Style Leading Women VERSION Female designers, 1 IN HER OWN REPRO OP IMAGE Jane McFarland talks to the

SUBS inspired female designers dressing working women today

SUSANA CLAYTON CREATIVE DIRECTOR, JOSEPH

ART Most women of a certain generation can claim to own at least one thing from Joseph. Its perennial staple — a classic pair for black trousers — has been worn by more British working women than most. Susana Clayton, 45, took over as creative director of the British label 18 months ago. As well as cleaning up the brand’s inventory, she’s keen to subvert the notion of the office wardrobe. “There are more people working from

PRODUCTION home or working part-time, and I feel that a woman, even if she works in an office and has to have an impeccable blazer and trousers, is still going to go shopping and has to pick up the kids. She can be a working woman in the pure sense, but she can also be a mum at home, or working from home.” A long-standing go-to brand for those in the know, Joseph has become a de facto uniform not only for fashion- and CLIENT art-world insiders, but also architects, lawyers and CEOs. “It means there needs to be comfort in our pieces, from softly constructed coats to tailored trousers, which are based on men’s pants, but are more fluid.” Dressed in an oversized navy rollneck and wide-leg trousers cut just so, with spotless white trainers, the softly spoken, make-up-free Paris-based designer more than reminds me of Phoebe Philo, the influential former creative director of Celine. “I put Phoebe at the same level as a Jil Sander or a Coco Chanel,” Clayton says. “She has really made a difference to what women

wear. She pushed boundaries. I always wanted CLAYTON SUSANA to wear sneakers and she almost validated that. From top Linen blazer, £575, It’s silly, but it’s the social aspect of fashion.” jacket, £475, matching Clayton studied fashion in Lisbon, where trousers, £375, and sandals, she was born, before moving to Paris with £475; joseph-fashion.com “no contacts or career advice” for an intern- ship, then New York, before returning to the French capital. Her CV spans everything from Gap to by designing clothes that are no-brainers. The grown-up appeal Givenchy. “What was great about Gap and New York was that of pale pink. Brown and black. Roomy shirting. Giant sweaters they have a totally different approach to products. It’s the you can wear to a party. Oversized, wrap-you-up coats. “I love opportunity to work directly with merchandisers and buyers. the fantasy of high fashion, but I’ve never been a customer of it. A product being less expensive doesn’t mean that it should be When it’s not 100% about fashion, it’s about pieces I know less considered. Everything I learnt in New York was some- I can appropriate for myself. I want to get to the point where thing I would never have learnt if I were still at Givenchy, I don’t even have to try them on. You start to understand as a sketching night and day.” designer that you’ve got to wear the clothes as well.” Her wide-ranging experience is perfectly pitched for Joseph, Under Clayton’s watch, Joseph can still be bookmarked for a a stalwart of British fashion that lands somewhere between perfect pair of trousers — she’s most excited about her new luxury and the high street. In a time of eternally changing fads, styles, the Morissey and the Richard. “They’re like men’s wool disposability and waste, it’s anchored in real women with pants — slightly wider than a straight leg. We usually work with varying body shapes and disposable incomes. Clayton’s work fabrics that are typical for men’s suiting. They feel more represents a cool understanding of what women don’t want, resistant and more classic, and the crease will be sharper.”

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It marks the latest expansion for the South Korean designer’s burgeoning eponymous label, which is one of Net-a-porter’s REPRO OP fastest-growing brands, thanks to its colourful, affordable pieces. While most of her designs are geared to slip seamlessly into your everyday existence (“I’m inspired by real life and real women”), it was her conceptual, puff-sleeved dresses — loved by the fashion and retail consultant Kate Foley and Man Repel- ler’s Leandra Medine — that really put her on the map. In December, Pyo scooped the emerging womenswear designer of SUBS the year gong at the Fashion Awards, after receiving the nomi- nation three times. “I’ve been nominated before and not won it, when maybe I thought I would,” she says. “This time I was adamant I wouldn’t, so was knocking back margaritas and didn’t have a speech prepared — it was a genuine surprise!” While industry recognition is always welcome (“It’s nice for

ART the team because they’ve worked so hard”), Pyo is more invested in her customers: what they love, what they wear, what they want more of. Her wearers are an eclectic mix, from fashion From top Midi-dress, £625, folk to interior designers. She’s a firm favourite in the culinary shirt, £313, and mules, £390, world, too, thanks in part to Bourke, a professional chef who Rejina Pyo; modaoperandi.com has worked with Skye Gyngell. Unapologetic foodies, the couple published their first cookbook, Our Korean Kitchen, in

PRODUCTION 2015, and Pyo hopes to combine their love of food and fashion in the future. “A retail space is in the pipeline, but it won’t be a traditional store. I’d love it to be a space where we can showcase art or work- shops, where we share our skills with young people.”

