LAITINEN （ライティネン）ファッションブランド 2011年春夏メンズコレクション

LAITINEN 2011 SPRING／SUMMER MEN'S COLLECTION

LAITINEN （ライティネン） 2011 SPRING／SUMMER SEASON － BRAND Q&A

Q1. Please outline your concept for SS11 and the reasons behind it.

We were trying to find away to bring some ethnic touches to our work and combine them with our usual inspirations drawing from youth and music sub-cultures. Especially Turkish, Indian and North-African traditional clothing inspired us a lot and we also looked at the characters of 90s Hanif Kureishi films My Beautiful Laundrette and London Kills Me and how they mixed ethnic garments with punk and even skinhead styles. We also got quite excited about an idea of a North African boy getting a hold of a Clash record and trying mimic their style with his own local means.

Q2. For this season, what fabrics are you paying attention to?

Prints are very important this season as well. They're all based on images of discarded building waste, dried wood and torn fabrics. We wanted to turn raw and even brutal elements into something beautiful. This time we printed on lightweight wools and also worked a lot with textured cottons and linens mixed with silk, which look quite a look like Issey Miyake fabrics from the 80s.

Q3. What role does color play in your SS11 collection?

The collection is very graphic; black and white with a touch of gray, some of the knitwear is almost kinetic. One of prints called Fray is the only flash of color with rich shades of burgundy, orange and brown. That's also the print we love the most and it also prevents the collection from becoming too repetitive.

Q4. Please choose 3 key items from the collection and outline why you chose them.

Biker-Gilet with detachable kilt, printed wool sarong and a wrap jacket with matching trousers in the same pattern. From these garments and from the way they've been styled one can probably grasp our inspirations most clearly and also they really embody the mood of the whole collection. They also demand a bit of courage and guts from the guy who's wearing them, which we like too. We like to think that our customers don't really mind turning a few heads and are free from rules and boundaries set by other people.

Q5. Please tell us what things are important to you when thinking of a new design.

Is it something we would wear ourselves, is it modern, is it interesting enough without being over-designed.

Q6. What do you think of fashion in Japan?

I miss the times when Japanese designers were radical and ground-braking. Without Issey, Yohji or Comme there wouldn't be the Belgians, The English or even us when it comes to much smaller scale. I miss the fearlessness and mystery the 3 had in their prime time. They're visions and concepts were so strong, but also connected to what forward-thinking people wanted to wear. I'm afraid that connection is a bit lost now. Of course there's many younger designers we like a lot too including Tao Kurihara, Mihara Yasuhiro and Undercover, but somehow we're still drawn to those Irving Penn images of Issey Miyake clothes from 1984 or so.

Q7. Is there any news of your brand that you would like to tell us about?

We just finished a show project in Milan in collaboration with Woolmark and Vogue Italia called On Stage during the Milano Unica fabric fair. We got a unique chance to work with many Italian fabric suppliers for AW11 and those results will be seen in our Paris presentation next January.

Q8. Finally, please give us your thoughts on our website JAMOOL.

We think it's really clever and cool to have all those cool young brands with their collections and concepts and store information within an easy reach. In Europe we have nothing like that, especially when it comes to menswear. It's more difficult for us to find information on someone like J.W Anderson or Carolyn Massey, but luckily you also have everything in English!

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LAITINEN （ライティネン）

Designer

Tuomas and Anna Laitinen

Laitinen’s dark aesthetics combine northern melancholy with precise cuts luxurious materials and subtle detailing. Before combining their efforts to form the label Anna worked in fine art and Tuomas worked as a fashion writer and stylist after graduating from the prestigious MA Fashion Course at London’s Central St. Martins in 2004.

The first collection by Tuomas and Anna Laitinen won special mention from the jury prize at the Hyères Festival 2006. The award was strongly supported by the festival’s guest judge Ann Demeulemeester and it enabled the Finnish brother and sister team to collaborate with the renowned Italian fabric manufacturers Puntoseta and launch their label “Laitinen” for Autumn/Winter 2007. The 1st Laitinen collection was immediately picked up by select boutiques worldwide including Maria Luisa in Paris and Midwest in Tokyo. Anna and Tuomas Laitinen’s work has also been featured in Hywel Davies’ book 100 New Designers ( Laurence King Publishing Ltd 2008) and they have also collaborated with photographer Nick Knight’s Showstudio.com.

For the first 5 seasons Laitinen collections included looks for both men and women which were featured in various international fashion titles including Crash Mixté 10+ for Men Qvest and Zoo Magazine. However in autumn 2009 Anna & Tuomas Laitinen decided to take a one season break to restructure their company and fully concentrate on the growing demand for the label’s menswear. The Laitinens’ 1st menswear-only collection for spring-summer 2010 was presented during Milan men’s fashion week in June 2009.