Tell us about the history of the ALC Man brand ...
The ALC Man brand has been around for a while. [It's the brother brand to Amanda Laird Cherry.] The company had stopped focusing on the men's side of the brand so I was brought on two years ago to focus on the menswear. I've known Amanda [Laird Cherry] since I was studying.
What is the ALC Man aesthetic?
We like the idea of avant-garde but we obviously also like to keep things accessible. So the majority of our pieces will have an element of both. We design for the thinking man.
Tell us about the latest ALC Man collection ...
For this collection we wanted to concentrate on the home town of the brand - the brand was born in Durban, specifically the Durban CBD.
If any fashion designer or student involved in fashion studied in Durban, they would know how much fun it is to go fabric shopping in town. So that's what we were most excited to focus on for this. Like standing on the sidewalk looking down at all the store fronts and seeing the signs of all of the stores, layers on layers on layers. And also the big checked shopping bags that you can get around the country - for me is quite iconic of Durban CBD.
We looked at the construction of that bag in a conceptual way, in terms of the geometry and the simplicity of it, and interpreted it in different ways. The whole idea was to create a collection that was like a welcoming home, clothes that were homely, cosy and inviting.What was the process of making this collection?
First we conceptualised the colour palette and did our fabric selection. We also did some trends-based research for silhouettes and detailing and then interpreted that in our own way. The colours for this collection were deep red, natural stones, black, white, navy and different shades of blue and green.
Something that's iconic to the brand is the use of shweshwe and this season we also focused on plaids, ticking and unbrushed fleece. We wanted to show various silhouettes so we focused on upper volume with tapered bottoms and the balance of lower volume with tailored tops.What are your favourite pieces and why?
Definitely those puffer kimonos that we had towards the end of the collection - they were put together at the last minute. By that time, we were in the thick of it and everyone was doing what they had to do and then these jackets just came out of nowhere. We didn't see them at the beginning when we started working on the range so it was really quite exciting.
What are your thoughts on South African menswear?
It's really exciting that there's a lot of focus on it now. Especially with a lot of the younger designers, everyone is doing their own thing, which is quite exciting.What are some of the highlights and challenges?
The industry is extremely diverse, so there is something for everyone. There is also plenty room for growth in the industry, which is great. However, there is still huge emphasis on international brands, which doesn't help educate the consumer about purchasing local brands.
What's next for ALC Man in 2018?
We have an exciting collaboration with local brand, Simon and Mary. We are also working hard to make our product available online in the near future and we will be back on the South African Fashion Week schedule where we will be showing our womenswear brand "Amanda Laird Cherry"...