Story of one brand: Meadham Kirchhoff
There are many brands in the world, that we love from and to - with all their experiments, ups and downs, sometimes for an inexplicable reason (and sometimes because we are being overwhelmed by a wave of universal love for them): we hunt for their things, are not looking to buy the whole rail at the sale and With bated breath, we are waiting for new collections. It's time to figure out what the phenomenon of their attractiveness. Today, we are closely studying the success story of the avant-garde British brand Meadham Kirchhoff, which blends rococo redundancy, glam rock and gothic, whose lace-edged and spangled dresses could be worn by Marie Antoinette and worn by Courtney Love, and whose insane collection for Topshop scattered like hot cakes
At the beginning of the 2000s, Englishman Edward Midham and Frenchman Benjamin Kirchhoff graduated from Central Saint Martins, the most prestigious college in London. In the last years of their studies, they realized that they would work together - they say that it happened in the wake of the duet's hatred of all other students. Young designers decided not to rock for a long time and launched their label almost during the prom, in 2002. At first it was a brand for boys and it was called with a noticeable bias in one direction - Benjamin Kirchhoff. But the further fate of the brand was already clear then - men's clothing differed from the future female rather nominally.
Young designers did not begin to gain experience from their superiors in the workshop, did not intern in large fashion houses, and in general were not particularly interested in the administrative privileges that their college provided. They stuffed their bumps and now admit that they have done a lot of nonsense. Actually, youthful maximalism brought them to the men's fashion market - the designers were confident that the rather conservative clothing industry for men would be the ideal background for experiments. Partly the way it was - the courage of yesterday’s students immediately attracted attention. However, it turned out that wild things in the best traditions of London freaks everyone wanted to discuss, but no one wanted to buy. The collapse of illusions took four years, and in 2006 the world saw the brand Meadham Kirchhoff. It was distinguished by an unpredictable name and such a drive, for which big brands have long had a guts even to this day.
From the first minutes of the existence of the brand, Edward and Benjamin knew that they would only dress up princesses. They did not stint on the monstrous sizes of crystals, which were sewn on lace cascades, varnished with glitter and sheathed with multicolored fur. At the shows of Meadham Kirchhoff, models can not be thin and tall, they can dance cancan and smile painted like a rainbow teeth. Their heroine would not appear anywhere except in London. Yes, and such a reckless duet, too, is unlikely to be born in a different location. Meadham Kirchhoff is people from the streets of London, but even more crazy. They dye their hair blue and pink, they wear a wild looking Victorian-style blouse, they do not embarrass them, and they are absolutely not interested in what happens in the real world. As a result, the duet has turned live and loud England of our days. And the whole world was surprised to learn that not only the Burberry cell is suitable for export from the United Kingdom.
In fact, Midham and Kirchhoff are damn lucky guys. One may admire the pink fairies at their shows, but if you think about it, Meadham Kirchhoff is a real economic phenomenon. Their complex, redundant things appeared when the whole world rushed towards simplification and minimalism. For such theatricality, they no longer give letters of praise — in fact, it was precisely because of her that John Galliano was fired from Dior. But these darlings of fate love just for their complete separation from reality, on which they insist. They were repeatedly noted at the most enviable level: the British Fashion Awards gave them an award in the category "Emerging Talent Awards for Ready-to-Wear" in 2010. In 2012, the duo was nominated as "New Brand", and their men's collection, first shown in the same year at London Men's Fashion Week, was favored by Vogue, i-D and The New York Times. In addition, most recently the brand was included in the list of BoF 500 - the rating of the most prominent industry figures according to the Business of Fashion edition.
Perhaps the whole thing is in quality - and do not think that such an explanation is too banal. Among the huge flow of penny junk, which is called fast fashion, Meadham Kirchhoff looks more than worthy. Yes, their dress can cost you both three and six thousand pounds. But all things are made in British manufactories, and Nicholas Kirkwood makes shoes from the first collections. According to the designers, many of the things are so complex that their blanks are finished in the studio not without the participation of the duet itself. Benjamin and Edward believe that expensive clothes of imperfect quality are not fashion, but some kind of nonsense. They spend a lot of time in the archives, restore lost techniques of embroidery and lace weaving, are responsible for each button, and as a result we get things almost haute couture. And this is probably one of the few cases when a purchased expensive item is really worth its money.
The duet muse is Courtney Love, who, for all her legendary, is a very controversial lady. Therefore, Edward and Benjamin have added magic to the image of a crazy rock and roll diva: sequins, laces and lush skirts. So a little girl would dress up if she had been left for a couple of hours in a theatrical wardrobe. But it turned out that older girls also did not mind having some fun. Their clients are smart, ironic, solvent and very earthly. Because there is nothing more fun than feet in the funny shiny shoes of Meadham Kirchhoff, dancing adult dances in the real bar itself. Naturally, this brand is adored by adolescents. But designers understand that, due to the cost of things, fourteen-year-old girls cannot be their target audience. Therefore, they are trying to be on Vivienne Westwood - thirty years ago, young people prayed for her, but the cost of clothing was exorbitant. However, you could buy a cheap Vivienne Westwood jersey and feel very cool. It is not hard to guess that Meadham Kirchhoff also makes T-shirts (their “tishotki” with recognizable “When dream comes true” are sold for only one hundred dollars), and in addition, they organize collaborations with the British democratic brand Topshop.
The main goal of Edward and Benjamin is to remain yourself. They go to it quite confidently: the designers almost do not give interviews, do not send their stuff to the stars, do not lead social networks, do not make pre-collections, and are reluctant to give things to magazines for shooting. In short, the industry failed to take them into circulation, and this made Meadham Kirchhoff commercially successful, although it could easily sink. Today mastodons of fashion trade cooperate with the brand. The guys made sweatshirts and shawls for Amazon, painted London taxis for the online department store Farfetch, and collaborated with Topshop twice (the latter was this autumn, and bought it instantly), and the Victoria and Albert Museum arranged a retrospective of the brand’s brightest works. By the way, the launch of Meadham Kirchhoff did not go without the financial support of the British mass market: the designers participated in the Topshop NEWGEN program. Since 2012, the brand has again begun to sew men's clothes too, and yes, it is as strange as women's. But it is sold, and especially well in Eastern Europe, in Ukraine, in Russia and Kazakhstan. If we are ready for experiments, it means that the ice has exactly broken.
Meadham Kirchhoff is just a classic lucky occasion when everyone goes to the right, and the one who goes north wins. We honestly and honestly love H & M, we love the refined aesthetics of Raf Simons and three dozen other cool brands that cannot always be distinguished from each other. But it’s still nice when something wild, circling, uncompromising and with crystals hangs in the closet among gray sweatshirts and norm cotton strings. As the designers themselves said, "tra-la-fucking-la!".