Photography by Shaniqwa Jarvis
Interview by Yasmin Coke
LFW The Daily proudly presents a back-of-the-Mercedes interview with Catherine Teatum and Rob Jones of Teatum Jones on the day of their presentation.
YC: Today is your first on-schedule presentation at London Fashion Week, what’s in store for S/S 12?
CT: Something calming, serene, and atmospheric. The collection draws you into the familiar but then pulls the rug from underneath your feet. It brings on feelings of a very subtle, unnerving, underlying tension.
RJ: We were inspired by hazy suburban mornings and the Female psyche. It’s something familiar. The presentation is interactive, you can be there for five minutes or half an hour, the film will just keep rolling.
YC: Do you have a favourite piece in the collection?
RJ: I have a few favourites. Our evening pieces have really grown this season and we’ve played with a lot of shapes. We’ve also worked with leather which is a first for us, last season we worked with silk and tailoring, the tailoring has grown this season but we have tried leather to see how it goes…maybe you’ll see a development on this for A/W 12!
YC: There are two of you designing, who wears the trousers?
CT: We each have a leg.
RJ: We take turns taking the right leg. A lot of people comment that we have that brotherly sisterly thing, we compliment each other.
CT: When you sense the other is worried you pick them up, we have to trust each other and help each other rather than taking control with both legs – we’ve got the perfect balance.
YC: When did you start working together?
CT: We worked at John Richmond together on menswear, from mainline to underwear and this is how we developed such an understanding of selling and delivering. We’ve worked together on such a broad spectrum; from mainline to catwalk to denim collections. Now we really have an understanding of creating a business and a brand.
RJ: We’ve both worked on London labels, Catherine at Luella and I’ve worked at Warren and these labels are very much about the catwalk and excitement. Having this experience has helped us with both. We like to keep the excitement, magic and luxury.
YC: What is the starting point of your collections?
CT: There are rarely any fashion references on our moodboard. We tend to take an anthropological approach. I’m interested by human behaviour and stories of tragedy and romance – this is often the starting point for me.
RJ: We love the human approach; our first collection was based on the Tower of London. We went there and both walked out full of inspiration, we imagined being 16 and put ourselves in the positions of the stories we heard. We read diaries and put ourselves in other people’s situations. We’re inspired by what emotions the human body is capable of.
CT: Normally a designer would be interested in the armoury at The Tower of London and instead we were thinking of the emotions behind what they were wearing rather than the physical inspirations.
YC: Tell us about a typical day in the Teatum Jones studio
R&C: A typical day in studio for us starts at 7.30am and we make our way though ‘the list’, we love a list! We have a rolling to do list that is controlled on our network, we both update and print this out every morning and then we schedule meetings to start at 10am so we have two and a half hours to get ourselves sorted. If we are pattern cutting we will be doing it until late at night. It’s a long day, but it is fun! We always have such a laugh. We look forward to getting in early because our heads are fresh and we have such a great team that it feels like we’re hanging out with friends!
YC: What are your first fashion memories?
RJ: I used to draw dresses at Primary School! I’d draw people but they were always wearing a great dress. I once had to draw a bird and my friends were drawing robotic birds and futuristic birds but my bird, a peacock, was walking down the street with a handbag and dress – it was a fashion bird! If I could put a fashion edge on anything I would, even if it was a Science project!
CT: I was taken to an Alexander McQueen show when I was 13. My brother was working there and he got his best friend to take me in with him, he got me into the VIP party after. I didn’t know what to wear and in the end settled for my Mum’s jacket and heels that were too big for me, I must have looked ridiculous. It was very fabulous. I knew from when I was very young that this was what I wanted to do.
YC: What are your fashion predictions for S/S 12?
CT: I think women are becoming more and more comfortable with a long silhouette – I predict we’ll see lots of this in the S/S 12 collections.
RJ: Trouser shapes are getting more progressive and interesting for women and men.
YC: Any dream collaborations?
CT: A brand that has an archive of craftsmanship. We love details and I’m constantly thinking about that when we are putting together collections, the dress has to fit and it has to look cool but it has to do so at the cost of how we are going to finish the inside. To work with a specialist college, Saville Row or an old leather company where they have a history that we could delve into and immerse ourselves in would be great!
YC: What’s the cheekiest thing you’ve ever done in the back of a car?
CT: Probably give myself a full pedicure in three minutes…
RT: I wouldn’t even like to tell you! Actually, I once got over 5 people into the back of a cab by crawling under the seats…let’s just say it was quite a messy one!
Mercedes-Benz, whose fashionable fleet of cars ensure London Fashion Weekers get around in style, is celebrating its LFW affiliation with the launch of Voices of Fashion, a daily blog with exclusive LFW updates and interviews with the designers and other stylish sorts who make the fashion world go round. See voicesoffashion.co.uk