REJINA PYO Juggling a business, house renovation and a baby is a handful for the couple (“It’s a little manic, CLIENT but we make it work — we have a Korean nanny two days a week, so Luka’s Korean is now better than Jordan’s!”), but becoming a mother has changed her outlook. “Having a baby was actually healthy for me, because before then I worked 24 hours a day. It forces you to stop, and it gives you a completely different perspective, not just on fashion, but on the environment, the next generation and their education.” With no investors to answer to, Pyo is slowly taking steps to improve her environmental footprint. “We have eliminated harmful materials and are using recycled and regenerated cashmere, nylon and organic cotton. We’ve changed our pack- aging to be biodegradable. We pay £1 or £2 more per bag, but it’s what I care about,” she says. “There’s such a trap around sustainability, too. For me, vegan leather is such a marketing scam, because vegan makes it sound good, but it’s plastic.” Every item made is road-tested by her female-only studio; they debate everything from zips to sleeve lengths to colour- ways. “When you are in your twenties, you can throw on a dress. Now I can’t lift my arms in the same way and I want to be zipped in!” Pyo says. “We ask everyone, ‘Would you wear this colour, would you wear this shade?’ And everyone comes out REJINA PYO with completely different things, like, ‘Oh, my hair’s not the FOUNDER, REJINA PYO right colour’, or ‘My skin colour doesn’t suit this’, or ‘I’m much “Cool dads,” says Rejina Pyo, 36, with a laugh, when asked to shorter than you’, or ‘I’ve got bigger boobs’. So you really listen describe the look of her unisex line, which debuted as part of to them and you can learn so much. I think that’s a benefit of her collection last September. Her husband, Jordan Bourke, being a woman designing for women.” and son, Luka, 3, were part of the inspiration. “I don’t want to I ask her what the key thing in every woman’s wardrobe call it menswear, as it’s for women, too. It’s more of a shared should be. “A great coat,” she responds, slipping on a laminated wardrobe,” she says over tea in London. “It’s classic shapes that lambskin trench that looks simple yet warm. “Especially in the will last a long time. I’m the only person in my team with a UK — it’s all we wear. This one is showerproof, so if you spill

baby, so I think I am aiming for a full family line!” coffee on it, you can just wipe it off.” BOURKE JOURDAN

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From top Ankle boots, £520, dress, Female designers, 3 £450 (from April), leather jacket, £1,590, scarf, £150, and jeans, £210; toteme-studio.com. Below The Toteme flagship store in Stockholm REPRO OP ELIN KLING FOUNDER, TOTEME Instagram’s impact on fashion can’t be underestimated. With 389,000 followers, Stockholm-based Toteme is one of the more successful brands harnessing the 1,080-pixel squares in lieu of a sizable marketing and advertising budget. It’s not SUBS entirely surprising. The brand’s founder, Elin Kling, 37, was one of the original influencers — she created her now-defunct blog, Style by Kling, in 2007. Within two days it became Sweden’s most-followed fashion blog, thanks to her minimalist style. A move to New York followed, where she married her long-term partner, Karl Lindman. In 2014 they launched

ART Toteme, returning to Stockholm two years later. Rather than leverage her bankable personal profile, Kling closed the blog, making the decision to deliberately step away from the label’s social media. “We made a strategic decision when launching Toteme to take myself out of the brand, because to us it was important to create a brand that could stand alone in the long term. However, I do work a lot with

PRODUCTION our communication. We have a large following, and it’s worth mentioning that it’s not through paid advertising. We’ve never paid an influencer for wearing our clothes. It’s solidly from organic growth,” she says. Said fans include Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Emily Ratajkowski, while fashion editors from London to New York have been on waiting lists for the brand’s wide-shaft knee-high CLIENT boots for the past six months. Alongside its own e-commerce and Stockholm flagship store, it has also secured global wholesale accounts, including Brownsfashion.com and Net-a-porter, where the Venezia print silk scarf and mid-rise straight jeans are currently sold ELIN KLING out, and in 2019 it saw a 17% increase in sales on the site year-on-year. According to Kling, this year’s revenues are projected to reach £18m. Not bad for a blogger. The brand’s premise is straightforward: simplify the choices for the modern woman. “I think it’s all about time. We have so much on our schedules because I believe that most modern women want to have a career. She also wants to have time for family. That’s why she wants a curated wardrobe that someone else has already sorted through, telling her what she needs and how it can be styled,” Kling says. The brand’s instruc- tional website cleverly categorises outfits into suitable locations such as “airport” and “couch” (monogram leggings, if you’re wondering). “Work, lunch or weekday errands? Styling ideas for Monday to Friday” will suggest the Pisa coat, an oversized double-breasted trench, worn with camel Lombardy trousers. The impeccably dressed mother of two remains her brand’s best ambassador. “I also always go back to myself — what I need and how I like to shop. I’ve never been into changing styles — I love a uniform. I love seeing a woman who has found her style and repeats it season after season. Then you play with accesso- ries and jewellery to update.” Eveningwear is next, as cocktail dresses have proved an unexpected success. “We have a beautiful black silk dress, the Coripe, that’s doing really well. It’s so fun to offer that because it’s a new challenge.”

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