New York – Neil Barrett returned to his archives of past designs recently at the urge
of department store Harvey Nichols, who the designer has created a 12-piece
capsule collection for.
The collection, titled Originals: Vol. #1, will arrive at Harvey Nichols
during the first day of London Collection: Men’s at Harvey Nichols’ men’s
wear pop-up shop, Project 109. The space is located in the new
28,000-square-foot men’s space in Knightsbridge.
Originals: Vol #1 will also roll out to the other Harvey Nichols stores in
Britain.
The idea for the collection came about after Barrett met with Harvey
Nichols group fashion buying director Anita Barr.
“I was born in the U.K., my inspirations are British, so for this
collection I pulled from the archive — or my memory — if I couldn’t
actually find it in the archive,” said Barrett to WWD. The designer is an
alumni of Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art in London.
In 1999, Barrett founded his company, which is based in Italy. Prior to
that, he worked for Gucci and Prada.
The pieces he picked for this retro inspired collection are from the past
10 years.
Looks include shirts and jackets bonded with silk bands like tuxedo
stripes, tailored trousers with a ribbed cuff and ankles, a jacket with a
magnified and deconstructed chevron pattern, and a buffalo leather jacket.
In addition, there are also leather detailed coats, t-shirts, jacquard
suits, color-blocked shirts, and double-bonded sweatshirts.
Price points for the collection range from 265 pounds or 382 dollars to
1755 pounds or 2530 dollars.
70 percent of Barrett’s business is wholesale, with the remaining 30
percent coming from retail. His brand is sold through 400 doors worldwide
and 15 monobrand stores.
Aside from his capsule collection with Harvey Nichols, Barrett is also
launching a new ski collection that will hit stores in October. For the
collection, he is working with the same factories he did when worked for
Prada Sport 16 years ago.