Bubblegum Club

Tag: tailoring

  • GOOM // Pushing the boundaries of menswear

    GOOM // Pushing the boundaries of menswear

    After starting off at Central Saint Martins studying womenswear print, GOOM designer Goom Heo reevaluated her position and felt the need to click pause. Being completely open about the fast-paced fashion lifestyle and the pressure that can come from being pushed into spaces that one is not ready for, Goom turned down potential placements with brands such as Dior, Kenzo and Margiela for a two year sabbatical from the industry, and went back home to Korea. However, she never stopped taking in the life she saw on the streets, and armed with her camera, she documented the trash that she found around Korea and China. Goom remembers one distinct moment, seeing a man roll up his t-shirt to expose his large belly, and no one around him being concerned about this.  For her this represents her decision to go back to CSM as well as the premise behind her final collection; not being concerned about what other people think and taking ownership of one’s fashion choices.

    Upon her return she switched to menswear, something that she hoped would wake her up creatively, considering that she had been out of the game for two years. Inspired by trash and the man she saw with his belly exposed, Goom translated the colours and textures from her photographs into her layered t-shirt design. Her final collection at CSM was a combination of these t-shirts, excessively broad shoulders for 80s-inspired tailored jackets and multicoloured turtlenecks. The collection was captured by blurry images, making the viewer absorb the garments through a trippy, hallucinatory glow.

    Having grown up in Korea, and spending one year in a small town in the US, Goom expressed how living in London while studying has allowed her to unleash her creativity, referring both to her own sense of style as well as her practice as a designer.

    “I thought I kind of wanted to do menswear in second year but I was scared of it because I thought of menswear having to be perfect with amazing sewing, pattern cutting and tailoring. But I thought ‘ok I can do that, or I can change it to be like something else’,” she expressed in an interview with Hunger, “I wouldn’t say my collection is 100% perfect or traditional menswear but you can still see hints of it. But what’s proper anyway?”

    Her collection is all about attitude, with male models walking assertively down the runway with shorts stretched over the bottom of oversized tailored jackets and white fishnet stockings pulled over models’ knees. Her decision to jump back into the industry received incredible validation when her collection won her the L’Oréal Professionnel Young Talent Award.

    Goom is currently embarking on her MA, and the fashion world cannot wait to see how she will elevate and/or transform her already well-known name.

  • i & i // combining workwear, Middle Eastern robes and old tailoring techniques

    I had an interview with Shukrie Joel about how he combines workwear with Middle Eastern robes for his label i & i.

    Share a bit about your relationship with fashion and how it has evolved?

    I grew up in my father’s tailoring workshop in Port Elizabeth. It bordered many factories and most days workers would be sitting outside our house during their lunch breaks. I was always fascinated by their overalls and clothing. These guys were just hanging out on our lawn dressed in their workwear but come Friday it was like a fashion parade when they knocked off looking sharp as ever. It goes without saying that my father, Ismail Joel was also their go to tailor. The contrast and transformation was so refreshing and as a kid I wondered if those were the same people I saw daily. This aesthetic is still prevalent in my work with a few additional influences.

    I tend to gravitate towards workwear, vintage military, Islamic / middle eastern robes and combine these influences with tailoring and old methods of shirt construction. I’m trying to source and manufacture locally to an international standard to show the consumer that this can be done without needing to go offshore. We still have some amazing makers in South Africa that are not being utilized to their full capabilities.

    Where did the journey for i & i begin and how has it grown?

    The label came about from a frustration that I’m always working on my own and not finding collaborators to exchange concept with. I worked alone most of the time focusing on bespoke. It was the only method I was accustomed to working with my father and also due to some bad business decisions in the past. In time I found that when you put out a body of work that it will attract the right people. i & i is not about the individual, a me or a you. Instead it represents what we can achieve when we build in a positive direction as a collective. The irony is that I’m still running a one man show but at least I’m surrounded by great individuals at the shared studio space above Corner Store.

    What is your approach to how you conceptualize and construct your garments?

    I must admit it is a strange process as I don’t sketch anymore. I used to sketch years back but in a 2 dimensional manner resembling the pattern more than the concept. These days I visualize the garment that I intend to make then I obsess over it for days, sometimes weeks, constructing the pattern and exact details from cut, stitch, pocket position in my head until it’s complete and only then do I approach the actual product. With most pieces that I design I try to break the design down to its most basic form as a child or someone with no design background would. I want people to think ‘damn! That’s so easy why didn’t I think about it?’ That to me is the best form of design no matter what the discipline is.

