DESIGNERS
Bolongaro Trevor
Designer Name: Stuart Trevor & Kait Bolongaro
Label Name: Bolongaro Trevor
Website: www.bolongarotrevor.com
Origin: Stuart Trevor – Scotland, Kait Bolongaro – England
"We are very excited to show the new collection over in NYC and represent the Best of British - we have major plans for Bolongaro Trevor in NYC and USA and look forward to the platform and presenting our vision to our favorite neighbors, our cousins."
Background and Vision: Having spent 7 years as Head of Menswear at Reiss, Stuart Trevor founded All Saints in Oct 1994. Kait Bolongaro joined him in 1996, and they developed their vision of a totally new genre of fashion and design, creating a cool, indie, designer label with a grungy, distressed vibe. They built the business from scratch and created 15 unique, vintage inspired, industrial looking stores and an annual turnover of £13m.
They sold the company in 2005 and launched Bolongaro Trevor in 2006, which was a natural progression for them as designers - slightly older, more sophisticated and beautifully made, the new collections have a cleaner edge, blending British Victorian with vintage military and contemporary British street style - taking inspiration every season from musical sub genres such as Teddy boys, Mods, Skins, Punk, New Wave the collections are unique yet remain totally commercial and through this, the brand has successfully built up a major following with most of the coolest British actors, models, designers and bands
Signature style: Victorian Punk made in East London.
Influence: Bolongaro Trevor first look to their vintage collection, amassed over the last 20 years, for inspiration. Military and naval influences are prevalent this season - as well as inspiring the garments, frogging details, antique badges, flags and embroidery are used throughout the collection.
Original printed jackets, pants, tees and shirts inspired by the beautiful and the macabre feature heavily. New wash techniques, distressing and appliqué push the range forward. Military shirts, washed leather biker jackets and skinny blazers also play an important part for the season.
Brand Philosophy: We constantly strive to push the boundarys, we never stand still or rest on our laurels. We thrive on newness, creating the future and we are constantly inspired by our past, the present and the world that we live in. Our aim is to inspire youth to be creative, work hard and hopefully change the world and make a better place for you and for me! Never, ever give up, constantly strive to be the best - if we can achieve this much in our lives so far, anyone can!
Making it happen: In the past few years, we saw a massive increase in sales, which coincided with a bank that agreed to fund this growth and then took a year to sign it off! We realized that we could not rely on them anymore and we decided to raise the capital independently. We signed over a production, finance, and distribution to a major manufacturer, which allows us to concentrate on our strengths of design and retail. We have recently revamped our London stores and opened a further two new stores in Leeds and Westbourne Grove which are rocking, and we have plans to open a further ten stores over the next two; we intend to create the next great British designer brand.
Celebrity crush/fans: Roger Daltry – The Who. Roger wore Bolongaro Trevor for the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. He also wore a striped 'Ziggy' blazer for their 2010 Super Bowl appearance.
The Who will tour North America from November with Quadrophenia wearing Bolongaro Trevor
The Libertines for their legendary comeback gigs at Reading and Leeds
Bush - Gavin Rossdale and Chris Traynor, Depeche Mode, Kings of Leon, Kasabian, Pendulum, Placebo, Snow Patrol, Steve Aoki
What does New York City mean to you? NYC is after London, our favourite city in the world as far as design, culture, music and good times go - it’s also our first stop outside of the UK as far as expanding our business and we look forward to opening our first store here in the next few years.