4 posts tagged "Tammy Kane"
PPR Acquires 51 Percent of Christopher Kane
London / Paris – 15 January 2013 – PPR and Christopher Kane jointly announced today that they have signed an agreement by which PPR acquires 51 percent of the luxury designer brand “Christopher Kane” in order to develop the business in partnership with its creator, the Scottish designer Christopher Kane. 
And so the speculation finally ended. “It’s quite something,” Christopher Kane said before the announcement today. “But I think I’m going to celebrate tomorrow. It still feels surreal. I’ve been told to stay quiet for so long that I almost feel wrong talking about it.”
“So long” is, in fact, the entire year that Kane was in negotiations with PPR. First contact came from CEO François-Henri Pinault. “I guess he’s always looking out, and he wanted to meet me.” And while the huge process of business and accounts ground on over the course of the next 12 months, rumors flourished, most significantly the one that said Kane would take over from Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga, another hot PPR property. “The Balenciaga thing wasn’t a bad thing,” he conceded, “but I had to make sure I denied that straightaway so that the PPR investment in my business didn’t look like a consolation prize.”
PPR felt right to Kane from the start. “We were a six-and-a-half-year-old independent company which was very cautious about letting people in, but we got to the point where we were really looking for people with the knowledge and expertise to take the business to a bigger arena. People say, ‘PPR?’ I say, ‘Look at the portfolio. Look at the British brands, like Stella and McQueen.’ François wants to nurture the creativity that makes each business unique. He signed McQueen, and the DNA of the brand is still intact. PPR likes to take things step by step. It’s not headfirst. They want to make sure everything’s all right—and they have the patience for it.”
Now, Kane’s own step-by-steps will include the obvious retail expansion. “A shop is a dream, a real stamp of approval,” he says. There are also other logical extensions, like the leather goods he’s never been able to do. And then there’s the stuff you don’t figure in. “Even things like the running of the office during the day. We’ve had to juggle so many other things. We spent more than half the day on paperwork and e-mails, and it was when we left work that we could get creative. Now we’ll be creating 24/7. To be able to do that all the time will be such a luxury.”
Kane has already had a taste of what this intense new freedom will be like. “Even not doing Versace this season, I feel so much better. I did my pre-fall collection in two weeks. It was a great exercise, because it shows you what you can do.” That would suggest he actually responds well to pressure. “Sometimes when you’re rushed, you create your best work,” he agrees. “But it was always really rushed. Now we’ll have time to execute the ideas.” Anyway, the pressure is scarcely off. There’s the show in February, which will now draw even more attention than usual, not just to Kane but to London. The same thing happened to Alexander McQueen in another decade, but one major difference is that there’s no chance Kane will be leaving anytime in the foreseeable future.
Times have changed. Kane proves a designer can dream the grandest dreams without having to leave home (albeit an adopted one) to make them come true. “Success is so powerful,” he says. “We all want to conquer the world. And the world is our oyster with PPR. They’ve got huge resources, huge brains, and I take this as a huge compliment, and a huge security. But I just want to continue with what I’m doing.”
Best of all, the new deal restores a critical balance to Kane’s story. He’d never be where he is now without his sister Tammy, but as the business grew, she took on more and more of the practicalities and had less time for the fun stuff with her brother. “Now she’ll be with me again,” Kane says. And that’s a real happy ending.
10 Turns Ten
A decade is an even longer time in fashion years, so for its tenth anniversary, Sophia Neophitou’s 10 threw an appropriately lavish bash. “It’s miraculous that I have made my dream come true and enjoyed it for ten years,” Neophitou said at her mag’s celebration in London last night. “I hope the next ten years bring more and more fantasies and the adventures that creatively challenge me and my readers—always.”
As challenges go, there are few people in the business better equipped to provide them. The Greek goddess (above, with Roland Mouret, left, and Tim Blanks and a partygoer, right) with the throaty laugh and penchant for combining a utilitarian parka with teetering, non-utilitarian heels has worn more hats, and worked with more people, than most. Included on her CV are the titles of editor (in addition to helming 10, she edits fashion coverage for Harper’s Bazaar U.K. and Russian Vogue), creative director (of Roland Mouret and Antonio Berardi), and stylist (in which capacity she had the enviable duty of touching “those bodies”—i.e., David and Victoria Beckham, for their 10 covers). In the course of it, she’s made more than a few high-profile friends and fans, including Christopher Kane and Tammy Kane, Jonathan Saunders, Katie Hillier, Dree Hemingway, Henry Holland, Mouret, and more, all of whom packed Il Bottaccio to raise a glass and sway to three of the hottest new DJs in town: Mez (of The Neat) and Michael Hibbert and Alex Parry (of Chapel Club).
A tenth anniversary issue demands an appropriately festive cover girl, and Neophitou snagged the prize of the moment: Anna Dello Russo. The ADR cover, she explained, “celebrated everything fashion should love, has a sense of humor—after all, we aren’t brain surgeons—and a real sense of fun. Also, there is definitely a sense of being a little addicted to fashion.” 10‘s the perfect fix.
