Thomas Tait (Q7997)
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Thomas Tait is a fashion house from BOF.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Thomas Tait |
Thomas Tait is a fashion house from BOF. |
Statements
Thomas Taitmade the switch from his usual runway format in London to a low-key presentation at the Galerie Almine Rech in Paris this season. It’s not the first time the designer has held court in a gallery—his debut show took place in a small art space in East London—so in some ways, the exhibition-style setup brought his brand full circle.Admittedly, it’s hard to overlook the pretension of contextualizing fashion in an art milieu, yet it was a fitting way to see the new detail-heavy collection, and the majority of the pieces had a stand-alone appeal all by themselves. Tait has leaned toward a minimalist aesthetic in the past, but this season he infused some romanticism into his sleek silhouettes, starting with a sleeveless cashmere coat that was padded with down-filled panels and finished with intricate handwork. Having recently returned from a trip to Japan, the Eastern influences were even more refined than last season, when Tait started his experiments with a technique known as boro, dating back to the 17th century. One workwear-inspired jacket was made up of a complex patchwork quilt of weatherworn cotton and silk, and Tait’s version of the classic blue jean came with the same artisanal hand, and was anything but basic. That same level of time-honored intricacy showed up in the smocking of a dress with a high Victorian-style collar, though in this instance, it would have been nice to see the floaty silk chiffon on the body, and not swinging from a hanger. And artistic as the idea for the lookbook was, it would be easier to appreciate the subtleties of the looks with a more straightforward approach. Still, the fastidious textile development of the collection deserved a closer look, and would have been tough to appreciate in the blink-and-you-miss-it frenzy of a traditional show.These days the concept of loading up high fashion with a total look feels thoroughly outdated, and there’s a modern, real-world appeal to investing in a single trophy piece that will be prized for years to come. To Tait’s credit, each item in his new collection was carefully considered and special enough to warrant the spotlight.
6 March 2016
Thomas Tait’s show this afternoon was one of those odd outings that don’t seem at first to be up to much, but then accrue in force as the looks accumulate. The impact of Tait’s latest collection generated from the ways the clothes forced your engagement, whether via the play of light on assertive, multicolor crystal embellishment, or the sound made by the jewelry that dangled off of certain pieces, jangling like cat bells. The most intriguing of Tait’s stratagems to command your attention were the porthole-like openings that decorated all manner of his garments—they were like little windows for Peeping Toms to peer through, and the more Tait reiterated the motif, the more you keyed into the collection’s compelling voyeuristic tone. Tait intended that reaction: As he explained backstage after the show, he wanted these clothes to create a sense of “awkward intimacy.” Job done.Others of Tait’s engaging effects were more subtle. He was playing quite a lot with texture here, notably in his ribbed knits and his terrific jeans, with their patches of super-shiny black patent leather; other looks pulled you in with theirwabi-sabiappeal, like the frayed quilted jacket and coat, or a leather A-line skirt made from antique calfskin. Tait also used the skin in his strangest look, a heavy jumpsuit featuring a monumental pattern and exaggerated perforation down the sides. The piece was interesting on its own, but something of an outlier in the context of the rest of the show, which emphasized rather accessible silhouettes. Tait’s stovepipe skinny knit flares, for instance, ought to excite widespread demand. Ditto his ribbed knits, and the cuffed jeans and denim jacket. If Tait’s goal was to create intimacy, he nailed it in those most straightforward looks: The best way to be intimate with clothes, after all, is by wearing them.
