Interview with Eloise Grey: The tweed queen on shops, literature and British design

Eloise Grey is the living and walking image of her brand: quintessentially elegant and very British. Though relatively new to the fashion scene, her timeless collection of expertly tailored tweed separates has garnered interest from high profile buyers. Before the opening of her new Farnham shop, in Surrey, on October 2nd, Eloise Grey answered Lucie Goulet’s questions.

You are opening a boutique in Farnham, why did you decide to do this?

It’s something I’ve always wanted to do in conjunction with online as it enables me to bring together work which carries a certain elegance and aesthetic as well as strong sustainable stories.

However, I never expected to do it quite so soon. I got to know Paula Beaumont, who owns Purity, an ethical shop selling everyday wear such as jeans, cotton jersey clothing, stocking labels such as People Tree and Komodo. She had the first floor of her shop sitting empty and wanted to do something more luxury upstairs, but when recession struck, these plans were put on hold. I was looking for studio space and so we have gone into partnership.

Farnham is my nearest town. It has a strong connection to the creative industry with important craft galleries and the University of the Creative Arts. The shops are all quite unique and independent so it’s a little more original than your average high street. The catchment’s area is good: from the South Coast to South London all within 45 minutes.

What steps have you taken to make this shop ethical?

I’ve chosen work that is made in the UK and the fabrics are mostly organic or ethical in some way. I want my work to have a low carbon footprint. I also know each of the designers personally – I think it is important, and rather wonderful, to have a direct connection with the producers. I feel more confident about the provenance and think my customers like this too.

When I’ve stopped carting kit around for the shop I plan to commute to the shop by bus. I live 5 miles away in a small village. I have always an ethical policy about my suppliers (such as electricity and stationery) and I’ve kept this up.

What is the main hurdle facing ethical designers these days?

The weight of main stream brands exert over the mainstream media, store buyers and customers is sometimes overwhelming as it seeps into their consciousness and so they become rather like sheep. Small unique labels such as mine find it hard to communicate the message and reach the customers. When we do reach them they love us because we seem so fresh.

Also, it’s hard to be different when buying habits dictate that you spend less on each item, even though you spend more in the end and you need more cupboard space. Twenty years ago my work would be much more normal a price to pay for a coat (as a proportion of income) as people would buy them to last longer and they were made with that in mind.

You studied Italian at Edinburgh University. Why did you decide to go from being a linguist to being a fashion designer?

I was quite academic so it was almost automatic that I should go down that route instead of studying fashion. I lived in Italy for five years after graduating and this has definitely influenced my work. When I lived there in the 1990s people always stressed the importance of quality, the provenance of materials and design in a way the English didn’t. There were small artisan fashion labels, which now have become ubiquitous brands and lost their soul. Although my work seems quintessentially British, I think the Italian aesthetic and standards of quality have subtly influenced my work.

However, I’d always made clothes for myself, from the age of 10 and so I went back to this at a certain point and re-trained to learn tailoring and design. I think it was good to do this with a good baggage of life experience, visual vocabulary and of course a love of literature.

What sort of women are your clothes aimed at?

The kind of woman (and man) who wants something unique and elegant, who likes to know the story of something and connect with objects in a deeper way. It’s a very different approach to a status-driven lifestyle. They have more important things to do than to spend all their free time shopping, but when they do, they want to really value and delight in the process; it’s quite personal. Sometimes they are very well informed about ethical fashion, and sometimes don’t really know about it, but they all experience beauty and craftsmanship.

You work predominantly with tweed, why is that? Are you looking to introduce any new fabrics to up-coming collections?

I’m looking at some lovely eco-linens for shirting, and hemp for summer jackets and dresses. The Isle of Mull weavers have Soil Association certification on using some dyes so I may introduce colour next A/W. I also have a special friendship with Les Indiennes who are based in the US and work with exquisite hand-blocked Indian cottons, so I am letting that idea percolate.

Do you have any further expansion plan after the opening of your Farnham boutique?

I am also launching a menswear collection so I shall be exploring this side of fashion. I will see how things go. I would love to have a space in London but I need to do things at the right pace.

