PARIS SHOWROOMS| The Art of Handcraft SS15

This season, Fashion Scout Paris returns to its showroom in the heart of Marais. We are celebrating the talent of 22 exciting new UK and International designers across our two floor showroom space.

SS15 sees a focus on the return to the art of handcraft and traditional process. Today we feature designers Cats Brothers, Le Photographe and Mariana Jungmann whose work all interprets this theme in their own way.

CATS BROTHERS

Cats Brothers where founded and handmade in London and are a brand heavily influenced by street culture and music. They bring a crafty twist to fun and wearable streetwear with the addition of embroideries and knitwear panels. We spoke to Lindsay, the designer behind the brand:

What inspired your SS15 collection?

This collection is inspired by the idea of dressing up, disguises and joke shops. It is very playful. I always tend to make my collections fun and playful, it’s kind of my style!

I know it is hard for a designer to pick but what are your favourite pieces from this collection?

My favourite pieces are always sweatshirts and the t-shirts. They always tend to be the staple pieces of my collections.

How do you design and develop your collections?

This is actually my first season when I develop my own prints which has been very exciting. Overall, more thought is put on texture, prints, embellishments, technique of fabric and generally whatever is happening on the fabric rather than the shape.  So far all production is kept in Hackney, London and I hope I can keep it that way. Being a knitwear designer and focusing on the good quality of knits I would love to be able to produce the knitted pieces in Scotland.

Do you like the idea of adding accessories in your collection to complement the outfits?

Yes, this season we have a few clutch bags with exciting patterns. The idea behind having the clutch bag is that it acts as an additional layer to the outfits. I love clashing patterns so someone can easily add a striking patterned bag to add excitement in the outfit.

MARIANA JUNGMANN

Brazilian designer, Mariana Jungmann has always been inspired by renaissance lace since a small child. The particular shapes of the lace help to identify it as traditionally Brazilian, used in many households as tablecloths and to decorate the home.

How do you manufacture your clothes?

I design the lace and then I send it to a community in Brazil, which produce the lace. Then this gets shipped to the UK, where I assemble the garments and it is afterwards produced in Europe.

Is ethical fashion an important aspect of your brand?

I support the lace making community in Brazil, not only financially but I also teach them some techniques that I know, which they can use when producing the lace. I also believe in slow fashion and how it can impact the world. I only use natural fibres since they are more biodegradable.

What message do you want to put forward through your brand?

I want to say to women that they can still be feminine and be strong. You don’t have to wear a suit to prove your power. Looking feminine, vulnerable and sexy doesn’t reduce your strength.

LE PHOTOGRAPHE

Le Photographe defines its style as being a fusion of modern embroidery techniques, graffism and embellishment within draped forms and structural cutting. Their pieces include intense sections of hand embroidery.

What is your brand about?

Le Photographe is about creative cutting. The designer, Chris, has been pattern making for a very long time so the techniques and the shapes used in the designs are a very important aspect of the brand. The pieces are feminine, wearable and portray beautiful embroidery.

What sort of techniques do you use in order to produce the garments?

Everything is handmade. So techniques used are hand-weaving, hand-beading and fabric manipulation. We want to bring luxurious techniques to simpler fabrics, in order to bring out the best of every fabric. Some garments in this collection have taken numerous hours to hand-make. For example, the silver duchess gown took 2200 man-hours to produce!

What is the concept behind the SS15 collection?

Nature and fresh colours are the theme of this collection. The prints are mainly inspired by magnolia flowers and they are portrayed in various different ways according to the technique used in each garment.

Cats Brothers, Mariana Jungmann and Le Photographe are on show as part of Fashion Scout’s Paris Showroom. You can view their collections at 23, Rue Du Roi De Sicile, 75004 until the 30^th September 2014. Opening hours are: 10am till 7pm daily, closing at 5pm on Tuesday 30^th.

EXHIBITION| Cats Brothers SS15

Cats Brothers is a luxury knitwear brand by Lindsay McKean and Anna Wilkinson which was  founded in November 2012. They will be showcasing their SS15 collection during the Fashion Scout exhibition open from 10am to 6pm throughout the week.

What inspired your collection?

The inspirations mainly come from childhood jokes, games and dressing up. The ideas began with the T-shirt, where I collaborated with my favourite rapper Snoop Dogg. Taking these crazy, jokey elements, like wide teeth, we translated that into crochet and put them on the sweatshirts. With the funny comics element such as the Batman logo to a Catman, there's always a funny references to take on which refers to our brand.

The SS15 collection was very much based on Knitwear. Is that your signature?

I am a knitwear designer so it is always knitwear based. I used a lot of crochet as well. There is a big emphasis on handcraft, knitting and embroidery. For example the embroidery of the t-shirts are something stable. As my previous collection we always included the customised t-shirts and crochet where we found the most successful of our label.

The collection also seems based on patterns. Why did you choose them?

As my background is a textile designer, I concentrated a lot on fabrics. I guess that is why I put so many patterns on the fabrics. Hence, there are a lot of colour and patterns going on in my work.

Tell me about your brand label – Cat Brothers?

It’s from a piece of artwork that we found in a warehouse in Hungary. We don’t understand where it came from or what it means but we found it really fun and a bit silly. We also love the logo from the drawing. It’s just the curiosity of a piece of artwork. But we took it to became the name of the brand. It was just a completely random find! It’s kind of silly. But that’s our brand personality.

How do you feel showcasing your collection at Fashion Scout?

It looks amazing! I feel excited about the exposure at Fashion Scout. I am hoping to gain exposure through the work at Fashion Scout. The place is amazing and I feel lovely to work with other cool emerging brands as well.

By Bowen Lee, (@bowenleely).

Images by Elizabeth Hodson