Clements Ribeiro (Q1928)
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London-based fashion house
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Clements Ribeiro |
London-based fashion house |
Statements
1993
creative director
1993
creative director
design consultant
Suzanne Clements, one of London fashion's great contrarians, lolled backstage today in a Rolling Stones sweatshirt. "I'm in a sweatpants mood," she drawled dismissively, after a show that was as un-sweatpants-y as you could imagine. But her outfit sort of fit anyway, because she loves the Stones, and she and husband Inacio Ribeiro built their new collection around things they love. One such is the notion of the "working holiday," where they'll disguise one of their frequent getaways as a quest for inspiration. A new print was based on log cabin quilting as practiced by the women of Gees Bend, Alabama, whom Clements and Ribeiro came across on a recent road trip. Another print was thechita, a floral found on a similar excursion through the heartland of Ribeiro's native Brazil. The designers combined the two visuals for a striking culture clash. Then they layered on red lace, tartan, gilded animal print, and gold brocade poppies. A black kilt-buckled coat was textured with tone-on-tone embroidery; collars and half-belts were jeweled.But even though the level of decoration was intense, the clothes themselves were sweater-and-skirt sporty. The duo's signature cashmere sweaters were slightly elongated, and so were the skirts, which loaned a newly languid proportion. The effect was like an eccentrically dressy, slightly decadent country-house party, the Mitford girls gone a little punk, an impression that was compounded by the uniformly flat footwear, which included pointy buckled booties and golden pixie shoes, even with a sparkling, sheer evening dress. It pays to remember that London's current fashion boom is firmly founded on such idiosyncrasies from the likes of Suzanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro.
15 February 2013
The grave young bohemians parading up and down the Clements Ribeiro catwalk today were curious creatures. Who were they, with their detached nonchalance? Where were they going garbed in their retro eccentricity and their flat plastic sandals? Anyone who saw Wes Anderson'sMoonrise Kingdomhad a head start on the answers to those questions, because they'll already know about Suzy Bishop's idiosyncratic style, as well as her affection for French chantoozie Françoise Hardy, whose plangent tones soundtracked the show. But people who weren't as familiar—or as taken—with Suzy's tween precocity as Suzanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro might have been less willing to surrender to a collection whose spirit veered toward groovy Provençal schoolmarm (Suzy's teacher, in other words).In a low-key, somewhat flat presentation, the designers used Suzy as a bridge back to their own archive: a checked skirt with a striped cashmere sweater, a quirky detail like a fluoro orange belt on a shirtdress, the contrast of a black moiré skirt and a top trimmed in turquoise lace…the off-ness of such looks was quintessential Clements Ribeiro. In a perverse way, these were clothes for connoisseurs, because it required a particular kind of mind-set to appreciate the long, sheer black or white dresses covered with huge paillettes, or the black dress embroidered with red carnations and layered over a skirt trimmed in bobbles and more of those paillettes. (Everything always with those plastic sandals.) Schoolmarm? Perhaps. But also artist's wife. Or anything where a love of craft is attached to a devil-may-care attitude.
14 September 2012
A bit bohemian, a bit badass. Suzanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro started off their show trying to steer a folk-y Slavic inspiration into edgier, more modern territory. At its most basic, their solution could be summed up as "just add pleather." The first look out was a rich scarf-y floral-print top paneled with black synthetic leather and tucked into a glossy dirndl in the same stuff.But a Clements show is never one-note. A crucial element to the mix-mastery was the color-blocked intarsia cashmeres, which were once a signature item beloved by the label's fans. They recently returned to them with a big push in the newly relaunched men's and women's pre-fall collections, both shown last month. In fact, many of the hip-length or longer cardies were actually from the men's collection. (They're expanding the range of men's sizes in order to effectively make it unisex.) The sweaters' bright geometry informed the show's eighties New Wave look, while their slouch added a menswear swagger to great-looking wide, hip-slung trousers.In all, there was a sense of newness here where the last three collections felt like they had more of a continuous thread. But the shift wasn't entirely smooth. Piece by piece, there was a lot to win new fans and please loyalists, but as a whole there was something that felt less exquisitely rendered than you expect. Blame it on growing pains. There's more clicking and whirring than ever in the house of Clements Ribeiro, and that includes a new Web site, which went live just yesterday. "I'm trying to make it as un-corporate as possible," said Clements. "It's going to be my mini-magazine."
