Russh Magazine

London label Preen is favoured by the beautiful and modern – iconic stars Kate Moss and Chloë Sevigny among them – and has, since its inception, been snapped up by the coolest it-girls around. Design duo and long-time partners, the endlessly affable Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi, have carved out a niche for their effortless and experimental approach to fashion, an attitude they put down to growing up on the Isle of Man, a sunny little island off the coast of England, where anything goes.

With modest beginnings recycling vintage fabrics and antique embellishments to create signature structured and referential womenswear, Preen, launched in 1996 with a boutique in West London’s Portobello Green, soon went on to become one of London Fashion Week’s brightest talents.

Now showing in New York, their SS 09 collection marking the one-year anniversary of the move, Preen has proven to be an ever-evolving international label, successful through saleability as opposed to hype and sponsorship. And the duo revel in the fact that they have never had to contend with being the ‘next big thing’. Over breakfast in South Ken’s jostling Tom’s Deli, Justin Thornton and a glowing, eight-months pregnant Thea Bregazzi, talk with Indigo Clarke about teen fashion fun, London versus New York and the future of Preen.  

Tell me about your SS 09 Preen by Thornton and Bregazzi collection...
Justin Thornton: We always look at what we really liked from the last collection and we develop that forward with new themes and inspirations – we sort of deconstruct our past designs to create new ones. Each collection is a journey, each one is like a new trip for us.
I can’t believe how close to Fashion Week you create your collection! It’s amazing you designers manage to get it all done...
Thea Bregazzi: (Laughs) Two weeks is quite a long time – in two weeks we may change our mind completely about what we’re doing with the collection! There is also the styling. The way it is styled can really change the way it’s perceived.

You’re known for a distinctly modern aesthetic – I’ve always found it interesting that you started out recycling vintage fabric and embellishments, something that your perceived signature goes against. What is your philosophy? Has it remained the same since you started out?
Thornton: Our philosophy has always been to create something that appeals to a modern woman. So, even though our designs may have historical references, it’s really important for us to think of the woman here and now, not someone from the Victorian age or from the 70s... though we might mix in a space-age or futuristic element.
Bregazzi: Just a touch of sci-fi (laughs)! We don’t ever want our designs to look like a costume. We try to always think of the woman wearing it; we don’t want her to feel silly or as though she’s wearing an over-the-top number even if it’s a showpiece or something really glamorous.

So you don’t want the garment to wear the woman – you want her personality to come through...
Bregazzi: Yes, exactly. We see our woman as a mixture of our friends and people we know. We try to create clothes for a certain lifestyle, for a professional woman who goes to work in the morning in an outfit that can be worn when she goes out that night – she might just accessorise it or change a jacket.

So wearability is a big factor...
Thornton: Yes definitely, and desirability is important. Also, we design with a basis of classicism; we have three or four main classic pieces that inspire us: a white shirt, a black jacket, a black trouser, and a vest. These are things we put in every collection. You may not see these actual pieces but each has been an inspiration. For example, the white shirt may end up being a silk wraparound dress – they are like starting points for our collections.

You have a lot of celebrities wearing your clothing, but they tend to be the cool, edgy girls, like Chloë Sevigny and Kate Moss. Why do you think these girls are attracted to your aesthetic?
Bregazzi: Kate Moss, from the very beginning, has been very supportive. I think because we never courted that celebrity thing, it really just happened naturally, they liked our clothes. Now we’ve started doing more specialist pieces for this clientele – not Oscar dresses exactly, but cool cocktail dresses.
Thornton: If you think of these cooler girls, who are Hollywood girls, singers, or models – they are still young and they have to go to particular events that are quite dressy, but they don’t necessarily want to wear the full-on floor-length gowns. They want to wear something quite modern and that’s where it’s worked really well for us.

Why were you initially inspired to work with one another?
Thornton: I used to work for a designer called Helen Storey and she asked us both to consult on a collection when we were 18. That was the first time we worked together and it just worked really well.
Bregazzi: We just worked so well and had such fun together. We do like similar things – but, obviously, I come from a female point of view and Justin from a masculine, so I can often add a touch of reality, an understanding of what girls will want to actually wear. It’s good to have that mixture. We do have little debates about what our woman would wear...
Thornton: Or discussions... The hallmark of any good relationship (laughs).
Bregazzi: (Laughs) exactly! I do believe that two heads are better than one because you have two different opinions and outlooks.

What would you say you each bring to the label?
Thornton: I can be really experimental and I like things to be quite hard-edged, whereas Thea brings a softer element to our designs. She would hate me to say this, but she likes quite girly things...
Bregazzi: (laughs) I do...
Thornton: Not that she wears girly-girly clothing, but she likes things with a bit of sparkle or frill. So when you have the combination of the masculine tailoring with the feminine you end up with something quite nice.

Yes, even your body con mini dresses have a softness and sense of wearability, and small details like a ruffle or cinch can make a girl look amazing, whether she has a perfect figure or not.
Thornton: Yes and that is a perfect example of how we work together – I would design that body con dress as a real supermodel dress (laughs), that virtually no-one could wear, and then Thea will look at how we can make it suit many different body-types. Adding details like a frill over the bust are subtle ways to make a piece more accessible.

