As part of our showroom photo shoot series (see James Coviello and JF & Son for more) we popped into Archetype showroom to shoot the Corpus Fall 08 collection. Earlier that day, we had a rager over the revival of acid wash (didn't this just happen) and when we got to the showroom, low and behold, a pair of cherry red acid washed jeans were looking us in the eye. So, we thought of the shoot from the vantage point of a prep school in the early 1990's. Maybe even an English prep school, we thought, which probably popped into our minds with our model Estella, telling us about her move to New York from sunny London. We first saw the Corpus Fall 08 collection at Capsule, and right away the Navajo print cardigan caught our eye. One of the first major purchases everyone makes when Fall is on it's way is a new cozy cardi. It's hard to think about now, as all New York has on it's mind are the sweet blue skies of summer. But it's true. If you think back to the first time there's a chill in the air, the first time you opt for a hot coffee and a croissant over an iced coffee and a bowl of Margarita, you start thinking about cozy knits and country homes. Queue Navajo print. Seriously, it conjures all of those cozy cravings in one fell swoop. Funnily enough, the guys behind Corpus, Jerrod Cornish and Keith Richardson, live in Los Angeles. Somehow, the pair have captured an East Coast moment with their Fall 08 prep school versus the college professor vibe. Like romanticizing a change in seasons, maybe a little bit of distance makes for a brighter future. Our interview with Corpus below as well as our exclusive Coutorture editorial of the Fall 08 collection.


Can you tell us a little bit how Corpus began?
Jerrod and I had been friends for awhile. One day we were talking and decided that we wanted to start a clothing line. We saw something missing in the market and wanted to fill that void.


What was missing? Was it a few specific garments you envisioned, or a particul aesthetic?
We felt there was a lot missing. This was over 5 years ago when we started the process of getting Corpus rolling. Streetwear was huge and there wasn't much of a middle ground between high fashion and low priced clothing. So we set out to do clothes that were not cheap but also not trying to be a uber fashion like Lanvin. We wanted to make quality fashionable clothes that you can wear but didn't look like you were walking down a runway.


Do you think there is anything inherently West Coast about the brand?
The West Coast is amazing and we are very proud of residing here. But our brand is not like most brands from the West as far as the styling and type of garments we make. There are not many people making moreno cashmere sweaters with navajo prints knit into them out here. But the West Coast resides in places for sure in the brand I just can't put my finger on it.


May, over at Archetype, told me that you were friends with the designers of Fremont. Are many of your friends designers or artists of some sort?
Yes we know Devon. He's great. We have many friends in the creative feilds. Its great to be around like minded people no matter what form or art the do music, paiting, fashion etc.


Is it difficult to be immersed in a community of other designers and artists and yet still create collections that are, to you, nonconformist?
No because most clothing in our category looks the same. And in LA there are not many clothing designers we are inspired by. Its more like minded people that inspire us. We spend a lot of time in New York and get direct inspiration from fashion designers and artists and just the general public in New York but in LA there is a disconnect--your in your car all day. You just don't see many people in LA. Its your home, to your car, to work, back to your car, and home. It's hard to get inspired living that lifestyle. You have to look much harder to see what's out here.
If Corpus had a manifesto, what would it be?
Just to make clothes we are proud to put out there. Never conforming to what the rest of the market is doing.


How do you differentiate between the women's and mens lines? Do you treat them as separate entities, design everything at the same time, design something unisex and spin it in two directions, or some combination of all of these things?
The womens line is growing slowly into its own entity. Soon we will have more womens specific pieces.

During this Fall 2008 Fashion Week we captured the backstage preparations for James Coviello's fashion show. This was when we fell in love, not only with Coviello's collection but with the energy, romance, and discipline the designer brings to his work. For today's exclusive Coutorture photo shoot we shot the hats in Coviello's collection, up close and personal. It's clear by now that millinery is making a huge comeback in fashion, and who better to speak with than someone with a strong background in this craft.