17 February 2012
Inacio Ribeiro was reading anEconomistarticle on the Rorschach test and, voilà, there was the genesis of Clements Ribeiro's first pre-fall collection. "We wanted to use floral and damask prints but not in the usual way. The inkblot pattern provided a perfect solution," he said in his Notting Hill home-cum-showroom. His wife, Suzanne Clements, then added a series of blurred vertical colors that blended into the inkblot, an idea inspired by the artist Gerhard Richter. The results were textbook CR: eye-popping, finely crafted, and a touch on the bonkers side. "My muse this season was a Palm Springs hostess—a sort of kooky Audrey Hepburn carrying around a tray of canapés with a cigarette holder, a whiskey on the go, and upswept hair," added Ribeiro. "I guess Julianne Moore's character in Tom Ford'sA Single Manis as close as it gets."Ribeiro and Clements love a special touch: A military coat would have been utilitarian had it not been for the crystals that replaced traditional cording, and a delicate "two-sided" cashmere vest—the front was buttoned, the back a deep V—offset mannish trousers. But nothing was more special than a white lace dress with eyelash fringe, black silk lining, and jumbo iridescent sequins at the neckline that produced a slightly 3-D effect. Stylists, take note: looking for an Oscars luncheon dress? Start here.
19 January 2012
A Clements Ribeiro show is always a glimpse into the deeply serious yet dreamy and creative minds of Suzanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro. For Spring it was one better: a glimpse into their studio-slash-home. "It's kind of a journey through our house," Clements said backstage. "There's toile de Jouy. We have lots of botanical pressed things, lots of plants, lace curtains."The close-at-hand inspiration didn't make for an enormous leap, but an evolution of ideas the designers have been pondering over a couple of seasons. That long midi silhouette to the calf became slimmer and primmer, the latter unavoidable when you're dealing with faded-wallpaper florals and lace. But something like a bright intarsia blocked twinset and striped lace pencil skirt was still far from being staid.The duo seems to be in a happy and confident place. They know their strengths, and they're sticking to them. Topping that list: their techno-romantic digital prints. They figured heavily in the new pull-on-and-go athletic direction here of slim, printed silk pants and shorts with (chic) elastic waistbands and matching racerback tanks and boxy tees. "It's just what I'm in the mood for wearing," said Clements, sporting a version of the look from a recent collaboration with the Museum of Everything. That sort of easy separate is never a bad idea when you're looking to broaden sales. Still, pieces like a top with two florals engineered to look like raglan sleeves didn't seem like a cheap ploy to cash in. The show ended on a high note with a twisty op-art print thrown into the sweet mix: It had shades ofAlice in Wonderland. Well, there's one girl who figured out that there's no place like home.
16 September 2011
Last December, Nicole Kidman wore a Clements Ribeiro Spring 2011 dress to the New York premiere ofRabbit Hole, and just over a week ago, youngHarry Potteractress Bonnie Wright did the same at the BAFTAs. These red-carpet moments, said Suzanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro yesterday in a preview, are the fruits of showing on the runway, which they very reluctantly did for the first time after a long absence last season. "When we stopped, the idea of going back was really overwhelming," said Clements. "We thought once we fall into that hole, we'll never get back out again." Added Ribeiro: "Another thing is that the Internet is a major factor. For better or for worse, we're here."Mostly better, really. Their second appearance on the schedule enjoyed a less tentative attendance than Spring. And the collection, which they named Romance Darkly, evolved and enriched the very chic, long, midi-hem silhouette (this time lengthened further by stacked wooden platforms from Charlotte Olympia) that they began to explore last season. "We don't want to mess too much with cuts," said Ribeiro. "We are fabric and texture people."They thrill over a pattern in which a seventeenth-century damask dissolves into an ocelot photo print, and they delight in the blink-and-miss-it ombré effect of sequins on cashmere twinsets that darken subtly from bottom to top. That haze and gradation imparted the clothes with a kind of magical quality. The magic turned dark at the end as prints gave way to all-black lacquered lace, brocade, and jacquard, as well as Victorian jet beading with Moorish motifs. Remove the distraction of those less-than-exquisite lace tights—a styling, not designing, slipup—and it all made you hope that this talented prodigal duo really is here to stay.
