Farah Vintage

Farah Vintage is a historically American brand, born in the 1920’s with a fairly rich history that includes a stint making military garments. Today, I know of Farah from a distinctly British perspective, recognising their fair history and their distant love affair with the UK’s subcultures. Since 2007 when I first bought something, I have followed their progress, on and off, over the years with only mild interest. Then, a few months ago they won Drapers Menswear Brand of the Year.

I don’t know loads about Farah except that they are owned by Perry Ellis, who also own Original Penguin (it seems to be a complicated company with UK, EU and US branches and arms all over the place, dealing with all sorts of other brands). Both Farah and Penguin are American brands and they have a turbulent history falling foul of the brand cycle over and over (as many brands do). I’m going to guess that the Perry Ellis take over happened in around 2004/5 for Farah (a couple of years to do some re-structuring, a couple of years for the new collections to come through to retail), as in 2007 I picked up a lovely cashmere cardigan from TK Maxx (many great brands have been there and bounced back!). It’s a great quality item, it’s lasted brilliantly, it’s a great fit and it still looks fairly current despite being bought years ago.

At the time I was unaware of the brand, I just liked the fact the cardigan was reduced from £90 to £20. Then a year or so later I started to see Farah being stocked in Selfridges and Urban Outfitters. I don’t care what anyone says, these two stores’ buyers know what they are doing and their brand mix for their menswear is always fresh and commercial so they’re always worth a snoop around.

Someone was making a conscientious effort to turn this brand around, the product was great, but from a consumer perspective there just wasn’t enough noise about them.

The imagery that they were using was a little bit naff and cheesy but I can see what they were doing with it. The message is clear it was a hark back to their 1970’s/1980’s British sub-cultural roots. They are going for the casuals/mod/urban-deprived-youth look that was very popular around 2007-2010. This facelift was probably what they needed to get into some of these leading menswear departments in such prominent stores. Farah also released their 1920 range to remind us all of their long history, (the heritage thing has been pretty big for a while now too, you can’t move for brands trying to tell you their story) however I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in a store.

Farah are probably best known for their trousers. They made work pants and work shirts during the 1930’s and 40’s and then shifted to make military uniform. These industrial, work-wear and military roots don’t seem to come through as strong influences in their collections and this does seem like a shame. They seem to focus a lot on their sub-cultural roots instead and as fickle as this sounds, I’m just a bit bored of everyone doing that. I like the way that Red Wing, Carharrt and some other American brands (albeit their European Licensee counterparts) have started to lean more heavily on their industrial past rather than dream up some relationship with a 70’s subculture like everyone else.

Farah’s chinos are a fantastic fit though. They aren’t too slim through the leg, yet they are gently tapered so that they don’t have a wide ankle opening. They also fit properly around the waist, they don’t have a dropped crotch which is quite refreshing. It seems they have stuck to a faithful shape and only made small changes to modernise the shape so that you get that slightly old fashioned feel without looking like you raided a charity shop. They are gentleman’s trousers, the epitome of ‘smart-casual’.

In 2011 Farah Vintage won Drapers Menswear Brand of the Year. Initially I was really shocked, I mean they don’t even have a functional e-commerce site (tut tut, this is 2012 Farah!) and they were also up against some reputable competition from the likes of Ben Sherman (huge investment in 2011) and Lyle and Scott. On reflection though I think it is fantastic for Farah to have won this, I feel like they deserve the recognition as on the 2 occasions I have come into contact with their products I have been very pleasantly surprised by the quality and cut, however they don’t seem to be overly prominent in the marketplace.

If you’re looking for some great fitting chinos I’d strongly recommend Farah Vintage. They are stocked in Urban Outfitters as well as having opened a store in Shoreditch’s answer to a shopping mall- BoxPark.

Norse Projects and Their Imagery

One of the first times I came across Norse Projects was when I started my job. I’d not really heard too much about them as a brand but I was looking into competitors and getting more familiar with the menswear market. I instantly fell in love with the brand.

What struck me initially was their imagery. I think the first set of imagery I saw for them was AW10. it was a series of fantastic photographs of outdoors scenes and what I liked best was that it wasn’t trying to sell me product so obviously.

With a lot of campaign shoots it seems the primary aim is to pile in the key pieces and layer up as much as possible. Be commercial, drive ATV and all that other retail BS. You end up with images that are choc full of product in the hope that there’ll be something for everyone and appeal to the masses.

I’m not talking about lookbooks. Their lookbooks are fairly standard, just like a lot of other menswear companies, you have to fill the lookbook with product and that’s fine. I’m talking about their campaign imagery that is going to be the face of the brand for the next 6 months. It’ll be on the website, in ads and used by blogs and stockists.

Norse Projects campaign imagery is brilliant because it sets the scene for the collection and allows the customer to make their mind up about clothes as a separate entity, but only after they have been subject to the imagery brand exercise.

I like the look of going for a walk along that pebbled beach. It looks like a cold, crisp day but they’re warm in their Norse Projects coats. I wish I was good at photography so I could take a fantastic picture like that. I wish I could wear Norse Projects, they like similar things to me, they like cool things, their clothing is practical and timeless, it’s well designed, there are other values there besides consumerism behind this brand. They don’t even care if they sell any clothes otherwise why wouldn’t they put product in their images?! They just want to run their business the way they want, with the values they care about. I like this brand.

Then before I know it I’m sold! I’ll have an entry point 5-panel cap for my boyfriend please because that’s all I can afford. Thank you. Thank you Norse Projects for your fantastic imagery that sets the scene for your brand and then gives me an inferiority complex after I leave your website. I mean who am I kidding, I haven’t been on a long rural walk for some time, I haven’t the patience for photography or to make the values and interests of this brand my own. I am a bad person hijacking the values of the brand to make them merely appear my own. By wearing a jumper or a jacket from Norse Projects I am saying to others- ‘I’m wholesome, patient, anti consumerist consumer, I value good design and will invest in the items I love.’ I feel slightly guilty. But then it’s fine, I mean if people want to think that I have those values because I align myself with this brand then I guess I’ll let them. And if they don’t, we’ll I still have an aesthetically beautiful and wearable item at the end of it all.

From a slightly more objective and rational perspective I think that Norse Project’s imagery is also great because when you’re on their website homepage it immediately gives a sort of Scandinavian feeling starkness to the page. It also makes it easy to manage the page as there aren’t going to be boxes and text floating over the faces of haplessly over-layered models which will need hours of playing around with. I also love the sort of slide show aspect of their home page where there are 3 items on rotation as it’s not often you will stay on a home page long enough to see the change but it makes the site feel fresh and updates the next time that you visit even if it is within the same season and the imagery hasn’t changed.

I hope that Norse Projects continue to pull it out the bag season after season and that they don’t fuck too much with this formula that I think really works for them (it’s been a while since a few brand images have elicited such a profound emotional, albeit very irrational, response in me). On the other hand I hope they can keep it fresh feeling enough that the idea doesn’t stagnate and start looking a bit tired. They have, at least for me, managed to be commercial by not being commercial, they have effectively ‘broken the rules’ and, in my book, come out on top.