21 September 2015
The shoe in Thomas Tait's show was a stiletto skewering a crystal ball. Was that a comment on the impossibility of prediction with this designer? After all, who can ever really tellwhat'sgoing to happen with—or to—Thomas Tait? That was a point he made very clear with his show today, the first since he scooped the first edition of the LVMH Prize: 300,000 euros and a year's worth of mentoring. It's already paid off. "The money helped me get out of trouble and catch up on production, and the mentoring found me three factories in Europe," Tait bottom-lined.But his show hardly felt like a celebration. It was more like a deadly serious statement of intent:I refuse to be a cliché. As the audience filed down stairs into the subterranean gloom of an abandoned car park off Marylebone Road, an absence was obvious. There was no baying pit of catwalk snappers. No photographers at all. (The house would supply images later.) But there was noise: a grinding industrial throb that acted as an overture to one of the most aurally stupendous soundtracks to ever bend these ears at a fashion thing. (For the record—because a record really must be kept—Frédéric Sanchez mixed "Holy Land Explosion" by Francis Kuipers, "Le Saint Guidon" by Monolithe Noir, and "Red Sex" by Vessel.) And then the models began to emerge, at first in total darkness, and then following bridges of light that lit up as they walked, kind of like the way Michael Jackson illuminated pavestones in the "Billie Jean" video. But he danced, while these women moved through the shadows at the glacial pace of some eldritch ritual. "I wanted to slow things down," Tait explained afterward. "My shows were always so fast." And that's also why he'd shed all the other hurry-up of a conventional fashion show.And so to the clothes. They loaned themselves to the darkness. Tait's not so given to talking about influences, but he did mention the photographer Gregory Crewdson, "for the way he elevates a semi-colloquial feeling into eeriness." A reference point that seemed even more fitting might have been Crewdson's kick-starter, David Lynch. One of these looks—a mink coat over a cashmere sweater and satin wrap skirt—could have been plucked from the closet of Dorothy Vallens inBlue Velvet. And Tait's appetite for exaggerating the average—a giant-collared taffeta blouse, a huge-cuffed poplin shirt, trousers that swept the floor, enormous coats that dwarfed the body, utility jackets writ über-large—felt Lynchian.
So did the collection's struggle between restraint and release. There were tight little Pleats Please moments: Micro-pleated satin printed with screen grabs from Dario Argento films contrasted with those profligate volumes. And then there was the straightforwardly fetishistic lure of fitted leather coatdresses, festooned with zippers attached to oversize ring pulls. Their underarms were lined with mink. Think that mink, pull that ring…and ponder that skewered crystal ball.
23 February 2015
Having climbed two flights of stairs in a gutted building on The Strand to be greeted by a raw concrete space covered with dust, editors were anxious, waiting for Thomas Tait's show to start. Chairs were boarded boxes, and a constant knocking and screeching screamed out of the speakers. It was like listening to nails on a chalkboard for 20 minutes straight, but it set the mood. A few people joked that they were worried about inhaling asbestos or that the structure was going to collapse. The scene was marvelously unsettling.What made Tait's show space even better was the fact that he had enlisted his Spring '15 muse, artist Georges Rousse, to transform it into one of his renowned desolate painted environments. The walls were covered in blocks of blue, red, yellow, and green. In some places, triangular slivers in a contrasting shade shot out to the floor. This all provided quite a backdrop for Tait's army of models—not to mention his collection.There's been a lot of buzz around Tait of late. In June, the 26-year-old became the first talent to win the highly competitive 300,000 euro LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers. He said that, while the cash has finally allowed him to pay some outstanding bills, it didn't have too much of an impact on his Spring lineup—he had been working on that for months before the prize was announced. Nonetheless, his show was one of the hottest tickets of the week.It was also one of the most surprising. Best known for his razor-sharp precision; immaculate tailoring; clever use of volume; and clean, almost clinical approach to design, Tait turned out a range of experimental clothes in slinky, often see-through fabrics. The first dress, a roomy midnight silk satin pullover lined with electric yellow, was simple—and pretty. Same went for a gray viscose knit dress, the fabric of which was fashioned into points that protruded from the chest and back. But a one-shouldered navy taffeta top thatrefusedto stay in place, thus exposing the model's breast, set a very different kind of tone. A slashed blue and yellow leather skirt paired with a diaphanous black mock turtleneck looked awkward. So did a series of checkerboard dresses, shirts, and skirts that were made from acid-colored silks or leathers and patches of completely transparent fabric.
As the show progressed, nearly everything became sheer, or at least, revealing, from striped filament knit tops and dresses to slinky double-faced satin gowns that fluttered as their models stormed down the runway. These strangely proportioned, see-through wares came from Tait's attempt to draw directly from Rousse's work. This literal translation of a visual is new for the designer, who usually doesn't even work with a mood board.It's thrilling that Tait is confident enough to venture so far outside of his comfort zone. But it was at the expense of the stern, flawlessly executed garments that got him noticed in the first place. Sure, you saw some of that here, particularly in his leather coats, vests, and dresses. Some fitted iterations came with half-pleated skirts and only one sleeve. Others were boxy and severe but lush. This was where Tait's strengths really shone.Backstage, Tait chuckled, "I was thinking about sexiness, which is not my territory, and that was fun." However, skin doesn't equal sex appeal. Those harlequin cutout dress numbers didn't flatter the models' bodies—rather, they restricted and exposed them simultaneously. But his flattering leather numbers? And the knife-pleated dresses with tucked, sculpted taffeta tops? He is on to something there. The kid's got a vision, he just needs to iron it out a bit.