18 February 2011
"After our last show, we swore we'd never do shows again," Suzanne Clements said backstage before she and Inacio Ribeiro made their return to the runway. That last show was five years ago, and since then this talented husband-and-wife design duo with the charming twin fortes of knits and prints has struggled to find the best way to navigate the fashion system. They love what they do, and they don't cut corners. (Take the white piqué jacquard that they cajoled an ancient Lyonnaise mill into making especially for them, seen here in a little white suit.) And for designers like these who don't have a deep-pocketed backer, the expense and stress of mounting a runway show doesn't always seem logical.Still, as highly debated as its validity and future might be, the runway show remains the most effective way to get your brand a lot of buzz or, quite simply, to get a lot of hopefully covetous eyeballs on your clothes. "We were missing a lot of the people that needed to see it," Ribeiro said.Today's message was precise and clear as a bell. First: a silhouette where every element—the clean-cut clothes with very short or very long hems, the platform shoes, the Jean-Paul Goude-inspired snorkel topknots—worked toward a long and longer line. And onto that frame, Clements and Ribeiro added a big floral scarf print that seemed quite traditional, until you noticed its ombré dissolve from one color into another, the magical result of digital manipulation. Knits stuck to the designers' stripey signature; some came with a sequined or intarsia corsage and were paired with straight-cut floral skirts. It all came together for a happy vision that showed the designers at their best. This might have been a reluctant return, but it was a very welcome one.
20 September 2010
Suzanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro called their new collection "Haute Bohemia" in honor of their favorite moment from the seventies, when Yves Saint Laurent and the Parisian jeunesse dorée were adding new colors to decadence. It was specifically YSL's epochal Russian moment that Clements Ribeiro picked up on. "Opulence for day-to-day life," was how Inacio described it. So there was a luxe overload of print, embroidery, and appliqué in the clothes, but always with a slightly eccentric English ease.The collection's definitive outfit was probably a languid cardigan appliquéd with crystal embroidery, layered over a paisley blouse and gilded jacquard pants tucked into Cossack boots. On paper, it reads as extravagantly costumey, but in the flesh the extravagance had a winningly casual quality, just like the style of Loulou de la Falaise, the YSL muse who has always been Clements Ribeiro's benchmark. In fact, they named one look after her. A few menswear looks inspired by the fellows in the YSL gang offered a semi-respite from the richness. There was a navy peacoat, for instance, and a fur-collared camel coat, plus one in gray flannel whose frogged closing was scarcely less ornate than the detailing on a little gay hussar jacket in black astrakhan wool. Suzanne and Inacio built their old business on an idiosyncratic combination of seductive luxury and reassuring ease. It looks like history is about to repeat.
20 February 2010
The addition of two British Blue Shorthair cats to the household of Suzanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro inspired a feline theme for the couple's comeback presentation. Shapes were shift-simple; fabrics were luxe but light (Smedley Sea Island cotton was introduced as an alternative to the label's signature cashmere). But the essence of the collection was its charming embellishment: the print composed of Warhol cats, the appliqué that looked like wicked cartoon kitties from the fifties. The cats' eyes were edged in zippers, dramatic on a pink cardigan. The same zippers were used with pearls to refashion the cashmere Union Jack sweater that is a Clements Ribeiro classic, and with organza to re-create abstract Japanese landscapes on a white gazar dress. The play between soft and hard was seductive. After a period of professional confusion, Clements and Ribeiro are now producing their clothes in the same Brittany factory that makes Chanel and YSL. Was it too obvious to assume a Breton edge to the striped dress with the sailor buttons, or the cardigans that closed with fisherman's toggles? Clements thought so. Her own predilection is for the "skewiff" glamour of the fallen aristo. And such a creature would surely find much to please her in Clements Ribeiro's collection for ultrachic cat ladies.
