Interview: rag & bone

September 8th, 2010

British gents Marcus Wainwright and David Neville, the designers of rag & bone (an old British term referring to a junk dealer), are known for their well-tailored men’s and women’s clothing recalling the craftsmanship of Savile Row. This September, the boys will be busy with their documentary launch with R.J. Cutler (director behind The September Issue), their block party on Mercer Street for Fashion’s Night Out, and with a few other secrets yet to be revealed. The Block caught up with David to discuss the brand and their upcoming ping-pong tournament.

Carmen Lam: Hi David. I’m not bothering you right now am I?

David Neville: No, no, it’s fine. I’m just standing outside our new store.

CL: Are you at the newly opened rag & bone in Nolita?

DN: No, I’m at another new store, which is top-secret currently. We’re opening another small boutique in Manhattan. We did just open the Nolita store, which is a really cool store and has been doing very well. It used to be a landmark coffee shop called the Colonial Café. It was sad for a lot of the residents that it was leaving, but it wasn’t our fault. It was the landlord that kicked them out. But we kept a lot of the original character; we turned the kitchen into a shoe shop, which is amazing.

CL: Rag & bone’s men’s and women’s 2011 spring collection and Fashion’s Night Out are happening on the same day (September 10).

DN: Haha, yeah. We always had a way of cramming a lot into one day. I remember in September 2007, we actually moved into our office on the day of our fashion show. We’re quite good at multitasking.

CL: For Fashion’s Night Out will we actually see you or Marcus singing karaoke at Barneys?

DN: Haha, no, definitely not. They’ve got us playing ping-pong.

CL: Singles or doubles?

DN: I believe it’s doubles.

CL: Do you know who you’ll be playing against?

DN: I think some of the other brands like Rogan [Gregory] and his partner [Scott Mackinlay Hahn], Shipley & Halmos, and the Burkman Brothers.

CL: Sounds like an exciting match to watch. You guys are also pairing with Phillip Lim later that night, correct?

DN: Yes, that’s going to be on Mercer Street where we both have our stores. Phillip has a store two doors down from us. We’re closing the curb-lane with lots of food vendors; it should be a lot of fun.

CL: I read that you used to be an investment banker?

DN: That’s right.

CL: How did you transition from banking into fashion?

DN: When I was an investment banker I used to wear some nice suits. I’ve always enjoyed fashion, like shopping with my mother when I was younger. I’m always inspired by her style; she’s a doctor and she wears a lot of men’s suits… I was young enough that I could leave my bank investment job before I had any kids or any real responsibilities. I was fortunate enough to be able survive without getting a salary for a little while based on the money that I’ve saved. So that meant that I was 27 years old and I could actually leave. I was lucky; timing was good.

CL: Congratulations on being awarded this year’s CFDA Menswear Designers of the Year and to the numerous September issue features on newsstands right now. With the brand’s success will there be a film documentary chronicling you and Marcus, like Sundance’s The Day Before?

DN: That’s an interesting question. We do have a documentary coming out. We did a collaboration with R.J. Cutler, the guy who filmed The September Issue with Anna Wintour and the Vogue offices. R.J. filmed the preparation for our fashion show last February and it’s going to be launched at the beginning of September on Starbucks’ Facebook page. Starbucks has 11 million Facebook friends, and is apparently one of the largest corporations, they commissioned the collaboration between rag & bone and R.J. So yeah, it’s interesting you brought that up.

CL: And in regards to Fall/Winter 2010, which you recently went to Calgary’s Holt Renfrew to promote, can you tell us a bit about the inspirations behind this collection?

DN: As a brand we have various key inspirations, the fact that we’re English and went to school together and grew up wearing uniforms, to now living and working in New York City, those are key inspirations for the line. Each season there are different things. This one was really British: a guy called George Mallory believed to be the first man to climb Everest actually climbed it wearing tweed. So we really played on English fabrics, like Harrod tweed and Abraham moon. So those inspirations led into Nepal, cashmere, and Himalayan influences in the clothes. So that was kind of what we were working around, and lucky for us it was really well-received.

Interview Carmen Lam