Coviello, in addition to designing his own line of hats from when he first graduated from Parson's in 1987, has also designed hats for Oscar de la Renta, Anna Sui, and Calvin Klein in the past. His knowledge of millinery work is impressive and his enthusiasm, therefore, is unwavering, "Everyone should have a hat! People are afraid of color but on an accessory like a hat it doesn't have to define you or your wardrobe...The hats [for Fall 08] added to each outfit and no one once said the word 'costume.' These hats don't feel like we are trying too hard. It felt new and fresh and honestly, it was nice to take a risk"


This Fall 08 season, Coviello turned to a rich 1940's art deco inspiration. The looks were ladylike and encouraged a strong posture and confident profile. It's the kind of fashion that begs for poise, something we're sure will make for a strong consumer response come Fall deliveries. As for the hats in the collection, Coviello tells us, "It's a nod to the avant garde. [To] make a statement. It's a phantasmagoria of color, the romance of the old blocks." But the collection didn't manifest from the hats, rather it was the other way around, "They weren't prepared until we started to do previews of the collection...Every night after a regular day of work I would sit down with the hats. It was my second shift. It got to be second nature. And then slowly but surely it came together. But then its second nature as I have been doing it for so long...Making the hats [for Fall 08] was like making another whole collection. In the past we had done one style but this season the hats felt like their own collection even as they enhanced what was going on in the clothing. "


Boy, did they ever. Our photo shoot with Coviello's hats below, along with links to the Fall 08 backstage photos, fashion show, and other Coutorture editorial.

We also have impressive designer video interviews and original editorial spreads. May we cordially suggest perusing our selection? Enjoy New York Fashion Week Designer Video Interviews from Oscar De La Renta, Donna Karan for DKNY,Michael Kors, Isaac Mizrahi, Nicole Miller, Erin Fetherston, Ashleigh Verrier , Adam Lippes, James Coviello, John Varvatos , Monique Lhuillier, Joanna Mastroianni, Tory Burch, Neeam Khan

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For today's exclusive Coutorture editorial, part of our showroom photo shoot series, we've featured the Fall 08 collection from Trovata. The brand, who gives us a laid back West Coast look, has been making waves in New York with a successful pop up shop at Earnest Sewn in the Meatpacking District. This Fall 08 Trovata, now just John Whitledge of the original four person team who met in college, showed the preppy, casual separates the brand is known for. Cranberry velvet trousers, an olive corduroy vest and shorts set, numerous button down boyfriend shirts, and a few easy silk pieces, make for a collection that is easily mix and matchable and covers all your daytime basics. It's curious whether Trovata will be left alone by the press now that the company is headed by just one, not four, handsome West Coast men. With Ecco Domani and CFDA awards to their credit, however, we suspect it's just a matter of adjustment. For now, we can only hope that the pop up experience in New York has left Whitledge longing for a permanent New York outpost because over here, one rugged blonde designer and preppy West Coast clothing priced between two and three hundred dollars, does a popular New York brand make.

For today's exclusive Coutorture editorial we popped into Riot Showroom to shoot the Jf & Son Fall 08 collection. Jesse Finkelstein, the designer behind the brand, showed us around the new collection one freezing day before the shoot, right in the middle of the showroom's appointments with buyers from the major department stores. There was some talk of Holiday, there was some talk of exciting prospects on the horizon for the brand. Finkelstein, a young designer who studied at Brown, seems as dedicated to the conceptual elements as he does the design. JF & Son has garnered its own productions facilities, is constantly investing in collaborations, and publishes mad essays on its website. There's a passion behind the brand, the kind of fury and fun that epitomizes (though is not common of) a young designer. Below, our interview with Finkelstein, and our photo editorial of his collection, entitled, 'Who's Afraid Of The Big, Bad Wolf?'.




Jesse, can you tell us a little bit about the conception of JF & Son and what inspired its name?
My great-grandfather started JF & Son in the 1920s, selling various chatchkas that he found while traveling the world. We took the name because our business puts a like premium on the exploration of international design, but with a greater emphasis on collaboration and exchange.