Do you feel that the current economic climate has affected the way people shop?

Yes, some people are really understanding the value of buying only garments that will last, that are worth the money. Cheap clothing isn’t really good value after all.

Many coats for this season are named after famous women writers. How did they influence your inspiration and design process?

It started with a photograph by Richard Avedon of the playwright, Samuel Beckett. It’s a famous diptych that was all over London a few years ago to celebrate the Beckett centenary. I loved the folds of his ageing skin and the folds of his tweed jacket, obviously a jacket he’d had for decades. I designed a coat based on this inspiration and started to look at images of other writers of the era and it went from there. I like the quality of confidence in the women writers of that era. They were pioneers of a kind of proto-feminism and sense of being able to do what you want or to form your own set of values, or dress in the way you want.

There was quite a lot of tweed in that era too. It was a very functional fabric, and with good tailoring, elegant as well.

What else inspires you?

Tailoring, obviously, with all the slightly nerdy details like ticket pockets. I love those indomitable sensible English ladies who are quite frumpy and not at all glamourous. I like their spirit. I like to use some of their clothing looks, add a bit of humour and lithe sexiness and subvert it a little.

What other eco brands do you admire?

I’ve chosen Keep and Share, Makepiece and Elena Garcia for my boutique. I also love Estonian designer, Reet Aus, who I met at London Fashion Week in February. I love Terra Plana shoes and rather like Po-Zu’s boots. I admire what Gossypium have done and also love Sonya Kashmiri’s bags.

You have a scheme whereby people using public transports to come to your shop get a 10% discount. Is the brand involved in any other green initiatives? Why is it important for you to be an environment-aware company?

It’s fundamental. I don’t really think why anymore, it’s just the only approach I can take. I would much rather go back and be a salaried employee in the corporate world than do what I do in an unethical way. I think we will look back and say why did we let things get so bad.

I have been involved in the Transition Town movement and am part of the core group in my town Farnham. It is about acting on a local level to come together to live a low carbon life because we believe that as individuals we are too small a unit and governments are too big and slow and at a town level it feels like you can do something It’s exciting to see how many people want to do something, however small.

Taken from http://antiquedress.blogspot.com/

Interview with Eloise Grey: The tweed queen on shops, literature and British design

Eloise Grey is the living and walking image of her brand: quintessentially elegant and very British. Though relatively new to the fashion scene, her timeless collection of expertly tailored tweed separates has garnered interest from high profile buyers. Before the opening of her new Farnham shop, in Surrey, on October 2nd, Eloise Grey answered Lucie Goulet’s questions.

You are opening a boutique in Farnham, why did you decide to do this?

It’s something I’ve always wanted to do in conjunction with online as it enables me to bring together work which carries a certain elegance and aesthetic as well as strong sustainable stories.

However, I never expected to do it quite so soon. I got to know Paula Beaumont, who owns Purity, an ethical shop selling everyday wear such as jeans, cotton jersey clothing, stocking labels such as People Tree and Komodo. She had the first floor of her shop sitting empty and wanted to do something more luxury upstairs, but when recession struck, these plans were put on hold. I was looking for studio space and so we have gone into partnership.

Farnham is my nearest town. It has a strong connection to the creative industry with important craft galleries and the University of the Creative Arts. The shops are all quite unique and independent so it’s a little more original than your average high street. The catchment’s area is good: from the South Coast to South London all within 45 minutes.

What steps have you taken to make this shop ethical?

I’ve chosen work that is made in the UK and the fabrics are mostly organic or ethical in some way. I want my work to have a low carbon footprint. I also know each of the designers personally – I think it is important, and rather wonderful, to have a direct connection with the producers. I feel more confident about the provenance and think my customers like this too.

When I’ve stopped carting kit around for the shop I plan to commute to the shop by bus. I live 5 miles away in a small village. I have always an ethical policy about my suppliers (such as electricity and stationery) and I’ve kept this up.

What is the main hurdle facing ethical designers these days?

The weight of main stream brands exert over the mainstream media, store buyers and customers is sometimes overwhelming as it seeps into their consciousness and so they become rather like sheep. Small unique labels such as mine find it hard to communicate the message and reach the customers. When we do reach them they love us because we seem so fresh.