    From your Instagram it appear as if you work between South Africa and Canada. How does this feed into your creative work?

    I’m really blessed to spend a good amount of time between the two countries annually. When I’m in Montreal, Canada, I work on the i & i project, as well as working as a buying consultant for a boutique called Les Etoffe (which is also my stockist in Canada and run by my friends Chris and Diana). We travel to NYC over the fashion calendar and visit some of the best showrooms in the city thus giving me a good understanding of what buyers are interested in as well as what doesn’t get their attention. I then use this as my departure point and manufacture a range in fabrications that balances the design and price point.

    What was the inspiration for your latest collection? Could you please share the thinking behind the shoot? What mood/energy were you trying to bring across?

    There was no real inspiration for the collection as such. Over the years I’ve made so many patterns that I’ve never put into production and each year I review them and see how I can interpret them in new fabric. I focus on what works for me and in turn that familiarizes the consumer with the product. Regarding the shoot, every year so many publications come to Cape Town to shoot their editorials and catalogues and spend millions doing so. I mentioned to Anees Petersen why not use this as our direction as we are not paying a single cent as we have all this nature on our doorstep and readily available. Why should we be the ones trying to do an urban shoot when our scenic landscape is so accessible? We wanted to use what we have and see how the garments respond to this beautiful canvas as a backdrop. Together we did the creative direction and found Qiniso Van Damme who has a great silhouette and everything just felt right on her. I wanted to have a Vato / Latino feel to it as it worked nicely with her look. We had Seraaj Semaar do the onset styling as well as Marge Linderoth with hair and make up. The team worked well together and I’m proud of our efforts and the results, especially Anees as he is not a trained photographer and he was shooting on film only, so double challenges as he also did the location scouting. The guy is a one man powerhouse! In essence the shoot also captures the unity that we have as a team working at Corner Store. We are 5 brands housed in one store with the studio upstairs and we all share and strengthen one another on a daily basis. It’s something really beautiful and unique and I’m happy to be working with such amazing people when I’m back home in South Africa.

    Do you have specific fabrics you enjoy working with?

    Currently most of the collection is made in hemp twill and single jersey. With the i & i project I’m using natural, sustainable fabrics as this resonates best with the brand. I then divide it into articles of colour ways depending on how accessible the fabrics are in my vicinity. Natural fabrics work best for what I’m doing but I don’t like to restrict myself to a certain type of fabric. If it feels good and works for the design then I’ll use it.

    Who do you imagine as the person who would wear your garments?

    I use to have a set image of my consumer but since the release of the label I was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case. In the past I’d look at an individual and think ‘you’ll get it’ but then I’ll be disappointed when they don’t, so I try not to focus on that aspect too much. A number of women have been buying into the brand and prefer the men’s cut as opposed to it being more tailored to the female form. Most of my work starts of as a unisex concept but I leave it to the individual to choose without restrictions.

    Is there anything that you are working on at the moment that you would like to share with our readers?

    I’m expanding the line with more denim pieces, sweats in 3M and prints by Bradley Abrahams and Taariq Latiff, as well as soft tailored pieces in hemp / linen for summer and a small range of kids clothing. There’s also a leather project that I’m working on with Research Unit.

    Anything else you would like to mention about yourself or your label?

    Nothing that I haven’t touched on above but maybe one gripe. Retailers should stop with a consignment strategy and focus on empowering local design. It’s a difficult industry with brands taking risks and paying production costs while some stores are fully stocked with consignment goods on a sale or return policy. With most makers I have to put down a deposit as I want to ensure they can pay their staff but in turn I’m not being paid a deposit when a retailer places an order. Rather pay a deposit and strengthen the chain of supply. The retail industry in SA needs to find a better manner of doing business with their stockists if they want to survive as a brick and mortar in a digital age. That being said nothing beats a tactile experience especially when it comes to clothing.

    Credits:

    Creative direction: Shukrie Joel & Anees Petersen

    Photography: Anees Petersen

    Model: Qiniso Van Damme

    Styling: Seraaj Semaar

    Make up and hair: Marge Linderoth

  • Outfitters: Johannesburg’s Mens-Fashion Museums 

    In Johannesburg the “outfitters” is like the Spaza Shop. A culturally significant institution in which the dynamics of the cities sub-culture intersect, a space where history, politics and culture collide.

    “Outfitters” is the general term, for mens boutiques, particularly those that were shaped by South Africa’s socio-political environment in the 20th century. The term outfitters derives from the “Tailoring and Outfitters licence”, which was at the time a legal requirement for anyone providing tailoring or clothing retail services. Like the city itself, the story of the outfitters in Johannesburg began on the mines. Indian immigrants, some of whom had been indentured labourers (others migrants) established tailoring businesses, which catered to Johannesburg’s growing black labour force. In those days, the early part of the 20th century, tailors either repaired clothing or produced made to measure pieces (usually trousers) for their clients.

