Designer duo suggests mix of British classic, NY street look with Eskimo motifs for fall


About 20 power bloggers, teamed up in groups of two or three, hurriedly rummaged through rag & bone racks on Monday at the multi-brand shop Bleecker pop-up store in Apgujeong-dong, southern Seoul. They had five minutes to pick out items and dress models.

“Now I know what they must feel like on Superstar K,” exclaimed an excited contestant, talking about Mnet’s audition program.

Marcus Wainwright and David Neville, designer duo of the fashion brand rag & bone, visited Seoul to offer South Korean bloggers some tips on fall styling. They picked out the winning bloggers and awarded gifts. Such blogger-competition events are a trend in New York, according to an official at Cheil Industries.

“It was really fun. No one really missed the point, they seemed to understand pretty much what we think,” Wainwright told The Korea Herald after the event.

“You have great style here. We have four Korean girls who work with us and they are all very stylish,” Neville added. 

Launched in New York in 2002, rag & bone rapidly emerged as one of the hottest brands in the fashion scene. The key to the British designers’ success is the mix of traditional English tailoring and the New York street look, satisfying both Americans who want something unfamiliar and classic and Europeans who want something familiar but chic.

The good-humored duo has been friends for over 22 years now. They went to boarding school together where they had to wear suits. It was a very old school of British military heritage, and there were lots of paintings and busts of generals there, they reminisced.

“Wearing uniforms at the time can be a pain in the ass, but what we really like is the English mentality of clothes. England is an old country. They have been dressing the same way for hundreds of years. It is the aspect of craftsmanship that we like. That is how clothes should be, very well-made and cut, rather than just fast fashion,” said Wainwright.

They source fabrics from all over the world as far as Japan, where they can find high quality materials. Where and how they were made are all important aspects, they said.

The brand’s identity was easily recognized as models presented its 2011 F/W collection in a mini-catwalk at the event. It included classic suits with English traditional tartan patterns that were styled in a very New Yorker-way ― there was a eye-catching statement piece in every look with, of course, the rest toned down, and models looked effortlessly chic with their shirts somewhat untucked and hair messed up a bit.

The designers pepped up the usual rag & bone vibe with a bit of Eskimo-inspired details for this season, like fur-trimmed hoodies or blue and white patterned leggings.

“They will come in handy in Korea. We heard that winters here are so cold,” advised Neville.

By Park Min-young  (claire@heraldcorp.com)