In the short space of the past five years, Christopher Raeburn is a name that for many, has become synonymous with contemporary British menswear. Launching his eponymous brand at London Fashion Week in 2009, the London-based designer wowed audiences (and continues to do so) with his thoroughly modern re-interpretations of vintage military fabrics. This approach has seen Raeburn lauded for his sustainable approach for fashion, a notion which is an inherent part of his design philosophy. The brand incorporates this recycled approach into its designs, but also manages to play into current trends in technical outerwear whilst remaining timeless. A huge part of Raeburn’s appeal is that his designs are never over-the-top; they’re thoroughly wearable. Last week, the designer arrived at East London’s Shinebright Studio to give a candid talk to aspiring fashion creatives, breaking down his career moves to date and the decisions he’s made, all of which have led to the Christopher Raeburn brand being where it is today. We caught up with the designer beforehand for a quick chat.
SlamXHype: How does the Christopher Raeburn brand marry form and function?
Christopher Raeburn: For us the focus is always on the functionality of our fabrics. We really think about that when we’re designing the collections. Ultimately, it’s about finding the right bridge — having a contemporary product that people are really going to want to wear. When you put those two things together hopefully you have a good range of products that work.
SXH: Where does your interest in military fabrics and design come from?
Raeburn: We have three parts to our business. The first is called Remade in England, which is all about deconstructing and reworking original military fabrics. Again, it’s about the functionality. That was my first calling card, really; I was fascinated by the fabrics. Quite often you wouldn’t be able to take those original fabrics, even if you wanted to. You wouldn’t be able to find a sixty or seventy-year-old wool, still on the bolt, yet you could buy those original pieces. So it was something that fascinated me — that you could rework and reconstruct that story. So Remade is really the top, but it helps to inspire the other parts of the collection. We have one part called British, which is about working with British fabrics. And then we have our Lightweight — which is about recycling; it’s Japanese; it’s about innovation — those three things working together.
Would you say there’s a uniformity to your designs?
For us, the really important thing is not about replicating the past, or even trying to bring a uniformity to things. It’s about how you can completely decontextualize something. Essentially it’s about re-using original fabrics. It’s about how you can make something contemporary and relevant — but through good design and thinking about things in a different way.
You founded the label in 2007…
Yeah, I left the Royal College of Fashion in 2006 and spent a couple of years dithering about, as most people don But it was in 2009 that we showed our first pieces at fashion week. So it’s actually our fifth anniversary at the moment, with ten seasons at London Fashion Week.
The label’s expanded very quickly.
Yeah, obviously a lot of hard work has gone into that but I’m really proud of the way things are going.
When you launched the brand, the world was on the cusp of this massive resurgence of interest in craft and quality and making things by hand. Do you feel this movement has slowed down?
In terms of fabrics and manufacturing, I feel that, if anything, there’s even more of an awareness now. And not just in fashion — some of those big brands who took their manufacturing abroad are now moving things back, and I think that’s super-inspiring. I also think that through the economic problems people really considered what they were spending, and why, and there was a bit of a reaction to fast fashion and those things. I feel that if anything we’ve barely scratched the surface.
Perhaps that movement has just gotten more technical – less organic. Function and quality are still upheld as being of the upmost importance, but in a more contemporary way.
Yeah. To a certain degree some of those organic and sustainable ways of thinking can sometimes be quite archaic. But when things have really good design and are underpinned by those values, then they become very relevant. Particularly in menswear, our customer is super-interested in the fabrication, the story — that emotional connection. So while on the one hand you have brands like Arc’teryx and White Mountaineering coming through with the technical side, you’ve still got a real solid core of provenance and craft.
It’s almost the defining feature of the contemporary menswear consumer.
I think so.
In terms of design philosophy you’ve become known for your ethical integrity. Was this always the plan?
For me, making the right choice always just makes sense. Why would you not choose a recycled fabric if you could — if you could balance the books and bring value to the piece? When I think back on the Remade aspect of our work which I mentioned earlier, the really happy accidents of the fabrics, you couldn’t buy them even if you wanted to. And yet, you could buy the original pieces that they were made into. We have an inherently sustainable company. I went to a series of lectures a few years ago on sustainability and what that meant. And a lot of those cliches that you mentioned – organic, hemp and cotton – were there. But in the space of those six or seven weeks of seminars, I realized that the work that I had been doing was inherently sustainable in a completely different way. So why not?!
Find more info at shinebrightstudio.co.uk
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