    It was only in the 1930’s that the current manifestation of the outfitters first emerged in Johannesburg. In 1931 Ismael Dajee opened City Warehouse, which was a “general dealer” at the time but would later become the mens outfitters known as City Hall. In 1936 Mr R Chiba opened R Chiba Tailoring and Outfitters on the corner of Diagonal and Market streets. The store was still predominantly a tailoring business, but Chiba also began developing the business into an outlet for ready to wear products. His store began selling Arrow shirts, C2C Khaki (Cape to Cairo khaki), 3X Denim and imported shoe brands: Jarman, Stacey Adam, Crocket & Jones, Johnston and Murphy, Freeman, Hardy & Willis.

    Encouraged by the Johannesburg-black-labour-force’s ever growing fascination with, and thirst for fashion (American fashion in particular) the “tailors and outfitters” model spread across Johannesburg’s CBD. Most of the brands stocked in the outfitters were imported from the United States of America, a characteristic that would define both the outfitting business and Johannesburg’s sub-cultural aesthetic. John Hyslop, in his essay titled “Ghandi, Mandela and the African modern” mentions American stars, Duke Ellington and Glen Miller as characters on which Johannesburg based bands modelled themselves. He also states “the clothing and cars that Mandela and fashionable black youth aspired to were those in Hollywood movies”. Mr Abdullah Dajee, grandson of Ismael Dajee (founder of City Hall) also suggests that up until the early 1980’s black mens fashion in Johannesburg was mainly, if not exclusively influenced by black America. According to Dajee, the reason for this was South Africa’s political isolation, which meant that South Africa received limited media from the rest of the world and the media that did reach the country was mainly British and American. It was Black American culture though that captured black Johannesburg’s imagination, which is an indication that there were other reasons for the connection, one of those reasons being politics. Hyslop explains, “For the members of the BMSC(Bantu Mens Social Club), African America provided a fiercely attractive model of selfhood, combining modernity with defiance of racial power. Their exemplars were black Americans whose sporting or cultural achievements had incorporated implicit or explicit statements of political identity”.

    Black Johannesburg’s historical relationship with Black America’s style and culture reveals the foundations of, and the dynamics underpinning Johannesburg’s-mens-fashion and sub-cultural story. A story that has always been characterised by a creolisation of the two cultures. Take the Swenka’s for example: Johannesburg’s first, documented sub-cultural formation, which is believed to have been around as early as the 1920’s. Swenka’s combined zulu traditional music and dance with Harlem’s renaissance fashions. Out of Sophiatown: black Johannesburg’s legendary cultural hub of the 1940’s and 50’s, emerged Mbaqana a sound which has been described as “marabi and kwela influences combined with big band swing” (American jazz). Pantsula – Johannesburg’s most notable sub-cultural formation was visually characterised by the adoption of American workwear and American sportswear as a form of political resistance.

    It would take the fall of apartheid, a social, political and cultural shift so great, to jolt the outfitters from its historical position in Johannesburg’s sub cultural narrative. The influx of international brands, the establishment of new local brands/boutiques and the new streams through which black people flowed post-apartheid are some of the factors, which led to the outfitting businesses’ cultural decentralisation.

    Outfitters are predominantly family run businesses, historically the mantle passed on from generation to generation.  Mr C Chiba, grandson of Mr R Chiba (founder of R Chiba Tailoring and Outfitters) confessed that today’s generation have chosen to take alternative career paths leaving some outfitters in ageing hands and their future in a precarious position. Young people are generally the drivers of innovation and currently the lack of young people in the outfitting business is another reason for the institutions stagnation in recent years.

    Anthony Smith and Bradley Abrahams are two young Capetonians attempting to re-imagine and in doing so rejuvenate the outfitting institution. Their eponymous store “Smith & Abrahams General Dealers and Outfitters” reflects on the heritage but is an outfitters made in the image of the 21st century. The store is focused on contemporary streetwear, it stocks local brands but also brands from as far off as Japan and like the 20th century outfitters, it is still a space where the dynamics of South African subculture intersect but in this case it is the intersection of dynamics that reflect South Africa’s current sub-cultural movements.

    Outfitters have transcended their economic constitution. The information, images and objects preserved and exhibited at some outfitters qualifies them to be considered Johannesburg’s mens-fashion museums.