College No.9

  Next month in Oslo, former resident DJ of the lengendary Manchester club, The Twisted Wheel, Mr. Phil Saxe will be playing on friday the 25th March at Miss Millies, Mono and on the 26th at Klubb Magnus, Pigalle. Phil will be playing some of the records that made “The Wheel” the most exciting club of the late 60’s and early 70’s for both atmosphere and hearing the latest discovered R&B sounds of the day. These days Phil can be heard playing at Manchesters No Way Out club. It promises to be a weekend of dancefloor action for Oslo grooveheads and modernists. Not to be missed!

 The Van Nelle factory
 This building was completed in 1931 and stands in Rotterdam, Holland. The Van Nelle Factory was designed originally by Johannes Brinkman and Leendert van der Vlught, but there was also other architects that worked on the building including Mat Stam (1926-1928). Well known in The Netherlands, it remains pretty much unknown elsewhere. It is non the less a fantastic modernist building, its beauty all the more remarkable when when taking in to account it was built as a packaging plant for tea, coffee and tobacco. Today it houses offices and design studios and host exhibitions. The world’s first example of New Objectivity for the work place perhaps, certainly outside of Germany at least.

The Modernists; L-R; George Nelson, Edward Wormley, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Charles Eames, James Risom.

Inspired by the classic look of the early to mid 60’s American Ivy look and British modernist movement, DNA Groove has put its own mark on today’s modernist style. Their use of quality fabrics and adding dandy details on  garments offers a classic look that is modern but beyond fashion and has made DNA Groove the leading name in ready to wear clothing for modernists. 

DNA Groove owner and designer Claudio De Rossi talks to Dean Swift about his company for College no.9. 

                                     Claudio De Rossi
 

D.S   All modernists are interested in design but what made you decide you wanted to become a clothes designer? Was there a defining moment?

C.D.R   Although I have always had a passion for clothing since a very early age, I never thought I’d make a proper living out of it. Not until I gave up a promising sales manager career to take up a vintage clothes shop (DNA), a spur-of-the-moment decision made in one afternoon, that changed my life. After 3 years of selling vintage, customers really wanted to know why I didn’t sell stuff like I was wearing (getting my clothes tailored); also, was tired of not finding clothes (ready made) that I thought were nice (this was the late 90’s). So started to make clothes that I wanted for myself, but in a larger scale to satisfy the customer request AND the makers minimum quantities. That’s how it started….
 
                                                                                                          

D.S   Your clothes are pretty much a classic style, but does fashion still play some part in your designs? How much, if anything, does it affect use of colour and fabric  for instance?

C.D.R   I choose Italian fabrics for my designs – so this means that I am tied to what fabric makers are offering (and thus what the current fashion trends are). For example, loud checks have always been hard to find for shirting materials as Italians have never been keen on gingham checks or window pane check. Then in the last one-two spring –summer collections colourful checks were popular with the ‘majors’  meaning  that there are more check fabrics being offered by fabric suppliers. Another example are Liberty prints: have been big in the UK but never made it to Italy, so these are hard for me to source. As far as styles or cuts, these are strictly up to me and what I am digging at a certain time. If I like a certain style and think that my customers will also like it, it goes on the drawing board and into production. Quite straight forward (good thing about being a   one-man-band and dealing directly with producers).

D.S   You’ve been working on a collection with John Simons, can you tell us how that came about and what garments will be on sale?

C.D.R   I approached John before he closed his old shop in Convent Garden, and he was already planning his own label John Simons Apparel Co. and so guess you can

say that it was great timing! Also he knew of me, had heard of DNA and was keen to work with someone who already had production contacts – so we both saw an opportunity and took it. John of course is an explosion of ideas and so where I can help him with them and where production prices are compatible, we go for it. Chinos, button down shirts, wool blazers are all part of the new JS label and most of these are made by my producers in Italy. He of course does the designing, I take care of the production only. 

D.S   Whats the most annoying thing for you in mens fashion at the moment?

C.D.R   Baggy, low wasited trousers, with under pants showing & sloppy trouser hems! The

ridiculously long shoe lines have always bugged me and as I am a traditionalist in this matter, shoes have NEVER been so elongated until the 90’s. Bugs me how all the ‘heritage’ brands now have such elongated clown lines, with no shame! Also, the little to no attention to detail (subtle or not) that  labels pay to trousers.

D.S   Savile Row or Napoli?