The Kane Family Celebrates
There’s east London’s now-trendy Shoreditch and then, a bit north and even farther afield, there’s Dalston—that’s where Christopher Kane keeps his studio, and where, last night, he gathered the troops for his annual, much-anticipated birthday party. The neighborhood, like Kane himself, is moving from up-and-coming to arrived. And where else can you find a great gay bar (the Dalston Superstore, last night’s venue), a 24-hour hamam, and excellent Vietnamese restaurants?
His party is very much a family-and-friends event—Kane, his mom, his aunts, and his sister and business partner, Tammy (pictured with Christopher, left), are legendarily close. His friends are, too: Lulu Kennedy and Louise Wilson both came to raise a glass, and Chris’ bestie, the award-winning hairdresser Gary Rees, even flew in from Scotland for the day. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” he said. “Chris has been my best mate forever, and, well, this lot, we just stick together, don’t we all?”
The happy host was graciously tending to his guests, pausing to tell us how busy he was, how much he was loving it, and encouraging everyone to get a drink. He wasn’t the only one celebrating. Tammy was introducing her handsome fiancé, Richard, around to the group, beaming in a rose-embroidered dress from her brother’s Spring ’10 collection. “It’s very much a new thing, we just got engaged!” she said. Looks like Chris is going to be even busier coming up with a wedding dress.
a day in the life of: tammy kane, business partner of christopher kane
Monday, September 16
6 a.m.
This is the last day we have to prepare everything before we show our Spring ’09 collection, so I’m up early. I pull on my old ripped jeans (they’re ready for the bin, really), a white baggy T-shirt, and my Christopher Kane hand-knit biker jacket (made by a woman in Inverness—only two exist!), as London has started to get chilly and it’s like a comfort blanket. I’m out the door in half an hour and I head straight to the studio, which is only a three-minute walk away. I’m paranoid about being robbed again, as we were a year ago, but when I arrive the shutters are down and the alarm is undisturbed. I would die on the spot if that happened again.
7 a.m.
After my daily morning coffee from our local Turkish bistro, I get on to my to-do lists. It’s good to have the studio to myself. I walk through the collection, taking in all the extra looks we made, and I have a moment of being really overwhelmed with what Christopher has come up with this season. I’m so proud of him.
9 a.m.
Our girls start to arrive. We have the best team of girls ever—they’re like family to us, and they skip into work because they’re so excited about being involved in the collection. I add to my to-do list to buy a gift for each and every one of them, because without their efforts and hard work we wouldn’t have a collection.
First up today—dramarama—the cloth we ordered for the underskirts, which was supposed to arrive on Saturday, has been lost in transit. We have to go with a local source, who will deliver it to our factory. They’ve promised to have 11 slipdresses ready before the end of the day. I don’t tell Christopher about this because I know he’ll freak.
Another panic: We’re invited to Downing Street for Sarah Brown’s cocktail party to celebrate London fashion week. Trust it to be the night before our show! I doubt we’ll make it, but make a point of raiding the stock room to ensure I have a back-up outfit. Luckily I have some dry cleaning here: Balenciaga pants for my white, no-tan legs, and my cashmere sequin Christopher Kane jumper with Dior boots. If I need to put it on in the cab, I can—it’s easy to wear but looks great. That jumper is just too good; it’s called the “Carine” after Carine Roitfeld.
Regardless of being unbelievably stressed and busy, I still get distracted by clothes and outfits!
10 a.m.
Russell Marsh, our casting director, arrives. Russell has worked with us from the beginning and we love working with him. He’s cast the most amazing models for the show; we decide to worry about money later and go with 36 girls. The collection is special and delicate, and we want it to be perfect.
noon
Both Paul Hanlon (hair stylist, L’Oréal) and Lucia Pieroni (makeup artist, Shiseido) rock up with a lot of suitcases of kits. We work hard on getting the right look. We want to step away from the usual hair down. After a couple of hours, the hair is superclean with some shine. It’s a bit like an alien ‘do—from the side it has a Zaha Hadid shape.
1 p.m.
We have another 15 girls to fit by 2 p.m. The factory working on our slips has a black out for a few hours and the machinists are sent home. It’s so ironic—they have made the most amazing complicated dresses, some with over 200 pattern pieces and now we can’t get 11 simples slips. Aaarrgh!!
2 p.m.
The girls come and go—and they all look amazing, but my favorite is Issa, who’s wearing a really special dress.
8:30 p.m.
We are so happy with how things are looking. The day flies by, and before I know it, it’s 8:30 at night! I realize we’ve missed the Downing Street party. We’ve been so busy that it totally escaped my mind. Unbelievable. We’re disappointed at not being able to go, but, well, the collection comes first.
We’re absolutely exhausted, but all the girls are fitted, and I’m ecstatic at how it looks. Christopher is a nervous wreck about tomorrow. We get home around 2 a.m. and go straight to sleep. We have Lara Stone in at 9 a.m. for her fitting; she’s opening the show.