Also, it’s hard to be different when buying habits dictate that you spend less on each item, even though you spend more in the end and you need more cupboard space. Twenty years ago my work would be much more normal a price to pay for a coat (as a proportion of income) as people would buy them to last longer and they were made with that in mind.

You studied Italian at Edinburgh University. Why did you decide to go from being a linguist to being a fashion designer?

I was quite academic so it was almost automatic that I should go down that route instead of studying fashion. I lived in Italy for five years after graduating and this has definitely influenced my work. When I lived there in the 1990s people always stressed the importance of quality, the provenance of materials and design in a way the English didn’t. There were small artisan fashion labels, which now have become ubiquitous brands and lost their soul. Although my work seems quintessentially British, I think the Italian aesthetic and standards of quality have subtly influenced my work.

However, I’d always made clothes for myself, from the age of 10 and so I went back to this at a certain point and re-trained to learn tailoring and design. I think it was good to do this with a good baggage of life experience, visual vocabulary and of course a love of literature.

What sort of women are your clothes aimed at?

The kind of woman (and man) who wants something unique and elegant, who likes to know the story of something and connect with objects in a deeper way. It’s a very different approach to a status-driven lifestyle. They have more important things to do than to spend all their free time shopping, but when they do, they want to really value and delight in the process; it’s quite personal. Sometimes they are very well informed about ethical fashion, and sometimes don’t really know about it, but they all experience beauty and craftsmanship.

You work predominantly with tweed, why is that? Are you looking to introduce any new fabrics to up-coming collections?

I’m looking at some lovely eco-linens for shirting, and hemp for summer jackets and dresses. The Isle of Mull weavers have Soil Association certification on using some dyes so I may introduce colour next A/W. I also have a special friendship with Les Indiennes who are based in the US and work with exquisite hand-blocked Indian cottons, so I am letting that idea percolate.

Do you have any further expansion plan after the opening of your Farnham boutique?

I am also launching a menswear collection so I shall be exploring this side of fashion. I will see how things go. I would love to have a space in London but I need to do things at the right pace.

Do you feel that the current economic climate has affected the way people shop?

Yes, some people are really understanding the value of buying only garments that will last, that are worth the money. Cheap clothing isn’t really good value after all.

Many coats for this season are named after famous women writers. How did they influence your inspiration and design process?

It started with a photograph by Richard Avedon of the playwright, Samuel Beckett. It’s a famous diptych that was all over London a few years ago to celebrate the Beckett centenary. I loved the folds of his ageing skin and the folds of his tweed jacket, obviously a jacket he’d had for decades. I designed a coat based on this inspiration and started to look at images of other writers of the era and it went from there. I like the quality of confidence in the women writers of that era. They were pioneers of a kind of proto-feminism and sense of being able to do what you want or to form your own set of values, or dress in the way you want.

There was quite a lot of tweed in that era too. It was a very functional fabric, and with good tailoring, elegant as well.

What else inspires you?

Tailoring, obviously, with all the slightly nerdy details like ticket pockets. I love those indomitable sensible English ladies who are quite frumpy and not at all glamourous. I like their spirit. I like to use some of their clothing looks, add a bit of humour and lithe sexiness and subvert it a little.

What other eco brands do you admire?

I’ve chosen Keep and Share, Makepiece and Elena Garcia for my boutique. I also love Estonian designer, Reet Aus, who I met at London Fashion Week in February. I love Terra Plana shoes and rather like Po-Zu’s boots. I admire what Gossypium have done and also love Sonya Kashmiri’s bags.

You have a scheme whereby people using public transports to come to your shop get a 10% discount. Is the brand involved in any other green initiatives? Why is it important for you to be an environment-aware company?

It’s fundamental. I don’t really think why anymore, it’s just the only approach I can take. I would much rather go back and be a salaried employee in the corporate world than do what I do in an unethical way. I think we will look back and say why did we let things get so bad.

