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| CREATIVE: |
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| SIMON FOXTON |
| THE ARCHITECT OF SPORTSWEAR AS WE KNOW IT |
FreshBritain | Glenn Kitson | Antony Crook |
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IT IS AN UNSPOKEN TRUTH THAT MANY OF THE PRODUCTS MADE BY PERFORMANCE BRANDS
ARE NEVER WORN FOR THEIR END USE, BUT WORN AS A FASHION STATEMENT.
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This “truth” in the last decade has helped fuel the global rise of outdoor performance brands, such as The North Face, Patagonia and
Arc’teryx. This convention began with the rise of the performance sports brands’ Nike, adidas and Reebok a decade or so earlier. The rise
of the performance sports brands would not have been possible without the general shift of performance sportswear being worn by the
masses as casual wear. This paradigm shift in consumption behaviour happened in the 1980s.
We believe it started when one stylist broke the mould. It was in the groundbreaking shoots in the iconic style magazine i-D, when Simon
Foxton was the first to style performance sportswear in fashion shoots. The attitudes to sportswear he revolutionised in the early 1980s
are now the prevailing conventions of the fashion establishment now.
Without the likes of Simon Foxton, today’s world of performance manufacture would look very different.
A native of the North East of England, Simon Foxton graduated from the famed Central Saint Martins School of Art in 1983. Initially setting
up his own design label, he was soon working as a stylist for cult magazine i-D. This was at a time when stylists were almost unheard of.
Pioneering work on behalf of publications such as The Face, Arena and GQ Style led him to collaborate with some of the most celebrated
brands in the world. In particular, Simon’s work for Stone Island has attracted a multitude of plaudits, though his typical Northern
self-awareness leads him to play this down.
Simon himself only underplays his pivotal place in the lineage of sportswear. His modesty is an admirable hallmark, especially for
someone who has such a lot to be proud of. Glenn Kitson went to interview him. “Don’t expect any gold today” said Simon,
characteristically; this modest streak is what sets Simon apart.
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PART [1/2]
GLENN KITSON: We just want to know how you work with
brands, how you help present them and how you develop
concepts with them? Can we start with how you got involved in
the industry?
SIMON FOXTON: I came down to London in 1979 and studied at
Central Saint Martins School of Art. I did a foundation course
and then a BA in Fashion. I left there in 1983 and started my
own design company; a label called Bazooka and then followed
this up with some freelance design. I then kind of drifted into
styling, some friends from college were at i-D and having no
previous burning desire to do it I found myself involved with
styling and it went on from there. By chance I was asked to style
some sort of brochure/catalogue from Levis in the late 80s and
became quite friendly with the marketing director. He asked me
if I would come in and talk to them and their sales teams about
trends. I suppose I was quite trendy at the time [laughs] and
that’s how I got into the whole business of consulting. I worked
with Levis UK for quite a while after that and it was a big part
of my career.
GK: I remember Levis campaigns back then, there was a lot of
Americana?
SF: Well it was very much about their heritage. It was about
their history. It was about nostalgia, harking back to the 50s
and finding that authenticity.
GK: Similar to the ‘heritage’ menswear trend these past few
years?
SF: Yes, absolutely. Recently, it is very much a trend but
back then it was all-pervasive. So I worked at Levis for 6 or 7
years and it kept me very busy. I did all their point of sale and
printed stuff. I didn’t do much advertising but did work on a few
campaigns but it was mostly below the line stuff. Following that
I consulted with different brands until I came to Stone Island.
GK: And throughout that period you were working for i-D?
SF: Yes, I started at i-D in '84 or '85. I’m not sure what my
title is there now... consultant? Contributing fashion editor?
Something like that. But i-D is kind of where my home is, as
it was. They have been very good with me and let me get
away with quite a bit over the years. It is a magazine that I
understand and that I grew up with. However, I don’t just shoot
for them exclusively, I will shoot for whoever asks me to.
GK: Who were your contemporaries around that time?
SF: In the 80s? With the whole job of being a stylist I never
really knew what it was, Caryn Franklin asked me if I would do
some styling but I really didn’t understand what she meant.