21 September 2009
When manufacturing problems hit them this summer after they lost their licensee, Suzanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro scarcely missed a beat. For spring, they regrouped, all kinds of friends rallied round, and with a lot of goodwill and determination, they got their show on the road again in two weeks flat. "In a way, we've gone full circle, back to where we started," said Clements. "I actually enjoyed the fact that we had to pare down and concentrate on 19 looks."Any coincidence that there were circle motifs on their signature cashmere sweaters? The couple didn't say, but their cute, crisp summer wardrobe of printed cotton coats, A-line tops, shorts, and easy, pull-on dresses betrayed no signs of the stress of the past few months. They took a folksy woodcut print from their home, applied it to coats and bags, and played with stripes (another C.R.-ism) on luxurious football sweaters, cleverly pieced clamdiggers, and neat dresses. With the playful addition of vinyl-and-rubber cut-out flowers clustered on floppy hats, appliquéd to dresses, or made into necklaces, the collection indeed recaptured the charm of their earliest shows.The difference now is that Clements Ribeiro has evolved into a brand proposition, complete with great shoes and bags. All the designers need is an investor inspired enough to see how those elements can be leveraged into an interesting business. And if it means that the ready-to-wear stays small and the accessories go major, maybe that's the route forward they needed to take all along.
18 September 2005
It was Frida Kahlo from topknot to wedge platform toe at Clements Ribeiro, that is except for the merciful omission of the monobrow. It's not hard to see why the couple glanced Frida's way. Inacio Ribeiro is himself South American by birth, and in any case, an arty-crafty version of the forties has always suited the CR duo. So, for fall, it was (as ever) all about a floral vintage-look dress, skirts with flowers appliquéd in tape, and a few windowpane-check tweeds (seasonally inspired by Kahlo's lover, Diego Rivera).Clements Ribeiro are practiced at doing this sort of thing and know well how to turn out a pretty, non-tarty party number (this season it was a peach chiffon flapper dress with spangle-edged ruffles). What's new is the way the couple have been steadily building their core business into a brand that now encompasses leather goods and fur. The huge wedge butterfly-decorated sandals, high-heel Mexicana boots, chunky bags, and a feathered fox coat testified to that.
13 February 2005
There are times when inspirational program notes can put you off a show before it even starts. As, for example, when Clements Ribeiro wrote, "We have never been to India," in the notes for their spring presentation, which they apparently wove together by dreaming up an Edwardian lady botanist/explorer who "got stuck in India" on her travels. Turned out, however, that this intelligence contributed only a minimal insight into the clothes on the runway.Without a sari or a bustle in sight, this was essentially just another episode in the development of the striped cashmere sweaters and loose decorative dresses on which Clements Ribeiro have built their reputation. Putting aside the high-concept storytelling, it's possible to see how skilled this husband-and-wife team are at steering their look in the seasonal direction. Now, with forties printed dresses, bunchily pleated washed-brocade skirts, and crewel-work appliquéd tops, they're sailing along somewhere in the same waters as Prada and Marni—but with splashes of vivid color all their own. In addition, the couple have added ballast to their steadily growing business with the addition of a shoe line—gutsy platforms and wedges that give creative vent to Suzanne Clements' mania for footwear—and a relaunched collection of bags.
