We went along to the New Menswear Destination Launch Party at Selfridges Manchester Trafford Centre to suss out the fashion and chat to designer Henry Holland.
Selfridges Manchester Trafford Centre hosted a bit of a do to celebrate a new concept in Menswear. Yes, Primark is now stocked within the Menswear Department. *pause for effect* And although Primark wasn’t the only alteration to the Menswear offer in the out-of-town Shopping Mecca, it was certainly the most talked about.
The party attracted quite the crowd and even staged a mini-interview which saw Sky Sports’ Hayley McQueen interview, Sale Shark, Mark Cueto and Cricketer Jimmy Anderson on fashion, sport and their younger rivals.
That wasn’t the only interview of the night. Whilst Mixologists concocted potent potions from Whiskey and Rum, whilst TOWIE’s Lauren Pope span the decks and whilst half naked underwear models (including Stuart from Big Brother) strutted around the floor with balloons – I got a couple of minutes with Mr Henry Holland.
Manchester’s Finest: Mr Holland, what do you think of Primark being welcomed into Selfridges Manchester Trafford Centre?
Henry Holland: I think the official line for Selfridges is quite good in that they say their customer buys everything from Primark to Prada and they think there is a real cross over between high end and low end. They don’t think people shop one and not the other. People like to mix and match their own styles. I think it’s fine. I don’t know what the big hoo-har is about. It’s a massive store so I think Selfridges is big enough to cater to all different markets.
MF: What were your best bits of this season’s London Fashion Week?
HH: Usually every season the best bit is when my show’s finished and I can have a drink! But I think this season everyone was saying Christopher Kane’s [show] was really good. I wasn’t there in person but people were crying and that because it was so amazing. It was beautiful – the fabrics and stuff he developed were so amazing. Richard Nichol was really good. I went to that one. It was beautiful. I thought that Roksanda Ilincic was great and I was at Louise Gray as well that was great. Really good.
MF: You operate two brands, your mainline: House of Holland, and your diffusion line in Debenhams: H! By Henry Holland. How do you manage to juggle the two?
HH: It’s quite easy. We kind of oversee what happens with the diffusion line – working with the design team and designing that stuff is very different. It’s really rewarding because you see it a lot. You see it on girls. It’s about building a new brand. It’s two separate entities, a very different customer and in a very different space. Whereas House of Holland – there’s nothing that happens in my office that I don’t know about. From sales to distribution, to production, to all the design – every single thing. There’s still a team of five of us and people think we’re a huge company. We have a very wide reach. We distribute far and wide.”
Words by Jordan McDowell of FashionRambler.com
Tags:
Fashion
