breath 170 gram superlight pure cashmere Eisenhower baseball jacket with reversible hand dyed pure Como silk fish print lining story created only for Hostem Archive and Blue Mountain School. (Below right corner): Stunning suspended staircase and table by Valentin Loellmann for Blue Mountain School. (Below left corner): immense museum-storage vaults in the Hostem Archive space house an extensive and valuable GBS collection that spans sixteen seasons of collaboration and partnership between the two pioneering firms.



(continued below)

[Geoffrey B. Small]

.


THE end result is now a design-space complex that encompasses two distinct buildings right around the corner from each other. First, is the Hostem store on 28 Nichol Street. This is a classic walk-in retail store which was formerly the temporary store which now houses a variety of well-known independent collections including Maurizio Amadei's MA+, P.R. Patterson, Alice Waese, Casey-Casey, Guidi, Visvim and the Soloist among others in an airy, open well lit space with natural light and a very nice staff that are passionate about their firm and the collections when given a chance to share their knowledge about them.


While the Nichol Street space has a small selection of our works, the majority of GBS however, is housed in the Hostem Archive inside the newly rebuilt Blue Mountain School building on the corner of Chance Street and Redchurch. A visit to this space needs, and merits, an appointment as it is without a doubt one of the most ambitious and unique artisanal design presentation, experience and retailing concepts in the world right now. Blue Mountain School is a revolution against current fashion retail. It is the opposite defined. The human antithesis to corporate seasonality based e-com and brand box throw away corporate luxury and fast fashion merchandising that has permeated London shopping today. A fortress perhaps, defending a new world inside created to protect, nurture and provide an interdisciplinary creative artistic experience spanning handmade clothing and accessories to handmade ceramics, interior design, fragrance and cuisine that borders a fine line between a personal home and a veritable museum of modern advanced sustainable art and design… and of course, a new level of VIP customer experience and product selection that is unique on the planet. I guarantee you there is nothing like it out there in the world of shopping right now. And I say right now, because if history is an example, like everything else the people behind Hostem have done in London, there will be others trying to copy this soon enough as well (for example, Natalie Massenet founder of Net-a-Porter and now on the board of Farfetch currently in the process of launching a hoped-for 5 billion euro IPO valutation, has already made her appointment to visit and tour the space).


Like so many radical cultural revolutionary things that have sprung up in London's vast history- best to see, witness and experience the original thing while you can.


Right now, one of the largest GBS collections of works spanning almost 16 seasons including the newest men's pieces from "Get Ready" autumn/winter 2018 Paris collection just arriving is housed in this spectacular architectural space deep down in the formidable Hostem Archive. And this would be a great way to see, touch, experience and learn about our work in person for the very first time. Whenever you can make it down from Norway, we cordially invite you to contact their super GBS in-store specialist Mr. Joe Ritchie for your appointment during your stay in London.


jr@bluemountain.school


If you need any further assistance with the store or others, let us know.
And thanks again for your interest and support.


Best wishes,


Geoffrey & the team

Special Ezio Ghiringhelli paisley jacquard lining version of the new GBS relaxed-living cardigan jacket in super soft winter cotton and wool Bondone fabric by Luigi Parisotto and massive horn deep-dish salad bowl shaped buttons by Claudio and Cinzia Fontana. From the new “Get Ready” men’s autumn/winter 2018 collection delivery now arriving at Hostem Archive.








Italian aristocratic (think "Gianni Agnelli") HBJ16 handmade “Cortina” superjacket and waistcoat ensemble in pure hand dyed dark Alashan cashmere windowpane plaid houndstooth worsted cloth and pure Como silk linings with special lapel pin from Cortina d’Ampezzo’s jet set ski resort in the Dolomite region of Italy. One of only 7 made in the entire
world this year, 4 of them exclusively for Hostem Archive in London.

Special version of the SEC10 “secrets” Biella cashmere duffle coat with hand dyed dark toggle closures in real horn made for us exclusively by Claudio and Cinzia Fontana. One of only four pieces made in the world only for Hostem Archive.

GRJ13special oversize back game pocket handmade jacket in L.Parisotto “gladio” winter cotton, wool and linen fabric with exclusive pure Como silk print raso satin linings all hand dyed. Only three pieces made in the world each exclusively for Hostem Archive. From the new “Get Ready” men’s autumn/winter 2018 collection delivery now arriving in London.

Coming up next: "Get Ready" runway coverage in Uomo Collezioni

[Geoffrey B. Small]

.


FOLLOWING up on our post from 2 days ago on Hostem and the new Hostem Archive and Blue Mountain School complex in London, we are now pleased to present Autumn/Winter men's Paris 2018 coverage of GBS "Get Ready" in Uomo Collezioni magazine edited by Alessandro Ferrari. Uomo Collezioni is the industry's leading international fashion runway print publication and is published in Italy. "Get Ready" is the newest extreme handmade collection now in full production in our world-famous workrooms at Cavarzere Venezia in Italy, and arriving at key GBS authorized dealers around the world.

You can see Eugene Rabkin's review and coverage of "Get Ready" on SZ-mag here:
https://www.sz-mag.com/news/2018/02/...nsform-runway/



With many thanks to everyone,


Geoffrey & the team



Coming up next:
GBS advertising campaign for AW2018 and why we do it









.

[Xander]

Dear mr. Small,

Thank you for your in depth reply, you taking the time to write such a paragraph on how the shirt came about as well as the personal values you hold taken into account during production is somethihrg I truly appreciate. Once again, im truly ecstatic to own such a piece of clothing & having worn it multiple times now, I must say, it indeed is the most comfortable shirt I own.