What are some examples of these collaborations and exchanges? Does being globally minded encourage this openness?
Recently we set up a collaboration with a fashion institute in Dehli, working with students to develop new textile ideas. In New York, we've worked with a few young artists to develop print ideas. We're sort of open to anything. No, I don't think being globally minded encourages openness. There are plenty of transnational businesses and organizations that are globally minded, but who conceal their operations.


What kind of woman wears your clothing? How does she wear it?
Any woman. How she wants.


When you were showing me the collection, we discussed it being recently presented to buyers. Can you talk a little bit about the dynamic between yourself, your showroom, and the buyers? To what extent do these relationships inform your designs?
Perfect question. JF & Son is as much about a business model as it is about design. Unlike many design companies, we own our production facilities. I think that the process of working through agents and outsourcing poses both a business risk and an ethical risk. In terms of the latter, there is an ethical obligation to be connected to the means of our production--we must know how the people who are producing our work are being treated, and they must know that they are not replaceable automatons. As a business model this also presents a major and necessary advantage. We've already started this project, but in the next two seasons we hope to give all of our retailers an exclusive JF & Son design. We can't compete with the mass-production capabilities of the H&M's and Prada's of the world; instead, we are trying to create personal relationships with our retailers so that they may receive one of a kind pieces that anticipate the demands of their clients.


So, in a sense, when you say 'Any woman. How she wants.' you really mean it. An exclusive collaboration with a retailer strikes me as an innovation that is conceptually similar to capsule collections, when cult designers team up with big companies. It's about maintaining your own aesthetic but being a bit liberal with your offerings to the consumer. In a sense, they inform YOU. The retailer indirectly speaks on their behalf, and you, the designer, respond to their demands. This business model might be American in nature. That is, like the service industry in America, the customer is always right. Would you agree?
Often when young designers collaborate with companies like Target or whomever, they hand over a couple of designs, which get put through some machine and suddenly a collection is born and then produced by the retailer. So what seems like an exercise in collaboration is in fact a very simple transaction, wherein the retailer gains designer credibility and the designer gains cash. I think in this sense the word "collaboration" has become enormously misused. The goal of JF & Son is retain all the production in house--whether we do mass-market production, or high-end production--we want to retain the relationship with our employees that is so necessary to produce a productive, creative, and non-exploitative environment.


I think that American designers may think of themselves as more retail friendly, but in fact, I think most American designers are anything but--they're just boring. We don't see a lot of interesting and adventurous American design. I think that this timidity is precisely because American designers are not familiar with what Americans really want or what Americans are willing to invest in. The structure of the fashion industry is such that designers are kept at arms length from retailers, as if the thought of the consumer may some how corrupt their designs. Can you imagine if Rem Koolhaas was never allowed to meet with the person for whom he's designing a house for? I'm not suggesting that retailers are always right about their customer, and half the time the customer doesn't even know what he/she wants--but I think (and this is where the other design disciplines are heading, and fashion should not fall short on this) that as designers we need to communicate more effectively with retailers, with consumers, and with the producers. In other words, we need to take what we do more seriously, and take ourselves less seriously.


What are some of your goals for JF & Son in the next few seasons? Is the idea to broaden its scope for reach, or keep it edited for strength?
We just want to have fun and work with more people on different things. We also want to support as much young design as possible.


If you weren't designing clothing what might you be doing? How do your other interests contribute to your designs?
I would probably be getting a degree in another design discipline. For me, all design is the same. Your scope my change, i.e. architecture works on a much larger scale, but the thinking and process of actualization are similar.


There's a section of your website where you write essays on fashion. Why does this section exist?
We want people to think that we're smart.


Haha. I suppose that's what we would call 'branding'. With a globally conscious background, exclusive collaborations with domestic retailers, and written content to encourage the idea that you're 'smart', it seems you're poised to establish a long-lasting JF & Son identity. Is this something that you think of often, or do you focus on the immediate, knowing you will get there eventually?
Well, I guess we focus on the brand identity as much as we focus on our personal identities. Which means that both are evolving and incredibly unstable.