15 September 2014
Thomas Tait debuted his first collection in the fall of 2010. Yet backstage after his latest show, he explained that he didn't want to design anything that already seemed familiar. Whereas most young designers are content to mine the space within a self-imposed bandwidth, Tait appears intent to explore any frequency that challenges him to rethink ideas about structure and femininity. This time out, the former felt assertive and the latter looked sleek. Some looks were neither, and there were a few doubters in the audience, but the designer deserves credit: His workmanship is the antithesis of attention deficit design.While jackets and coats in felted wool or satin shared the same contouring as vintage Mugler, Tait softened the strictness, sharpened the cuffs, and dissected the bodies with color inserts. Then he allowed himself to be wooed by the filmy (daresay scratchy) cling of a silk chiffon woven with Lurex. An avowed primary-color contrarian, Tait confronted red, blue, green, and ocher (his one concession) head-on, combining them into a vaguely Bauhaus arrangement that required a multistage process of stretching and re-pleating the fabric so that the motif appeared flawlessly flush. When he occasionally overworked a garment, presumably it was because he gives himself the luxury of time to consider it.Recently included on the short list of young designers for the inaugural LVMH Prize, Tait insisted that he did not let a hypothetical boost in exposure dictate the collection. He said he was surprised at how full-circle this lineup became, and he'd concluded that this personalplus ça changerevelation was reassuring. "Regardless of whether you are pushing yourself out of your box, you find familiar territory everywhere," he said. Except, of course, Tait'sterra cognitaremains among the most uncharted in fashion today.
16 February 2014
This was Thomas Tait's first shot at a pre-collection, and he really didn't want to take it. "I just didn't believe in the idea," he admitted. But something odd happened once he started designing. As he pulled out old sketches, he realized he was revisiting ideas that he'd originally left unfinished or half-baked. So the collection evolved into a kind of seedbed for the future, starting with his upcoming Fall presentation.At least that's how Tait saw it. What seemed more immediately obvious was the designer's original, tentative frame of mind, manifest in a bulky shapelessness that felt like it was waiting for definition. Maybe that will come with the Fall collection. But the aerodynamism that has characterized Tait's work in the past was boxed off, literally in the case of the big pleats that created a half skirt/half pant hybrid. What worked best were Tait's new mutations of fan faves, the oversize biker (unstiffened a little, with a new collar) and the white shirt (deeper collar, shaped sleeve).
19 January 2014
"I felt like I'd been shouting for the past few seasons," Thomas Tait said after his show today. "I wanted to do something quieter." Given that Tait held his last show in a car park and sent out looks so Formula One-inspired you could practically hear the roar of engines, it was easy to see where he was coming from. And, to be sure, his latest collection was a much more serene affair. But it was interesting to observe the ways Tait absorbed his recent obsessions with sport and performance into pretty, and indeed rather ladylike, clothes. Notably, he made great use of a paper-thin nylon, draping it around otherwise fitted tops and dresses. The look felt fresh. Elsewhere, the activewear influence was most visible in the show's varieties of anorak, the best of which were duster-length and featured parachute backs. At first, the active elements made for an odd pairing with the collection's other key motif, the brightly colored feathers that were stitched onto collars or floated out of the openings of sleeves. But a logic suggested itself: In the end, this was a show of lightness and things that take air. This time, Tait made his point sotto voce.