19 September 2004
Clements Ribeiro has always designed into the eclectic, decorative, nostalgic way of dressing the duo calls "clunky couture." Now, with the fashion mood swinging distinctly in its direction, the husband and wife team has come up with a great-looking take on glam eccentricity.The first model set the tone, in a scrappy fox shrug, dippy dress patchworked from circus print and polka dots, and a smearing of emerald eye shadow. Part YSL forties collection, part King's Road glamorette, she looked like a vision of the mad, imaginative way young London girls put themselves together in the early seventies. With signature patterned cashmeres, coats in leopard spot or appliquéd with flowers, and a slew of pretty, undone party dresses, it looked like a great way to get that requisite deranged-decadent look for fall. "I just felt it's time to do something more opulent and gorgeous," said Suzanne Clements, who said she and her husband, Inacio Ribeiro, had been inspired by that classic documentary of aristocratic eccentricity,Grey Gardens.
15 February 2004
Clements Ribeiro channeled the season’s twin themes—frilly vintage dresses and sailor-girl styling—through a séance with Wallis Simpson in her Cap Ferrat incarnation. Mrs. Simpson-gone-kicky wasn’t a bad solution for reminding the audience of what the duo does best: striped cashmeres (the foundation of their business) and the reinterpretations of ladylike dressing, or what they call “clunky couture.”The nautical stripes came in red-and-white sweaters and in chevrons of blue and white on neat, knee-length cashmere dresses. These were worn with summery faux-tweedy shorts, jackets, and trenches made out of painted linen, the models tottering on playful printed platforms. References to Simpson’s taste for Elsa Schiaparelli’s surrealist creations and her obsession with Cartier jewels were found in the circus-theme embroideries on burlap jackets, the patterns of hands and birds on silk or chiffon dresses, and the naïve sequin brooches in the shape of dragonflies.To their credit, the husband-and-wife team knows how to negotiate fashion history in a way that never looks overearnest. Their offhand way of dealing with prettiness and print—along with some excellent striped beach bags—made their collection a happy, nonchallenging addition to the outlook for summer.
23 September 2003
Showing in their hometown for the first time since September 2001, Clements Ribeiro was warmly welcomed back to London as a small sign that Paris is not, perhaps, the absolute pinnacle of designer ambition. They made their comeback, however, whistling a Frenchified tune, inspired by Jane Birkin and the inevitable ’60s. That meant an opening of a little cream jumper dress over a gray turtleneck, a princess-line tweed coat and an oversize striped cashmere sweater masquerading as a dress. Clearly, thejeune-filleParisian mood of their Cacharel consultancy has left its mark.Suzanne Clements said that the duo’s decision to show in Paris had been a purely pragmatic move—to get seen in the season of the 9/11 crisis—and that the reason for their return was to give her and her husband, Inacio Ribeiro, more time between staging their own presentation and the Cacharel collection. The trouble is that, as fashion moves on at its breakneck pace, you don’t ever get to go back to where you started from.Clements Ribeiro shone at the moment when cashmere knitwear was reborn as a fashion vehicle. Their infinitely varied striped or wittily patterned sweaters virtually redefined the category, beginning a worldwide economic cycle that peaked at the turn of the millennium. Wisely, they are still turning out the knits that made their name, in pale pastel patterns and variously banded stripes, but it’s hard to recapture the original excitement. Instead, the pair concentrated on Bermuda-shorts suits, swirly multicolor prints and high-waisted A-line frocks and coats. It went with the flow of the trend nicely enough, but it didn’t chart any new territory.
16 February 2003
Clements Ribeiro's hand-crafty, sweetly eccentric collections have been one of the highlights of the London shows since the mid-90's. But the stakes have now been raised for the young duo, who are showing their own collection in Paris, as well as having taken the creative reins at Cacharel. Like all independent designers they face, not just the pressure to stun people with their originality, but the toughest financial climate in years to boot.It was a shame, then, to see this show fall several notches short of the creativity benchmark set by Paris thus far. Clements Ribeiro said they'd been inspired byLord of the Rings, which meant they'd followed the folkloric path already trodden by hordes of designers this season. They did picture-book flower appliqués sewn on to sweats, track tops, coats and skirts with blanket stitching. They got into pleating in a big way, in print skirts and plisse tops, and worked a new form of appliqué by cutting out raw-edged satin flowers and hand-sewing them to georgette. A small flash of their pioneering talent showed itself in cashmere knits with a version of their signature stripes done in bands of folky pattern. Shoes and boots featuring cut-out leaves of metallic leather were eyecatchingly sexy. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to suppress the feeling that Paris expects more of them than this.
