Très Bien is easily one of the best online menswear shops around. You can get everything from Engineered Garments to brands that are harder to pronounce, such as Ann Demeulemeester. Co-founder and buyer Hannes Hogeman clearly knows what he's doing. So, you may want to check out what he had to say about starting what was at first a brick and mortar store, the importance of mixing high and low fashion, as well as Welcome, the collaborative line with Our Legacy.
Whether you're interested in (possibly) launching your own online shop, or you just like to spend your hard earned money at Très Bien, you'll want to give the interview a read.
Jack Smylie: When you founded Très Bien in 2006, what was the goal? Did you see a gap in the market?
Hannes Hogeman: We actually started out as a bricks and mortar store on a very small scale and decided to go online in the same year. We could definitely see a gap in the market for curated menswear online back then.
Have you seen the online fashion-scape change since you began business?
Sure, most of all in terms of how many stores decide to go online these days and to be honest, I only think this is the beginning. We’ve always focused on the curation and putting stuff together that doesn’t always match but we make it match. That kind of curation will be even more important to us in the future.
You’re more than qualified to pick out trends – what are your thoughts on the increasingly blurred line between high fashion and street wear? Where do you think this movement will take us in 2013?
This is only the beginning. Streetwear versus high end, high versus low, old versus new, etc. etc. There are no boundaries anymore for this stuff and the kids today are so on it and trends move so fast that this will only keep evolving.
This is probably a good point to talk about WELCOME, Très Bien’s collaborative line with Our Legacy. How did this collaboration come about?
It’s all based on what used to be a good business that also became a very good friendship and we kinda started talking early about doing stuff together besides us buying their gear. WELCOME started as a well curated menswear shop in Stockholm and evolved into a clothing label. When you’re two busy, small companies you need to keep focus and we all felt that the clothing label WELCOME was more needed than the shop, so we decided to close the shop and focus on the line.
Can you talk about the concept and direction behind the line?
The beauty of WELCOME is that it’s a blank canvas really. You never know what design direction we will take or what projects will come up. WELCOME is very unexpected and doesn’t follow the “rules” of the fashion industry and that’s a very good thing. We don’t work in the classic way with seasons and have the freedom to do whatever we feel like, cause those are the rules we’ve set up. Lots of exciting collabs to come in the future besides the collection drop later this spring.
Check out the full interview here.
[via POST NEW]
