A PREEN FESTIVAL DREAM

Posted by Bethan Holt, Junior Fashion Editor at Large



Resort season is in full swing now, with new collections being released every day. Yesterday, Preen designers Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi took over the Carlos Room at The Connaught to show off their gorgeous (as usual) Resort collection. In the week when thousands are flocking to Glastonbury, Preen's Resort was appropriately based around the idea of fashion which could take you straight from the office to a festival. Justin told me that they were thinking about conversations they'd had with friends and clients, "They tell us 'I have a meeting but then I'm dashing off to Coachella'. Our customers need clothes to wear in their transient lives". It seems an impossibility to create something that is equally appropriate for boardroom as fields, but somehow the combination of tailored pieces, luxe versions of sporty classics and sweet prints makes it happen.

As ever with Thornton and Bregazzi's work, there were stories and references galore. The most far-reaching is probably the 90s which pops up in various guises throughout the collection. "That decade is so important to us. Then, it was just as much about what Courtney Love was wearing as what Helmut Lang was sending down the runway" Thornton tells me. Love's slip dresses are evoked in the full-length fuchsia bia cut slip in luxurious night time devoré (my personal favourite) and many more floor length, floral dotted skirts. Then there are crop tops and spaghetti straps (but also crisp shirts, a-line skirts and dresses for office times). The key print was a forget-me-not flower- "we love that boys used to give them to girls as a romantic gesture"- but made modern with digital wizardry. All the pops of neon on collars, cuffs and sweatshirt ties are "a bit of rave culture".

For the first time, Preen have also created swimwear which makes perfect sense for Resort, of course. One set of pieces have been emblazoned with the Preen name, "the first time we've used a logo" says Justin, but a move which ties in with that 90s theme, "they were huge then". Even if you didn't have a pool to show off the swimwear in, I like the idea of wearing it clubbing or, indeed, to a festival as a bodysuit kind of thing. There's a duality to more than just the swimwear. "Sweatshirts have been big business for a while" Justin says, "this time we have them silk fronted and embellished with crystals". Dressed down enough for weekend mooching, dressed up enough to throw on with a mini skirt and take out dancing.

Preen swimwear (via style.com)

Preen planted their own clue to having got this collection bang on. "Balloons are really important to us. If we're looking for an answer, we look in the sky and if we see a balloon then we know it's right" Justin tells me. According to him, it's "sheer superstition'. Looking up in The Carlos Room what did you see? Balloons of course. Whether you're going to Glasto or not, these are clothes we all want to wear. Now.

Pure Beauty

 

These are pure P-E-R-F-E-C-T-I-O-N!!  

Valentino Resort 2013

All About Resort

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Onto a dinner attended at the weekend with Thea Bregazzi and Justin Thornton of Preen to celebrate their resort 2011 collection. We were at Asia de Cuba at the St Martins Lane Hotel. While I marvelled at the fact ALL of my contemporaries no longer eat carbohydrates (and look fabulously glowy and slimline for it) I sat next to Thea and we happily ate carbs - that dangerous foodstuff known as brown rice - with the Preen Resort 2011 lookbook opened out poster-size in front of us pointing at pieces and jotting notes.

Here's a preview, with commentary from the designers.

"This is our new long skirt. It has a tailored section at the waist. The skirt itself is sheer. So when you walk, you see leg. But there is a tube skirt that sits above the knee, so you see this graphic shape underneath."  PREEN

"We are slightly obsessed with jumpers at the moment."

PREEN

        "This is our new Power Dress. The straps move up and down. You can twist them."

PREEN

"The thing about resort," said Thea, "is it needs to have a bit of everything. It hits the shops in November, and this is when buyers need an injection to their autumn buy. This could be holiday wear for a hot or very cold climate [beach or ski], red carpet dresses, or party dresses for the Christmas and New Year period in Europe and America," she explains. "Or it is summer fashion in the southern hemisphere. For us it is also a chance to develop the ideas, shapes, proportions and colours that propel the label forward."

Hearing Thea explain resort so simply was pure pleasure. Time was it was known as "Cruise" but only 0.00001% of the world population go on Cruises in December so Resort it has become, and I properly love it.  The fashion-geek I am, I spent all weekend perusing resort and made myself a little trend report on Powerpoint for  posterity

Indeed so good is the Preen resort, and pre-fall collection, that the couple - who have a 20 month old daughter named Fauve - have said that these in-between ranges have been tripling in sales season on season. "We launched our resort line 2008 and since then it has become a significant part of our business."  

Looking at it you can see why. I am particularly loving their new full above-knee skirt shape, the shade of Preen red the designers use, and the animal print. Have decided every single item in the collection ought to take residence in my wardrobe asap.

"We put a lacy white bra over a white T-shirt. This is the skirt shape we are feeling for now."

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 "This is the dress I am wearing tonight," said Thea Bregazzi, "I'm wearing it as a dress, but the model here is wearing it with her legs through, like a playsuit. I love it when a piece has a dual purpose." 

PREEN

Photos: Style.com/Preen