9 March 2002
Referencing "The St. Tropez of Veruschka and Jane Birkin, San Francisco's Summer of Love and the London of Bianca and Mick Jagger," Clements Ribeiro traveled back to the days of haute bohemia with diagonal-panel peace-and-love skirts, off-the-shoulder prairie tops and ruffle-cascade chiffon dresses. Though these hippie classics have become overly familiar of late, several of Clements Ribeiro's pieces had verve to spare. There was a great fringed poncho dress, several naively embroidered skirts and jeans, and a series of star-studded, sporty cashmere sweaters.Rounding out the equation were lavishly fringed sandals and totes—the first installments in Clements Ribeiro's just-launched accessories line.
6 October 2001
Clements Ribeiro can normally be relied on to deliver chic and accessible clothes with an understated edge. This season, however, the duo aimed for a racier look, with decidedly mixed results.Individual pieces worked just fine: A couple of bright rugby shirts spoke of casual cool; a corduroy military jacket with a drawstring waist looked great on Alek Wek. Polka-dotted turtlenecks were lighthearted and sweet, while slim trousers, pencil skirts and paillette-front tops remained sharp and to the point. It's a shame the designers didn't stay on that track: A series of leopard-print bombers, overcoats and trousers looked bizarrely out of place; vampy fur vests and asymmetric fly-away dresses failed to make a forceful statement.By attempting to cover too much ground, Clements Ribeiro's collection lost much of its focus.
19 February 2001
If anyone had any doubts that the design team of Inacio Ribeiro and Suzanne Clements could move beyond dainty cashmere sweaters, this collection ought to dispel them. The couple's Spring show could be best described as sweet and vicious, pairing feminine, delicate looks with hard-edged, punk-inspired ensembles.Draping and gathering, a key element this season, showed up on floral-printed dolman-sleeved tops and billowy, mercilessly short dresses. Blazers were sharply nipped and strong-shouldered, worn with black, unforgiving fitted trousers, eyelet-studded belts and vertiginous heels. Formerly innocent gingham prints were also given a makeover: a translucent, one-shoulder checker dress looked dangerously sexy. Even more overtly brazen looks included a rugby shirt with a black bikini bottom and several mesh tops that left practically nothing to the imagination.The collection was certainly a daring one for Clements Ribeiro, and in less capable hands it may have veered toward the vulgar. As it turned out, it was a success.
24 September 2000
Even under the worldwide onslaught of Super-Chic Chic, Clements Ribeiro prefer to go their own, super-decorated way. Good for them—I like designers who stay true to themselves. That is not to say that Suzanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro don't have their own, very quirky little brand of chic going. They do. It consists of soft chiffon dresses beaded with tarnished siver sequins, little sweater sets in glittery stripes or polka dots, distressed tartan skirt suits, beautifully printed silk blouses with wonderfully billowy '70s-style sleeves, and wool coats printed with giant, glittery polka dots. Their take on the suit was as original as ever—a cropped jacket with puffy sleeves and cropped trousers, or a bow-necked jacket with a slim skirt.Clements Ribeiro's use of color is always interesting, and this time the hit combination was lemon and camel. Worn as a sharp little camel coat with lemon dress and hat, this look was the very picture of chic, London-style.
15 February 2000
"It's all about dots," said Inacio Ribeiro, who designs with his wife Suzanne Clements, of his collection. The first look out on the runway—a floaty yellow chiffon dress covered with multicolored dots and worn over a dotted bikini—was a strong opening for the collection. There were to-die-for lily-print coats, paisley chiffon skirts decorated with cellophane discs, lean trousers tied at the waist with airy chiffon bows and the most original draped sequin tops. And no one will be able to resist the latest Clements cashmere—a twinset combining chocolate and pistachio stripes, which was shown with cropped trousers in that divine pink and peppermint lily print.
21 September 1999