C.D.R   Napoli. Very natural, light, soft, less strict and thus allows for more creativity. But I must say ‘each to their own’, a British man looks great in Savile Row suit,  and could look daft in an unstructured, natural line of the Italian counter part.  Vise versa, the small frame, dark complexion, and the body gestures of the Italians would be too constricted with the sturdy, heavier, military british cut.  
                                                                                                                 

D.S   Whats your favorite item in your wardrobe?

C.D.R   Changes a lot but currently probably a kangaroo hide, honey coloured pair of lace up chisel toe shoes. And also a pink merino polo collared top. And a dark blue cashmere crew neck … I could go on so will stop. 
 
D.S    How far in front of the coming season are you with design and production? 

                                                              C.D.R     I usually place the order for spring / summer suits and trousers in march-

april. Will probably get linen shirts made up roughly same time, april-may. Sometimes if I find some nice fabrics in the off season, I buy up immediately, as one moment its there the next its gone!  
 
D.S   All your garments and footwear are made in Italy aren’t they?How important is it to you that DNA Groove remains a completely european concern?

C.D.R     Very important it stays Made in Italy. I am currently looking at Spain (where I live) for some plimsoles-canvas-espadrilles type of producers, as this is what they are especially good at here. But main production will always be Made in Italy. I think one needs to make the best possible garment for ones capabilities – considering I have been producing for over 10 years and have excellent relationship with makers, and considering this is what Italians do best, it would not be logical to seek other shores. Prefer to work with small companies that I personally know, regularly visit and can see who is making what. The small artisan companies that work for me are all family runned businesses so a special personal relationship is established and really makes things easier. 
 
D.S    Is there anywhere you you’ve been shocked to get an order from?

 C.D.R   ‘Halfmoon Bay’ in New Zealand, or ‘HOUSE NEXT TO THE CHEMIST’ in a far and out town in Australia spring to mind. But probably customers in Southern USA (Texas) always surprise me as I cannot imagine then strutting down the streets of Austin decked out in a DNA dandified suit.  
 
D.S    Small runs seem to be the way you like to make your garments, whats the average number of shirts you’ll produce in any one fabric?

C.D.R    Shirts are usually made in 3 – 7 pieces total as far as the particular checks or stripes are concerned. Suits and trousers are usually made in one or two pieces per fabric. This is excluding the solid colours of course. 

D.S   Thanks for your time Claudio, I look forward to seeing the new collection.

Check out DNA Groove online http://www.dnagroove.it/

  Henley is back for College no.9, and takes a look at the merge of the Ivy College look and Jazz. 

    Ivy has always been an influence on the modernist via modern jazz players who adopted the look, but why did the players adopt the look? The colleges of the Ivy league have always been learning institutions for the rich in America. Conservative wealthy white families send their children there, bastions of the establishment. Jazz players had, by tradition, always been at polar opposites to the League look, players had sported a look of baggy suits and often outlandish ties, and swing was still doing the matching evening wear look.

                                                                              Dizzy’s jazz style, 1952.

 It all changed when a wealthy black American’s son, a certain Miles Davis, started to sport the look in 1954. Davis had moved to New York ten years ealier from St. Louis and had enrolled at St. Juilliard School of Music. He soon dropped out and began playing in various combo’s sometimes with white players, which was still a barrior at that time to be broken down, and was shunned by some black players because of it. He embarked on tour to Paris in a group in 1949. Davis loved Paris and its culture, with African Americans enjoying greater respect and freedom than they could back in the U.S. While he was there Davis had an affair with actress Julie Greco before returning to the states the following year.

Julie & a pre-Ivy Miles; 1950

   Whats all this to do with the Ivy look? Well, I think it’s important to understand that Davis had no problem mixing with people of any colour or fear of cultures outside of which he was familiar, and, because of his upbringing in an environment where money was never an issue its doubtful he’d have been dismissive of the Ivy look as “something white rich kids do”, rather, he’d have seen beyond that and admired the clothes that gave the overall look. Miles was not a man afraid of change as is reflected in his music career, a pioneer of first cool and then hard bop and beyond. Aways evolving in both music and dress.

