what else?
Collection Videos
alt
Cold Method
Romon
design
Over the years, I worked my way up from Junior Designer to Head of Design and Creative Director, gaining practical experience ideating, inspiring, structuring, designing, directing, developing, packaging, sourcing, executing, and promoting fashion collections.
brand direction
Recently, my time has been focused on working with Chinese design, marketing, and visual merchandising teams on all aspects of their creative process, from better work practices and development strategies to higher-level creative decision-making: developing product handwriting, creating brand stories, and designing collections that promote a consistent brand personality.
Sourcing + finishing
I have worked on both sides of the client/supplier relationship. I believe this gives me uncommon insight into customer needs and solutions-driven development.
Fabric, wash & fit development are some of the most enjoyable aspects of the process for me.
seminars / instruction
For the last 6 years, as our Asian business has grown, I have spent considerable time compiling and presenting trend analysis, market research, and creative guidance.
I have provided seasonal trend courses in Men's, Women's, Children's, Denim, and Athletic segments, private instruction for select clients, and concept development courses for advanced-level creative professionals.
Product Packaging
Graphic design for apparel was the focus of my first role after graduating, allowing me to explore, early on, a central facet of the visual language of apparel product. Understanding the relationship that graphic, trim, and branding details must have with a collection -- and how they can carry over into print and pattern design to lift and communicate theme and express larger ideas -- has subsequently become an important aspect of my work and an important tool for my creative direction.
brand communication
A great collection is not enough to have impact in the market: an integral part of the success of an apparel brand is in the alignment of the product and the storytelling associated with it. It is the personality, the attitude, and the creative expression of the product in the visual marketing that gives it power and impact.
I have found this to be a particular need in many of the clients I work with, and have evolved my role to include helping my clients better reach their target customers, and to better express the spirit of the collections we make.
I am passionate about driving a strong, cohesive brand story through to all areas -- by following through to the sales conference, catwalk, showroom, look-book, advertising, and marketing campaigns -- to promote a clear line of thinking and maximum impact.
clients + collections
Explore Projects
Romon
Hailed as one of China's Top 500 Enterprises of 2015, Romon is China's 4th largest tailored clothing brand by market share. For this 500 piece-per-season collection, we established a brand DNA platform emphasising Italian-infused tailoring and style, and raised the product offering and marketing to a new level.
cold method
Cold Method's savvy mix of tailoring, fashion, and keen pricing made an impact in the market and garnered worldwide distribution interest. Inspired by ‘the 9 aesthetics’: a coordinated offer of core items to build up an enduring system of outfits for every stylish man’s wardrobe.
ALT
With 3000 stores in China, ALT can seem ubiquitous at retail. The brand's vast offering spans the market of trend-focused value-range menswear from denim to formal looks. Targeted at young millennials, and ranked in the top 20 of the crowded young men's fashion sector, ALT was my first multi-season partnership with a major Chinese fashion brand.
Paul Smith Jeans
Fours years as the Director of Paul Smith Jeans, Sport, Children, R Newbold, and Red Ear brands brought a wealth of highlights, and the opportunity to integrate design more closely with marketing and product presentation. Above, a brief view into our typical offering.
BNFN Biemlfdlkk
Despite its difficult name, China's #1 luxury golf lifestyle brand has held its position in the market for decades. Now with over 500 points of sale, BNFN remains a key style icon for the business elite. Each season we developed original patterns, checks, stripe techniques and colour shades for our collections, using high end suppliers from Italy, Japan, and Korea.
cold method
It's still incredible to think of what our tiny team managed to accomplish in the early days of Cold Method. As Head of Design, I also introduced CM+, a premium capsule collection featuring washed Italian leathers, a comprehensive denim jeans offer, luxury knitwear and tailoring, which are incorporated into these runway selects.
Mondiland
For Mondiland's boutique luxury tailored clothing range, we introduced weatherproof performance fabrics, crease-resistance, lighter structure and ergonomic details to bring a new dimension to the traditional business suit collection, establishing an innovation platform to expand the brand's appeal to a younger customer base and frequent business travellers.
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Romon
For SS16 we built on the brand's Italian sartorial inspiration, introducing fully-finished deconstructed blazers, unlined and 1/2-lined suitings, and signature detailing across the range. We expanded the casual collection to include directional sportswear, and introduced denim and jeanswear to round off a complete offering of occasion-focused stories, from black tie gala to weekend casual comfort.
DKNY Jeans
Starting out as a jeanswear specialist, I've been fortunate to research and develop innovative and conceptual denim work for several brands. This one, from the early days of DKNY Jeans, has always remained a favourite. An artistic take on vintage wreck and repair work, inspired by wrecking and repairing poetic verse.
nike Olympics
Working on the Beijing Olympics was a fascinating journey into new areas of R&D and product functionality. As creative lead for European Team Sports, my Advanced Innovation Team developed and commercialised many cutting-edge construction technologies like stitchless seam bonding and seamless knitting for beach volleyball. This was performance apparel at its highest competitive level.
ALT
At ALT we created four 450-piece collections per year, plus catwalk, lookbooks, styled brochures and video. At the beginning of my collaboration with ALT, I created and rolled out a modern preppy brand story, to lend the brand a clearer personality in the marketplace, and to unify collections that were often confusing and over-assorted. Above are selected images from the re-launch collateral.
R Newbold Paul Smith
Paul Smith bought this heritage workwear brand in the 1980s and re-imagined its traditional, Civil Service, functional product into a cult London label. Picked up and distributed in Japan, it took off to become a key element of the company's Japanese business. Grounding the collection in its British workwear roots, the product inspiration combines strong graphic and pattern usage with authentic utility tailoring in jackets, blazers, and shirts.
Cold Method
Above, a clearer view into the SS10 collection. Building on the concept mix of vintage-inspired tailoring and fashion-infused workwear style, we expanded the dressed-up product offering to include satin cotton utility blazers, and for casual, original graphic tee artwork by Aki Paphides.
nike Rugby World Cup
For the England and France National Team kit, our brief was to take rugby to another level. With 2 years of R&D, we explored visual awareness, anatomical design, fabric innovation and garment design -- driven by player insight to maximise competitive advantage -- and pushed the boundaries in every aspect of the product. We then cascaded this collection down from gameday to replica to training to lifestyle to fashion.
Paul Smith Red Ear
The name 'Red Ear' came from Paul's love of Japanese graphic art and keen sense of humour -- particularly the lucky symbol of the rabbit, often represented with red ears. Defying classification, this range was a showcase for Japanese denim finishing, Italian laundering, and hand-crafted embellishments, inspired by Paul's creative brilliance, each season re-inventing itself into a new idea.
Creative Leadership
About
With nearly 30 years' experience in fashion, sport, tailoring, outerwear and denim, I have a grounding in most areas of the menswear industry.
From roles at Paul Smith, Nike, DKNY Jeans, Marks&Spencer, Pepe Jeans and others, to in-depth consultancy projects with major Chinese brands like Biemlfdlkk, Romon and ALT, my career has offered me uncommon breadth of experience in the European, Asian and North American markets.
I am passionate about design, function, fabric and style, and am compelled to create product and brand stories that can connect to target customers and drive tangible business advantages.