I have been involved in the Transition Town movement and am part of the core group in my town Farnham. It is about acting on a local level to come together to live a low carbon life because we believe that as individuals we are too small a unit and governments are too big and slow and at a town level it feels like you can do something It’s exciting to see how many people want to do something, however small.

Taken from http://antiquedress.blogspot.com/

Vintage at Goodwood

Vintage at Good wood: retro chic comes of age

Vintage has had a rocky ride to respectability. The Noughties saw the word become fashionable and then ubiquitous. Kate Moss paraded her Twenties flapper dresses, Topshop got in on the act, and vintage megastore Beyond Retro in east London became a hipster hangout. From T-shirts to tea sets, it became a watered-down label applied to anything second-hand. Now the pendulum has swung back: vintage is special again.

“Today, 'vintage’ is overground and it’s hard to find a town without a vintage clothes shop,” says Wayne Hemingway, designer and founder of Red or Dead, who has collected vintage since his youth. “But when I was growing up, wearing second-hand signified you were poor.”

To channel his passion, Hemingway, along with his wife Gerardine and their children, has created the UK’s first vintage festival, Vintage at Goodwood. A three-day celebration of fashion, music and culture, this weekend’s inaugural event will feature the largest gathering of vintage clothes stalls the country has ever seen. “Vintage fashion is a win-win. It’s about upcycling [converting old materials into a new product], recycling, thriftiness and great design. I felt this was the right time to celebrate it and show people how good vintage links music, fashion and film.”

Another long-term collector, Carmen Haid, gave vintage a respectable boost last year when she set up Atelier Mayer (atelier-mayer.com), an online emporium selling gems such as Halston from the Seventies and Nina Ricci from the Sixties. “I loved Net-a-Porter, but there was nothing like it for luxury vintage fashion. We have customers all over the world who buy our pieces because they want to look different, but want good service with it.” A shop opened to follow the website in Bayswater, west London, last summer.

Vintage at Goodwood and Atelier Mayer encapsulate the movement’s new image: polished, accessible and done with passion. They show that vintage can be relevant without being overhyped. But how do you class something as vintage?

“Strictly speaking, items have to be more than 25 years old,” says Haid. “We do take things up to the Nineties, but only if it is a fabulous piece.”

Hemingway sees the lines as more blurred: “I think it takes 20 years for something to look good. For me, it’s hard to class something from the Nineties as vintage. I personally wonder how anyone can be celebrating the Eighties again as, to me, it’s too recent, but it’s fresh to anyone under the age of 30. There’s nothing wrong with different generations interpreting vintage in their own way.”

Echoing New York’s established vintage scene, there’s a new breed of shops that offer well-chosen second-hand pieces at affordable prices, and with good shopping experiences. Wolf & Gypsy (wolfandgypsyvintage.co.uk), a new boutique in Brighton, offers an uncluttered selection in an airy, wood-floored shop. “Everything is hand-picked and I want customers to see that,” says Laura Pollard, Wolf & Gypsy’s co-founder. “I display the pieces to show off their character and charm, and the space makes for a pleasant shopping experience. These days, customers don’t want to visit a thrift shop that’s stacked to the ceiling.”

This appeals to the fashionable, time-conscious customer of today – and makes perfect sense. If you’re spending the same on a vintage dress as you would on the high street, you want the same level of comfort and service. These days, we don’t want to get our hands dirty finding bargains. Unearthing a forgotten gem is a hard task, which is why shops will often search on your behalf.

But for those who can’t stomach wearing cast-offs, however good a condition, vintage inspiration is never far away. Designer labels take endless cues from fashion that’s come before: just look at Chloé’s Seventies-esque trousers for autumn, Miu Miu’s Sixties-style minis or Louis Vuitton’s Fifties-look dresses.

Canny high-street brands, including Toast, Anthropologie and Fever, use vintage shapes each season. “We visit vintage shops and flea markets in New York, Los Angeles, Bangkok and Singapore for influences in both print and shape,” says Matt Barker, creative director of Fever (feverdesigns.co.uk). “A Forties dress can be inspirational, for instance, because they were cut on the bias to get the best shape possible. We might combine a Forties cut with a Seventies print, and end up with a dress that’s really interesting. Customers don’t always just want newness.”

