The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Female tailor cuts a dash on Savile Row Posted: 12 Jan 2014 10:19 PM PST Wearing a fashionable grey jumpsuit and Dr Marten boots, the 29-year-old coat maker at Henry Poole and Co is the poster girl of a new generation breathing fresh energy into the traditional craft. Two of her coats were displayed at men's fashion week in London this week as part of a showcase of garments from Savile Row, the London street which has long been a by-word for menswear but now faces an uncertain future. Last year Squires won the Golden Shears, the Oscars of Britain's tailoring world, for a blue-velvet frock coat and checked jodhpurs. She is still basking in the success, although most of her commissions are far more conservative – orders for a $3,300 (RM11,000) suit jacket and a smoking jacket are among those piled up on a shelf above her bench. "Every job you get is different. You never know what you're going to get when you get the parcel out," she tells AFP. Squires pulls down a bundle of pieces of cloth cut to the customer's exact specifications in the shop upstairs, and a ticket describing what he wants. "It's a two-button, he's having an out-breast pocket, flaps on his pockets, side slips and not vents," she reads. "This is quite a light cloth, a 10oz or 11oz. It's a navy hopsack flannel – this will come up really nicely with all the pressing and steaming, you can get a really nice shape." Squires is one of a handful of new recruits working at Henry Poole, which was established in 1806, and among a growing number of women training on Savile Row. Of the estimated 30 coat making diplomas handed out by the trade association Savile Row Bespoke over the last four years, at least 20 have gone to women. It's an encouraging sign of an industry renewing itself – even if at Henry Poole, some of the veterans are working on equipment that looks at least as old as they are. But the contrast between the trade and the crazy creativity of fashion week is stark. The fourth edition of London Collections: Men attracted big names such as Burberry and Tom Ford and international buyers and press from 37 countries. The collections were typically eclectic, ranging from sharp suits to polo necks and t-shirts, brightly coloured sportswear and even men's platform heels. Organisers claim the event builds on London's "unrivalled" men's fashion heritage. But while the mass menswear market is booming in Britain – market analysts Mintel suggest growth of 12 percent in the past five years – the future of the top end is less clear. "The higher end of the market has been sustained by foreign demand, particularly from China and the Far East," said Richard Perks, director of retail research at Mintel. "It's a huge export earner, it's great for marketing Britain. But it is a very rarified market." Asian investors move in There was a time when a customer would need a recommendation even to get in the door of a Savile Row tailor, but many firms have branched out into ready-to-wear and have collaborated with high-street brands. Gieves & Hawkes and Hardy Amies both showed ready to wear collections this week, although Henry Poole continues to only make bespoke garments. "We're still quite a traditional tailor and that's what people want from us," Squires says. The process of making a garment from scratch, which can take up to three months, is "a special thing – it's an experience. I think they still want that", she says. She adds optimistically: "The fashion thing – we just have to sit alongside it. There's space for both." Paul Frearson, a tailor with 50 years of experience who trained Squires, worries about the future, however, particularly as Savile Row tailors battle rising rents. "I've always been really optimistic, but I'm beginning to wonder whether or not we can sustain what we're doing," he said. Frearson noted the recent takeovers of Gieves & Hawkes, Hardy Amies and Kilgour by Hong Kong private investment company Fung Capital. "These traditional companies are now under the same umbrella – but we want individuality," he told AFP. He hopes the future lies in people like Squires and another ex-apprentice, Rory Duffy, who has now set up on his own in New York. "What we want is people like Emily to start up business, to continue the bespoke," he said. – AFP/Relaxnews, January 13, 2014. |
| High-rise urban farming: agriculture reaches for the skies Posted: 12 Jan 2014 09:20 PM PST One of the latest companies to test out the concept is global chain Whole Foods, which opened its first Brooklyn location Third and 3rd last month, featuring a 1860 square metre greenhouse on the roof. Designed, built and operated by urban agricultural specialist Gotham Greens, the project is thought to be the first commercial-sized greenhouse integrated into a supermarket. The greenhouse will produce over 200 tonnes of fresh produce, including leafy greens and tomatoes, per year, and recirculating irrigation systems will capture water for re-use. It is the second New York construction by Gotham Greens, following a 1400 square metre rooftop greenhouse built by the company in 2010. "This project takes the discussion from food miles to food footsteps," said Viraj Puri, Gotham Greens Co-Founder. "Our greenhouse will provide Whole Foods Market shoppers with access to the freshest, most delicious leafy greens, herbs and tomatoes, year-round that will be grown right above the store's produce department." Whole Foods isn't the first retailer to try out the idea; in 2012 the Rouses Market in New Orleans unveiled 'Roots on the Rooftop' - an aeroponic urban farm which grows herbs such as basil, parsley and cilantro to sell downstairs in the grocery store's main building. The 'tower garden' is a soil-free zone, with water pumped through pillars to grow the plants. "Aeroponics makes sense for the space," said Rouses Culinary Director Louis 'Jack' Treuting at the time. "It is lighter than soil-based operations, and the towers recycle water and liquid nutrients through their own reservoirs, so they're sustainable." Urban agribusinesses are becoming a truly global concept, as demonstrated by the success of the Sky Greens project in Singapore, a series of nine-meter high towers which produce fresh produce to be sold in local supermarkets. In a country which imports almost 95 percent of its fresh fruit and vegetables, the concept is revolutionary, and since the project became operational in 2012 the produce has been flying off the shelves despite costing around 10 percent more than the imported equivalents. A quirky twist on the trend can be seen in Japan, in the form of the nine storey-high corporate Pasona Group office in downtown Tokyo, which acts as a sort of vertical garden and produces food which is directly served to its employees in the staff canteen. Constructed in 2010, the building's double skin green façade reduces energy use and is also draped in foliage from strategically planted orange trees, while over 200 species of plants, vegetables and rice are grown in meeting rooms and offices throughout the building. Meanwhile Gotham Greens is planning a third rooftop greenhouse in the Queens area of the city, slated to start crop production in 2014. The concept of high-rise urban farming is a slow grower, but it might just take off. – AFP/Relaxnews, January 13, 2014. |
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