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Young UK designers strike out on their own with color, humor and innovation

One menswear collection stood out among all the others at A/W 2012 London Fashion Week in March. Bright, bold and bearing no resemblance to anything seen before, Agi & Sam hit the headlines for their seemingly effortless fusion of color and style. Launched in 2011 by Agape Mdumulla and Sam Cotton, two 26-year-old UK designers who cut their teeth working at Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfeld, J.W. Anderson, and Blaak Homme, Agi & Sam is fast gaining recognition for its bespoke prints, original designs and ability to inject humor into the world of men’s couture. We caught up with Mdumulla and Cotton in their East London studio to find out more about their eclectic young label.

You have both worked for some massive names in the world of fashion. What caused you to branch out and do your own thing?

I think it was the frustration and limitation for applying our own tastes and styles on a collection. When you are at a big house you learn their ways and techniques and your aesthetic starts to turn into what is needed to produce their collections. This was great initially as it formed our taste and style and we are massively influenced by McQueen, even still now, but I think we wanted to apply a bit more to a collection and really develop something we felt was interesting, different and had so far been untouched in fashion.

You use an incredible amount of color, which is slightly unusual for men’s fashion. Where do you source inspiration for this and how receptive do you think men are to injecting a lot more color into their wardrobes?

We have always said we wanted to be positive with our approach to fashion and have fun. I think color links directly to positive connotations and really shows you can have fun. The colors we use are always inspired by whatever we look at for influence for the season. Being as we always choose humorous projects to look at we often find we are bombarded with bright colors and imagery. If we were to look at death and depression as an influence you’d of course find a lot less color than a guy who was found in a bin dressed as Dr. Who outside the large Hadron Collider.

Prints are key in your collections. Do you design these yourself or do you work with other artists?

No we design all the prints by ourselves. The more work we have on our plates the more we regret doing so, but we are quite picky with our tastes and prints. Everything we produce is quite personal to our own humor and the way we work with color and print might be quite hard for an artist to kind of understand and hence wouldn’t come out quite right in the print.

What’s been the biggest obstacle so far in getting the label out there?

I’d say working to make the brand accessible was hard. We are working on a business model that doesn’t really have anything to go off, we can’t start a tailoring brand and then follow the methods of Saville Row companies, or produce a sports range that has massive inspiration from Nike. We have had to kind of test the water really quickly by plunging our heads in and holding our breath. When we were awarded the MAN show we knew we had a lot to change with the brand and had to pull it all together to fit a catwalk and become a business. This was the hardest thing we’ve ever done in our life. We didn’t talk for about a month.

If you had a soundtrack to your label since its inception, which musicians would feature on it?

Tupac, Dre, Neil Young, Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens and Hudson Mohawke.

When was the first time you saw someone that you didn’t know in Agi & Sam?

Red Hot Chili Peppers were probably first and the strangest. Flea liked the trousers so much he decided he wasn’t going to give them back. At least they’ve gone to a good home, as long as they didn’t end up in the bin. In fact, I hope he sleeps in them.

What advice would you give to others starting out in the fashion industry?

Put all your thoughts and work into developing a strong identity, don’t settle for someone telling you can’t do anything you want to, and remember it’s a business not a hobby.

Cycling-ready heat-sealed rainwear that looks hot too

Braving the elements in style just got a whole lot easier thanks to Terra New York, a new line of fashion-conscious, 100% waterproof rainwear. The semi-transparent, smoky-hued jackets and accessories have NYC-centric names including the “Lower East Side” parka and the “Nolita” cape, and consist of materials like TPU/Urethane—which is derived from recycled materials—to provide structure while still allowing breathability.

Designed with urban cyclists and pedestrians in mind, Terra’s first collection also includes special pieces like a parka with an adjustable hood that can accommodate a helmet.

Each garment is created using a heat-sealing technique at the seams to block out the water. According to co-founders and cycling enthusiasts Yurika Nakazono and Marie Saeki, “Each part of the coat has its own mold, and each seam is heat-sealed with another mold. Our ‘Tribeca’ trench coat, for example, is built with 75 different molds, each one specially made for a specific seam. The seam mold is heated, then applied on to the fabric, merging two, three, or more layers of fabric together. No needle, no holes, no chemicals and no water inside!”

“The inspiration was to allow people to brave the rain with a smile, knowing they look good and are protected,” says Saeki. Nakazono agrees: “Living in Stockholm, Tokyo, London, Paris, and New York, I destroyed so many beautiful pieces of clothes, bags and shoes in the rain. Not finding any cool and 100% waterproof raincoats, I started thinking about doing it myself. Living in big cities, I never wanted the look of the British lord of the manor or the girl with the huge red and pink flowery rubber boots. I wanted to be chic, blend in the rain and feel comfortable.”

Jackets start at $240 and are available online at Terra New York.

Sex and punk elegantly balanced in the sculptural jewelry designer’s latest collection

Balance is the term that first comes to mind when describing Bliss Lau‘s approach to jewelry design. A soft-spoken Hawaiian with a New York sensibility, she embodies a certain duality that comes across in her work. The statement-making body accessories comprising Lau’s line are at once elegant and provocative, with a posh-punk aesthetic brilliantly captured this season by emerging illustrator Heather Benjamin.

Benjamin is the brains behind the lewdly funny, manga-esque illustrated zine, “Sad Sex“, which Lau discovered through one of her young interns. With classical music playing in the background, Lau talked to us at her NYC studio. “I think I was interested in working with her largely because of this idea of her working with the female body and breaking boundaries with that, and then just the fearless, gnarlyness of it—it’s just really powerful and fantastic,” she explains.

Lau commissioned Benjamin to create a series of drawings inspired by the “Sad Sex” seductress, but that would more appropriately showcase her Spring/Summer 2012 collection. “We had this idea of this naughty girl running rampant through the city doing things like smoking, hanging out with tigers, just this idea of this magical, sexy, sort of wicked girl that has fur coats and an amazing manicure but is like totally cool and punk rock, and she does dark things but she does them in fabulous ways,” says Lau.

The finely detailed illustrations perfectly capture the essence of Lau’s pieces, which turn robust materials like powder-coated brass into finely crafted designs. There’s a 1920s kinkiness to Lau’s accessories that is obvious from first sight, but it becomes even more pronounced on the body. The armor-like weight makes you feel regal and powerful, but the delicate way the pieces lay on your skin and move with your body also provides a feeling of sensual refinement. Like the flexible “Hourglass” necklace or “Calder” bracelet, which are technically flat metal pieces that fully form around the body thanks to her clever use of vintage snake chains.

For Lau, designing to the kinetic and sculptural elements jewelry can possess is as important as the visual component. For her S/S 2012 collection, Lau was inspired by the geometric solid. She channels this concept into works that trace the body, giving masculine shapes the ultimate in female sex appeal. “In a way you’re kind of engineering how a person’s going to hold themselves”, she explains. Lau’s vision encourages bold moves but with poetic rhythm.

Lau designs to enhance every part of the body—from rings that connect to the wrist to leather pieces that draw beautiful attention to the waist. Her sculptural jewelry sells online and in stores around the world. See her website for a full list of stockists.

Versione con tomaia in pelle per la Nike Free 5.0 V4 Deconstruct. Disponibile da luglio su inflammable.