And those little ruffles at the hip are always flattering...
Bregazzi: Yes because even if you’re really skinny you want a little bit of shape, and if you have got bigger hips it disguises it a little bit, people will just think it’s puff!

Being from the Isle of Man originally, how do you think that has influenced your perspective on fashion?
Bregazzi:  I think it’s definitely made us more open-minded about fashion and other cultures.

Because it is quite a different culture there isn’t it? You have your own name, Manx, after those weird cats with no tail.
Thornton: Yes, and we have our own money, and government (Laughs)! We’re named after the Manx cats that originate from the Isle of Man, our national cat. They’re actually born with no tail – how weird! Growing up there, there were only two nightclubs and two bars – they were the only places that were young and fun and so you had all the goths, punks, hippies, New Romantics all in the same place.
Bregazzi: Good music is good music, so all the different types enjoyed it together. I’d be pogo-ing around with the punks and dancing with the goths...
Thornton: While wearing a puffball dress!
Bregazzi: Exactly! You all just mixed together. And we didn’t have any cool fashion shops or anything back then, so everyone’s style was mixed up.

So you really had to use your imagination – and charity shops!
Bregazzi: Yes I loved charity shops. My friends and I would sew our own skirts to wear out on a Friday night. We just wanted to make things that were different. London was a Mecca for us – we wanted to go so much.
Thornton: And then when we got to London it was weird because the styles in the clubs were so distinct – it was just goth or just New Romantic, it wasn’t as crazy.

So did you fit into a genre as a teen?
Bregazzi: I was an indie kid really...
Thornton: Well, you were into indie music but you didn’t look like an indie kid.
Bregazzi: (Laughs) well I thought I did! I wanted to look cute and be cool. I liked Pepsi & Shirlie – their mini-skirts and over-the-knee socks look – they were around the same time as Wham. But then, I also wanted to be a bit tough so I’d wear Dr Marten’s boots. When I was a little older I was a bit of a modette.
Thornton: I was quite preppy really – but then I didn’t wear preppy colours, I’d wear mostly black. Kind of New Romantic...
Bregazzi: Without the frills (laughs).

I know that even coming from Sydney, which isn’t that small, there is a desire to be different because you feel so isolated from the rest of the world. And then you get the kids from the towns out of Sydney that looked cooler than any of us – it’s almost like the further you go the crazier and more extreme the fashion.
Bregazzi: Yes, it really made us more open to finding our own style.
Thornton: It made us feel that we didn’t need to fit into any particular group or movement, we were quite self-sufficient and comfortable doing what we liked. And the island we grew up in was really safe – we knew most people, so we could be quite expressive, whereas in some larger towns you might have to conform to survive.
Bregazzi: I think it’s so great to express yourself as a teenager, or at any time – to really be individual, and try to find your 
own look.

SS 09 is your one-year anniversary showing in New York – how do you like showing over there?
Bregazzi: Oh yes it is one year now isn’t it! It’s really nice to show there, it’s nice to show in a different city. We showed in London for years and years and it got to the point where people were asking us, “are you going to show in Paris?” People expect you to move on from London. It’s not that we don’t love London, we do, it has a great energy and we live here, but New York just seemed like the right place for us. It was a challenge and it’s very businesslike 
in New York. We thought ‘let’s try it’, and it 
has been so positively received, it’s been such 
a great experience.
Thornton: It’s just more international – I hate to say it but it’s true. London is seen internationally as the most exciting of Fashion Weeks; it’s creative, it’s where all the new ideas come from, and it’s better than it used to be, but it’s still not seen as a major business Fashion Week.

Yes a lot of the buyers don’t even come to London...
Thornton: Exactly, they just visit the showrooms in Paris. When we showed 
in London we’d do 90 per cent of our 
sales in Paris. 

Bregazzi: It’s such a shame because London 
is amazing.

Can you tell me about your Preen and Preen by Thornton and Bregazzi lines?
Bregazzi: We were showing both lines together but now we want to separate the two – have the Preen line more daywear, and the mainline more dressed up.

That’s exciting – you get the best of both fashion worlds. Any plans or projects ahead?

Thornton: We are doing bags this season. We’ve only done bags once before and in 
a small way, so now we’re doing a small 
easy everyday bag, a shopper, a larger, 
useable bag with lots of pockets and then a 
rock ’n‘ rolly bag. They’re quite cool, and there is a touch of quirkiness to them without having 
too many bells and whistles. And then we’re doing an exclusive cruise collection with with Net-a-Porter.com, available online in October. There has been 
a great reaction to it, and they’ve already doubled their order. We also did sunglasses 
with Linda Farrow... 
 And a perfume! But mostly we’re really excited about having the baby – I can’t wait for it to arrive now.

SHOP THE LATEST PREEN COLLECTIONS AT SHOPBOP.COM

READ THE RUSSH INTERVIEW WITH MARC JACOBS