I look forward to handling & feeling the new collection once I get the chance. You have a remarkable source of inspiration which traces back to said values so well.

Kind regards,

Xander

[Geoffrey B. Small]

Dear mr. Small,

Thank you for your in depth reply, you taking the time to write such a paragraph on how the shirt came about as well as the personal values you hold taken into account during production is somethihrg I truly appreciate. Once again, im truly ecstatic to own such a piece of clothing & having worn it multiple times now, I must say, it indeed is the most comfortable shirt I own.

I look forward to handling & feeling the new collection once I get the chance. You have a remarkable source of inspiration which traces back to said values so well.

Kind regards,

Xander

WOW, thank you so much Xander, it's remarkable clients like you that keep us going. And believe me after almost four decades, it is not easy for any independent design firm these days to keep going...

For example, Paris fashion week this month is a critical turning point for anyone paying attention to fashion design on a global and local scale. And it will be historic. As LVMH and Kering continue their mad horse race against each other for ever larger multi-billion euro sales levels with Gucci showing for the first time in Paris and Hedi Slimane completely overturning Celine into his new rockstar Hollywood version and other Celine/Hermes wannabe brands hungrily and blatantly trying to fill in the new void in the classic bourgeois market, and others continuing to sling t-shirts, hoodies and streetwear at wildly inflated pricepoints, one thing is clear... just about everybody wants to sell now to rich people living and shopping in a bubble.

But nobody is dealing with the reality of what is going on around all of us, and the dramatic changes that even those who can shop and buy luxury clothes are facing and becoming more and more aware of. Except maybe us. As the Book of Psalms in the old testament says "Some trust in Chariots, some trust in Horses, but I we put our trust in the name of the Lord," - we will venture to state that while the corporate machine puts its trust in money, hype, and packaged deejay designer stars next week, we are putting our trust in the best workroom team in the world today and plan to let our clothes do the talking. Without giving too much away, we leak the new micro-documentary video essay just shot and cut by Davide Gabriele in our workrooms at Cavarzere Venezia on the creation of 'wait', our newest collection for women's spring/summer 2019 that is going to turn a corner in women's fashion...

For SZ'ers in Paris who want to see the show- contact Mr. Lionel Cisinski asap at fashiontherapy@free.fr

[Geoffrey B. Small]

.
THE design journalist Marlo Saalmink has hit one out of the park with his new exclusive interview with members of the GBS team at Cavarzere Venezia- in today's online cover story now up on Fucking Young! Magazine. With a monthly readership of over 3 million viewers, the landmark story is the first to cover the firm's phenomenal organization building by having direct conversations with key design and commercial team members each photographed as part of an exclusive generational-change essay for Fucking Young! by Geoffrey B. Small wearing the new "Get Ready" autumn/winter 2018 men's collection along with the young Venetian-trained architect Davide Gabriele (who shot the video in our previous post). The firm will present its newest collection for women's spring/summer 2019 entitled 'wait' this Saturday evening in Paris in the legendary Salle Philae room on the top floor of the Espace Saint Martin. With many thanks to Marlo Saalmink, Davide Gabriele, Lois Dionisio, Ryne Burns, Nicholas Giannelli, Brandon Leung, Nobuhiko Akiyoshi and all of our employees, suppliers, customers and friends who have helped us to get this far...

http://fuckingyoung.es/small-atelier/


.

[Geoffrey B. Small]

.

Print coverage of our autumn/winter 2018 Paris women's collection is now out in Collezioni Donna Magazine. The extreme handmade women's collection featuring the firm's most advanced superlux artisanal fabrics and components from Fratelli Piacenza, Luigi Parisotto, Tessitura La Colombina and Claudio and Cinzia Fontana is now in full production at the world-famous Cavarzere Venezia Sartoria Geoffrey B. Small workrooms and arriving at exclusive GBS dealers worldwide for pre-order reservations and in-shop purchases. Collezioni is the industry's leading fashion runway coverage print publication and is published in Italy. With many thanks to everyone for their support and help in getting us this far...

As a direct challenge to global corporate luxury brand fashion hegemony, the firm will present its most ambitious independent women's collection to date entitled 'wait' for spring/summer 2019 this Saturday evening in Paris.



.

[Geoffrey B. Small]

'wait' is coming.
Saturday night September 29th in Paris.
invitations/rsvp: fashiontherapy@free.fr

[Geoffrey B. Small]

'wait' is now arrived in Paris. Guido Barbagelata's shot of Matilde Canuti leading off Saturday night's show in the new superfabric combination of silk and cotton exclusive Como prints with state of the art extreme hand dye technology and handmade Tuscan vegetable leather superboots by Giuseppe Rebesco for GBS. More on the show and the collection coming up soon. With many thanks to everyone...

.

[Geoffrey B. Small]

'

Guido Barbagelata’s razor sharp image of Juli in Paris on the runway of Saturday’s ‘wait’ presentation wearing the new extreme shoulder super-advanced handmade dark silhouette based upon the terrifying new “microburst” storm systems now being caused by unstoppable global warming. While the firm continued to push awareness of the realities of the world around us to the international fashion press and industry, it also pioneered a new return to dark concepts with a new shape and new advanced artisanal and sustatinable technologies. Principal developing design work on the stunning new tailored piece was performed by Nicholas Giannelli using Luigi.Parisotto’s new ultra-research cotton and ramie Russel stripe cloth with GBS hand dye technologies at Cavarzere Venezia in Italy. More coverage coming soon.