There weren’t that many stylists, there were people like
Ray Petri and myself and Judy Blame and we kind of made
it up. Ray was older than I was and I’m not trying to sound
as if I’m lumping myself in with him but we were definitely
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contemporaries. It felt like a very inventive time, there was a
lot going on so I think although there weren’t a lot of 'stylists'
there were a lot of stylish people doing stylistic things. It felt
a good time to be around in terms of invention, it was a very
creative period.
GK: Do you think that it is as a result of there being a decline in
more traditional lines of work, in industry and so on?
SF: That was partly it but I put it down to a number of
influences, we had come through punk and suddenly it had
freed us up to do what we want with clothes and make our own
and customise things. Then it moved into the New Romantic
scene. You have to remember that the early 80s was still very
austere and people felt the need to express themselves. When
I think back to how London was when I first moved down it was
nothing like it is now, there was no 'sitting outside and sipping
cappuccinos’ it was quite a bleak place. Everything looked a bit
rubbish [laughs].
I am always aware that when I talk about it I can easily sound
like I am glorifying my youth and looking at it through rose
tinted spectacles but I am very aware now how privileged I am
to have lived and been part of that scene then. Of course when
you’re young you think it’s normal but it was very exciting,
everyone was dressing up and experimenting and it was such
a hotbed of ideas. There were also some very talented people
that came out of that whole scene. It seems to have lasted the
test of time. I am aware that a lot of the younger people I work
with view it as this golden age but it really wasn’t, there was a
lot wrong with it but I am happy to have been part of it.
GK: This time was the first time sportswear became part of the
fashion scene?
SF: Yes, with the sportswear thing I had always dressed like
that when I first came down to college and I had picked it from
the gay scene, which played a big part in the 1970s. Sportswear
was one element of that whole dressing up phase, people took
bits of sportswear, bits of workwear, so it was all about picking
and choosing and making something new. It’s weird looking
back now when sportswear is so ubiquitous that it really wasn’t
so popular back then. I remember buying a pair of trainers and
it was quite a big thing.
GK: I remember when you had to buy your trainers in the same
type of shops you bought shin pads or shuttlecocks.
SF: Absolutely! It was your local sports shop. I picked up on the
whole sportswear thing quite early but I was certainly not the
inventor of it! [laughs]
GK: You are known for it.
SF: I definitely used it. For my final collection at St. Martins I
mixed suiting with trainers but again it’s just how my mates
and I were dressing at the time. And eventually it crossed over
but it was going to anyway. I can’t take credit for it!
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Levi's, 2009 (clmus.com)
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PART [2/2]
GK: You briefly touched on trends earlier and I read
somewhere that you prefer concepts as opposed to fashion?
SF: I’ve never considered myself to be a ‘fashion stylist’. I am
always wary of talking about this, as I don’t want to do myself
out of any work. You know, fashion is fabulous and I love seeing
what people are wearing but I don’t know whether it’s the
‘northern-ness’ in me but I think it’s something to do with not
agreeing with the in built obsoleteness of fashion where
something is right for six months and then suddenly wrong.
There’s a quote that says ‘a thing of beauty is a joy forever’.
If something is good, then it should be good forever. I can’t hold
with the trend thing so I avoid things that are of the moment or
trendy. As a result of this, when I look back on my work, it
doesn’t make me shudder and I can still enjoy it.
I have to use fashion because that is what is available to me to
make the images that I want t o do but my photo shoots are
about concepts and ideas and people, they are not about the
latest trouser length or collar shape. This isn’t what I am about,
hence why I never get asked to do many fashion shows
[smiles].
GK: And as a result, you work with a brand like Stone Island.
SF: Yes, absolutely. Stone Island isn’t a fashion brand. It’s
a menswear brand and a sports brand but it’s not about
trends. We have recently shot a lot of their archive for their
30-year book and looking at some of their product from the
80s and onwards, it’s amazing and just as relevant today.
There’s a thread running right the way through their garments,
it’s about fabric technology and the dying processes and
military details and also the quality that runs through it, it is
never shoddy.
GK: How do you find working with Stone Island and developing
concepts and how to present that brand, could you talk us
through the process a little?