   Miles returned to New York and his style moved from bebop to cool to hard bop, a softer sound than bebop incorperating blues and keeping elements of cool jazz, but it was also a period that saw a heroin habit beginning to affect his performances, he returned to his fathers home in 1954 for several months in order to kick his habit. He stayed away from New York, but performed still in other cities. It is known that Miles played at some of the Ivy colleges and it may well have been seeing some of the students in concert audiences that promted him to adopt the college look, it may even have been he mixed with them after a concert, one thing is for certain; the modern jazz needed a modern image and Miles gave the modernist players that image. The Andover clothing store in Cambridge, Massachusetts had long been a favorite amonst the dressers of Harvard and it was there in 1954 where Miles turned the look of rich white America into the look for grooveheads. Miles purchased tweed and madras jackets with slim lapels and soft shoulders, button down shirts, slim jims, knits, chinos and flannels and, of course, Weejuns, in one go and single handedly turned square into hip.

 College cool.

Where the world of Jazz met Ivy.

        Miles biographer, Joe Szwed says  ”It was a look that redefined cool and shook those who thought they were in the know”. Miles was the first  (his appearance at Newport in 1955 caused a sensation when he wore a rounded tab collar shirt, bow tie and seersucker) with JJ Johnson, MJQ, and a whole host of other modernist players rushing to the small store to be kitted out in Ivy Style. I call this Mile’s “second birth of cool”!Who else would have crossed the race boundery and taken the Ivy style from conservative white America and made it a look to be embraced by Jazz modernists? Without Miles it may never have happened.

  The Andover shop is still open for business and selling trad British inspired clothing.  http://www.theandovershop.com/

  Bespoke shoes offer something unique for your feet, a perfect fit. The craftmanship of the shoemaker and use of quality leathers and other components makes for a beautiful shoe but it’s the last that is the single most important element in the making of footwear for fit, and fit is of paramount importance if you’re going to spend serious money on your shoes.

    The last is what the shoe is moulded around and remains inside the footwear until the making process is finished. Bespoke

shoemakers, or cordwainers to use the correct term, (often reffered wrongly to as cobblers, a cobbler is someone who repairs shoes) work from wooden lasts as opposed to plastic or metal as used in the factory produced footwear. The last starts as a machined item, known as a block last, which has a hinged instep. This is made to shape for the customers footwear once the customer has decided on the style of shoe and the measurements of both feet are taken. The lasts are chiselled by hand, then filed and finally sanded by the last maker to the customers requirements. The shape of the last is not made to the exact size of measurements taken.

Measurements are altered at certain points on the last to allow for movement of the foot during activity and the fact that your feet naturally change shape slighty the longer you’re in footwear. This is the science used that makes bespoke footwear unbeatable for comfort. Measurements taken can vary, depending upon the chosen style, with as many as 25 different measurements being needed. When the shoes are finished the lasts are removed and stored for future orders.  The skills of the last maker are as important as those of the shoemaker himself. The correct last sizing  is crucial to the shoe keeping its shape and durabilty.

 

 The Torque DECT Telephone designed by Curventa. We think its a great comtempory design for a modernist enviroment, and its not often you can say that about a telephone. The Modern telephone for the home seems to provide service but has very little thought into the esthetic of its design. The charger connection is on the back of the phone and lays flat on the charging desk, it has a flat touchscreen face and a sight twist in the shape giving it a comfortable hold when in use. The telephone also has an answering machine and can store 100 names and numbers. Its comes in all black, all green, green on black, as shown above, or all white and is priced at a very reasonable £80.

The Fabulous Hoplite reccomends his favourite British R&B albums. Classic modernist sounds from yesterday for today’s hipsters and grooveheads. All available today on CD for your listening pleasure. If you don’t know them, check them out, play ‘em loud, you’ll love them, not half, pop pickers.

     It doesn’t get any better than Georgie if you’re looking for an artist who covers all modernist genres: jazz, ska and R&B. Sweet Things is Georgie Fame’s first offering from 1966 on Columbia records. (Sound Venture being his other LP from 1966). The record consists of covers of 60’s club scene classics. This is Georgie’s 4th and final album with the Blue Flames and has a more soulful leaning than his three previous releases.

    Manfred Mann’s first LP, The Five Faces Of was released in 1964 and is easily their best. It’s a great example of British R&B going “pop”. The covers of R&B standards sit well along side the tracks penned by band members (mainly by singer Paul Jones). Although the “taste” for stardom saw the band leave their R&B roots behind them, this album tells what oringally drew the Manfreds together two years earlier.