Taken from http://antiquedress.blogspot.com/

Vintage at Goodwood

Vintage at Good wood: retro chic comes of age

Vintage has had a rocky ride to respectability. The Noughties saw the word become fashionable and then ubiquitous. Kate Moss paraded her Twenties flapper dresses, Topshop got in on the act, and vintage megastore Beyond Retro in east London became a hipster hangout. From T-shirts to tea sets, it became a watered-down label applied to anything second-hand. Now the pendulum has swung back: vintage is special again.

“Today, 'vintage’ is overground and it’s hard to find a town without a vintage clothes shop,” says Wayne Hemingway, designer and founder of Red or Dead, who has collected vintage since his youth. “But when I was growing up, wearing second-hand signified you were poor.”

To channel his passion, Hemingway, along with his wife Gerardine and their children, has created the UK’s first vintage festival, Vintage at Goodwood. A three-day celebration of fashion, music and culture, this weekend’s inaugural event will feature the largest gathering of vintage clothes stalls the country has ever seen. “Vintage fashion is a win-win. It’s about upcycling [converting old materials into a new product], recycling, thriftiness and great design. I felt this was the right time to celebrate it and show people how good vintage links music, fashion and film.”

Another long-term collector, Carmen Haid, gave vintage a respectable boost last year when she set up Atelier Mayer (atelier-mayer.com), an online emporium selling gems such as Halston from the Seventies and Nina Ricci from the Sixties. “I loved Net-a-Porter, but there was nothing like it for luxury vintage fashion. We have customers all over the world who buy our pieces because they want to look different, but want good service with it.” A shop opened to follow the website in Bayswater, west London, last summer.

Vintage at Goodwood and Atelier Mayer encapsulate the movement’s new image: polished, accessible and done with passion. They show that vintage can be relevant without being overhyped. But how do you class something as vintage?

“Strictly speaking, items have to be more than 25 years old,” says Haid. “We do take things up to the Nineties, but only if it is a fabulous piece.”

Hemingway sees the lines as more blurred: “I think it takes 20 years for something to look good. For me, it’s hard to class something from the Nineties as vintage. I personally wonder how anyone can be celebrating the Eighties again as, to me, it’s too recent, but it’s fresh to anyone under the age of 30. There’s nothing wrong with different generations interpreting vintage in their own way.”

Echoing New York’s established vintage scene, there’s a new breed of shops that offer well-chosen second-hand pieces at affordable prices, and with good shopping experiences. Wolf & Gypsy (wolfandgypsyvintage.co.uk), a new boutique in Brighton, offers an uncluttered selection in an airy, wood-floored shop. “Everything is hand-picked and I want customers to see that,” says Laura Pollard, Wolf & Gypsy’s co-founder. “I display the pieces to show off their character and charm, and the space makes for a pleasant shopping experience. These days, customers don’t want to visit a thrift shop that’s stacked to the ceiling.”

This appeals to the fashionable, time-conscious customer of today – and makes perfect sense. If you’re spending the same on a vintage dress as you would on the high street, you want the same level of comfort and service. These days, we don’t want to get our hands dirty finding bargains. Unearthing a forgotten gem is a hard task, which is why shops will often search on your behalf.

But for those who can’t stomach wearing cast-offs, however good a condition, vintage inspiration is never far away. Designer labels take endless cues from fashion that’s come before: just look at Chloé’s Seventies-esque trousers for autumn, Miu Miu’s Sixties-style minis or Louis Vuitton’s Fifties-look dresses.

Canny high-street brands, including Toast, Anthropologie and Fever, use vintage shapes each season. “We visit vintage shops and flea markets in New York, Los Angeles, Bangkok and Singapore for influences in both print and shape,” says Matt Barker, creative director of Fever (feverdesigns.co.uk). “A Forties dress can be inspirational, for instance, because they were cut on the bias to get the best shape possible. We might combine a Forties cut with a Seventies print, and end up with a dress that’s really interesting. Customers don’t always just want newness.”

Taken from http://antiquedress.blogspot.com/