SF: Well, I have to add that with Stone Island it is not just me,
I work with my partner Nick Griffiths and he and I work on it
together. We approach Stone Island with an awareness of
their heritage and what they had done before and how they
presented it. Because they don’t want to be perceived as a
fashion brand they had never gone down the road of photo
shoots so they had always done still life photography and
focused on the product. Their brief to us was that they
wanted to update things and begin to appeal to a younger
audience. They still had their die-hard fans; people who had
been with them since the 80s but these people were all
becoming middle-aged men now.
Consequently it was starting to be perceived as a middle-
aged brand. Nick and I had a look at this and quickly realised
that garments always look better when worn than stuck on a
peg, but we didn’t want to add any ‘lifestyle’ to it as that
would be too much of a statement and it would become too
fashion. If you had people in an environment or reacting against
one another, it immediately becomes about the picture so the
idea for us was to show the product being worn but treated
as if you were photographing a car or a fridge so its
completely emotionless. You see the model wearing it but
the focus is on the product itself and to shoot it in a very
straightforward flat way. This result makes it very factual.
Stone Island loved the idea and saw that it worked.
We’ve done this for 7 or 8 seasons now and it has worked
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very well, in fact we’ve noticed it being imitated quite a bit, which
is very flattering.
Each season we change the casting, we’ve also shot the odd
celebrity but we never flag that up because it's just about
different guys wearing the garments and looking good. Certainly
in the UK we see a lot younger people wearing it now, which is
very satisfying.
GK: How did you develop this relationship with Stone Island?
SF: A former colleague who began working for the brand put
me forward for it. I had been doing some work for another
Italian brand, Mandarina Duck who used to make luggage
but began to develop an apparel line. She contacted me and
asked me if we would be interested in meeting Stone Island.
So we met and we chatted and began to see how the
relationship would work. We got our foot in the door with some
minor projects, window displays or something, I can’t
remember but I think they were testing us to see how we got
on but it seemed to click. So the question of advertising came
up and we came up with some ideas for them, which they
loved.
Since then we have got involved with so many other areas of the
brand, everything from advertising to brochures to online and
in store.
GK: So it’s much more than just styling?
SF: Yes, anything visual we generally have some sort of say.
We also work with the design team giving input into colour ideas
and so on, and we put together mood boards for them. So it’s
all encompassing.
Working with Stone Island has really spoiled us, as it’s difficult
to imagine working for anyone else. They really are an amazing
brand, you really believe in the product. It has integrity and the
job is very special. One minute we are doing kids shoots and
the next minute exhibitions or books, it keeps us busy. It’s a
dream job.
GK: So finally, what are your thoughts on the current menswear
market now and how it is presented?
SF: This is where I come unstuck, as I really don’t know. I don’t
pore over magazines or websites. If I see something I like then
great but I am not that aware of the menswear market.
Just out of interest, what do you make of it?
GK: Well, walking around London I get bored of that classic
‘British’ look that has developed. Neat turn ups on your denim,
satchel, neat haircut, maybe a beard. It’s like style by numbers.
SF: Yes, I have noticed a lot of this too, ‘nippy’ tweed jacket,
maybe or loafer or red wing. Yes, I agree but its also kind of
interesting as there is far more of a definite ‘look’. The 80s were
all over the place as everyone did their own thing, the 90s… I
can’t even remember the 90s. I hate the 90s! [laughs]. It was
bland and all about power dressing. The last decade became
more fun but I have noticed this uniformity of look and maybe it
has something to do with the advent of the Internet? There are
still trendy experimentalists in London around Dalston and
those areas, but again they are almost formulaic trendy and
experimental. It seems to be within certain parameters but
then you also get that smart young man around town. Maybe it’s
always been a little style by numbers and we are just aware
of it now? Maybe smart young lads in the 60s were thought
of as the same? I mean it’s not a bad look.
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With the rise of the Internet and social media, people are consuming trends and fashion more readily than ever before. It’s refreshing to
speak to someone who purposely sits outside that sphere and yet inadvertently contributes to it so strongly. Simon is a beacon of
originality but what makes him stand out even more so is the humility and honesty with which he conducts his craft. His knowledge is
second to none and despite ever evolving technology advances he remains as inspiring as ever.
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i-D Magazine, 1991 (dazeddigital.com)
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Stone lsland
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i-D Magazine, (clmus.com)
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