    The self titled album from The Animals is another debut release from 1964 and is

a gem collection of British R&B tracks. Singer Eric Burden’s deep, gruff voice was a perfect sound for the blues and this Newcastle bands gutsy style. Their Alan Price (organ) arrangement of House Of The Rising Son making them only the second British group to have a number 1. in the U.S. after the Beatles.

                                                                                                                            

   Recorded at the lengendary Marquee club in Soho, London in 1964 and released in 1965, Five Live Yardbirds showcases the bands early sound. Another gutsy slice of British R&B and one of the best live albums ever recorded. The reissue CD on Repertoire includes 8 bonus tracks including more live material from another lengendary club, the Crawdaddy.

   Zoot Money’s first album released in 1965 was recorded in one day, such was the quality of musicanship that Zoot and his Big Roll Band had. Although not written on the cover the title of the LP is It Should’ve Been Me. The whole album is a great work of jazz tinged R&B and reflects the obscure American records that the band members collected (apart from Zoot, who didn’t own a record player!)

                                 

    The greatest band ever to come out of Scotland, The Five Aces hailed from Glasgow. The bouys laid down some fine tunes on this, their second and sadly final album from 2007; Shout & Shimmy. Sometimes its hard for great live acts to live up to their performances on recordings, not so with this act though, and this LP is up there with the best. Proving that still today You just can’t lose, with the Rhythm & Blues!

Despite of the poverty (or maybe because of it) of their surroundings in the Congo a group of men have chosen a dress style that goes far beyond their means and environment, a backlash of colour and sophistication against a lack of education and material wealth, where a silk tie is worn as a symbol of expression of freedom of choice. They are known as Sapeurs, dressing in fine tailored suits, tweed sportscoats, silk scarves and Gucci and Vass shoes, often in loud colours, its a look that is meant to be seen. The look can be traced back to the 1920s when Congolese soldiers returning from Western Europe were seen wearing the latest fashions of Paris and Brussels, but the movement really took off thanks to the Congolese pop singer Papa Wemba, who made many trips to Paris in the 60s and 70s, adopting and adding to what the gentlemen of Paris wore. The style caught on amongst the youth of Congo, who would work for many months to be able to buy a garnment. The Sapeurs have never lost their passion for dandiness, but the movement took a backseat  when war started in 1997. They are by nature non violent men, but they also recognised that there couldn’t be Sape (french for; to dress with elegance) untill there was peace. Even adopting a motto; “Let us drop the weapons of war and dress with elegance”.  Since the war ended the movement has seen a resurgence and today a new generation of Congolese throughout the world is joining and embracing the Sapeur movement.

 

To the nines, Sapeurs on the streets.

The look differs from city to city, in Kinshasa on the south side of the river Congo Sapeurs wear an allout look of peacock colours while across the water on the northern side in the city of Brazzaville, Sapeurs tend to follow a three colour rule. Of course dressing in such style isn’t possible every day, funds just don’t permit it, so Sapeurs tend to dress at weekends when they hang out in bars and clubs.

Kinshasa Dandies.

La Main Bleue, Sapeur hangout in Brazzaville

    Bass Weejun loafers are synonymous with the Ivy look, and a firm favourite amongst modernists. It’s a classic shoe that can be worn with any casual look for men and women of any age. As the Ivy look has changed through the decades since the shoe was first seen on campus, the Weejun has stood fast and changed little itself, testimont to its simple but elegant look and lasting appeal. The term Weejun comes from Norwegian, a reference to the shoe that Bass based the look of his loafer on - the traditional Aurland shoe from Norway.

Above; The traditional Aurland, classic Norwegian summer footwear.

    George Henry Bass owned a tannery in the town of Wilton, Maine, and in 1872 he bought shares in a local shoe company. By 1876 he was the sole owner of shares and changed the companys name to G.H Bass & Company. The first Bass moccasines were Camp Moccs, made in 1906, but the company was mainly making work boots and became the supplier to the American airforce at the start of WWI. Charles Lindbergh wore the company’s boots on his transatlantic New York to Paris flight, as did Admiral Richard Byrd, the first man to fly to the north pole and then later to the south pole. The first Bass Weejuns went on sale in 1936 and the shoe has remained the company’s best seller ever since. As much as we like the Bass Weejun at College no. 9 we think, as the song says, the originals are still the greatest, but then we would, wouldn’t we.

From Norwegian cabin shoe to Ivy cool, advertising for the weejun from 1965.                                  

The Bass factory built in 1904, Bass footwear was made here ‘till its closure in 1998.