subscribe to style file blog via RSSExtra, Extra: Preen’s New Bags
February 3, 2009 2:30 pm
Some brands are tortoises. Others are hares. Preen is incontrovertibly—and in the best way possible—the former. Over the past dozen years, Preen designers Thea Bregazzi and Justin Thornton have taken an incrementalist approach as they’ve gone from hawking togs at the Portobello Arcade to selling out their Power dress on Net-a-Porter. Now the designers are making the leap into accessories, launching a range of bags for Spring 2009. True to their tortoise-y nature, however, Bregazzi and Thornton are getting ahead, rather than getting ahead of themselves: There are a modest four styles in Preen’s debut bag collection, all of which have been snapped up by Selfridges and Harrods in the U.K. (They’ll also be available at forwardfoward.com and ASOS.com.) “Our intention is to expand the range slowly,” says Thornton. “We’ll be adding a few extra styles for Fall, but we really hope to keep things tight.” The focus for now, he adds, is on playing with the bags’ fabrications and finishes and thinking about ways to update details on the Quatro (pictured above at left), $750, and the Roxy (on the right), $538, the two styles that will be recurring staples. Not that Bregazzi and Thornton don’t have a little time left over for plotting Preen’s next move. “Shoes,” says Thornton. “But we’ve got to build on the bags first.” Slow and steady wins the race.
tags: Harrods, Justin Thornton, Preen, Selfridges, Thea Bregazzi