16 September 2013
Thomas Tait's show this evening was held in a car park near Trafalgar Square. Looked at one way, that served as an appropriate setting for his race-car-driver-themed collection. After all, racers do drive cars. As suggestive as the setting was, however, it was misleading in one important way: Whereas a parking lot is where cars go for a time-out, Tait's collection was incontrovertibly built for speed. This was a confident outing for Tait—a very focused show that interpreted racing apparel in a pretty literal way but, nevertheless, made it convincing as fashion. Tait's jumpsuits, track pants, anoraks, and color-blocked tops all reported back to his theme, but it wasn't difficult to extract pieces from the collection that could viably be worn on the street, in particular any of the array of low-slung, attitude-fronting trousers.One of his best ideas here was to make the trousers in a semitransparent nylon and show them over color-blocked leggings; that look will get a lot of editorial play, but it's also likely to diffuse and make its way into women's day-to-day wardrobes. Elsewhere, Tait had some standout looks in his quilted pieces, puffer jackets, sweatshirts, and coats with quilted ribs so thick they seemed likely to withstand bullets or a high-impact crash. And that was the intent, of course. All in all, this collection confirmed the impression made by Tait's show last season, that this indisputably talented designer had found his voice and his métier. The Tait woman, it seems, is living life on the edge—and to suit her, he's designing clothes high on adrenaline.
15 February 2013
Morning in London dawned overcast and cold today. So it wasn't exactly a pleasure to find out that Thomas Tait's 9 a.m. show was taking place outside, in the skate park below the South Bank's Queen Elizabeth Hall. But Tait, damn him, had chosen his location well: The graffiti backdrop, and indeed the chill in the air, effectively underscored his tale of alienated youth. You really got the Gus Van Sant,Paranoid Parkof it all.Let's stipulate for the record that young Tait, a Central Saint Martins alum and Dorchester Prize winner, is one of the most talented emerging designers in London. For starters, his technical skills are outstanding—witness the just-so, sloped-shoulder tailoring of this season's oversize silk coats. And each of Tait's collections, including this one, has been stocked with pieces that are compelling, sophisticated, and rigorously luxe. So why is the Thomas Tait brand so conspicuously buzz-free? You couldn't help but wonder, watching the angsty looks go by today, whether the designer was reflecting on his own, relative outsider status in the London fashion scene.If he was, then good, and Tait should keep plumbing his agita for material. More than in the past, you felt the designer's real, idiosyncratic voice coming through. That was particularly true of the simplest looks: The standout today, oddly enough, was an aggressively unassuming outfit comprised of a slouchy white tee and black shorts. The T-shirt was actually done in a superfine-gauge knit, and the shorts were something magical, a black silk pair patterned to capture the motion of a skater catching air. Here, in this plainest of ensembles, Tait found fit purpose for his meticulous material sense and remarkable skill as a patternmaker. Elsewhere, this season found Tait making a strong statement of color, a first for him. The palette was quite effective in its tart pastels, in particular the yellow he used like a highlighting pen.Overall, this collection felt like the start of something new for Tait. Although it had more than a few looks overly reverent of Céline, the general affect of the collection was unique, and belonged to Tait. Whatever he's been doing, he ought to keep doing it. Except showing outside. At least, not in February, please.
17 September 2012
Desperately seeking stability. Thomas Tait sought to battle the unease he felt as a young person starting a company through his Fall collection. Thus the solid earth of a grass runway and the appearance of rough suede and raw denim, less rarefied materials than Tait usually uses. That was half the story. The designer proclaimed this his most technically complex collection to date. The work was to merge his painstaking construction with what he called "something more obvious": those long-distance runners of the wardrobe like the varsity jacket, the white button-down shirt, the peacoat, the turtleneck.As with past collections, what stood out here were the coats with rounded shoulders and angled curved hems, all either elegantly collarless or with collars that flipped high and framed the face. He does a beautiful navy, but a moss green popped nicely, particularly paired with marigold leather trousers. It won't be surprising to see a few of his varsity jackets show up in the front row next season. In place of knit ribbing at the cuffs, hem, and neckline, he used finely pleated leather, a technique continued from last season.You could call it "obvious," but that's not entirely fair; season after season Tait maintains his vision while increasing his relevance in terms of what women want to and can wear. And he knows how to add that one certain thing to throw off his quest for perfection just so. Here it was the men's workwear gloves. "I wanted them to be big, just like Mickey Mouse hands," he explained.Speaking of vision, up until two days ago Tait's runway show was meant to be a presentation. He went rogue on the fashion calendar, dropping himself into a slot between two shows. "Thomas designs for a runway show," his publicist said by way of explanation. It apparently ruffled a few BFC feathers. What spoke volumes: Everyone still came.
18 February 2012