It was great to catch up with Kestin Hare at the #HeraldFashion awards in Glasgow recently, and an honour to be a winner alongside one of Scotland's leading creatives.
He's come a long way from printing t-shirts at Uni, the origin story he shared on this blog last June, and his latest venture is a dream come true.
The former Creative Director of Common People and Head of Design at Nigel Cabourn is launching a new menswear label under his own name, Kestin Hare.
He will debut his eponymous brand's latest collection, titled "White Noise", at London Collections: Men AW15, with the backing of his Japanese distributor Masataka Fujino. The new brand will combine Hare's core values of UK production and quality fabrics with craftsmanship and the clean, contemporary aesthetic for which he is known.
The collections will be designed from the Edinburgh store/studio on St Stephen Street, Stockbridge, which will also be rebranded come January 2015. Much of the business will be brought in-house to allow greater control and consistency across his new label.
The collection will also be available to purchase online with the new website www.kestinhare.com launching in January 2015. The brand's visual identity and contemporary branding will reflect Hare's core values.
The Autumn Winter '15 collection "White Noise" is inspired by the static audio and visual waves found on old television sets, which Hare recalls from his youth. The white noise marks the end of a program and the period of anticipation before the beginning of the next. This mirrors the end of the brand Common People and the period of excitement and wonder of what the future will bring, before the beginning of a new venture, the launch of the new label "Kestin Hare".
Specially developed "White Noise" inspired fabrics and prints have been expressed across jersey, track pants and sweats with marl-like textures reflecting the visuals of the theme. Outerwear is as strong as ever, with pieces constructed in technical sports-luxe fabrics, cut with raw edges and flashes of colour prominent across the range. The result is a clean contemporary collection, with quality held as top priority.
The designer said "I'm incredibly excited about my new venture. To have my own label, Kestin Hare, has been a lifelong dream. The investment from Japan is very special to me, as not only does Masataka and his company share my vision and values for the brand, but it's going to be a very long, strong and genuine relationship. The opportunity to grow globally with a proposed store in London and perhaps further afield should start happening next year."
So when you support local independent designers, you could be investing the next big name in fashion.
Onward!
Gx
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