Worldwise: Fashion Designer Nigel Curtiss’ Favorite Things

“We want to make modest quantities of the pretty greatest apparel,” Curtiss says. “We want every little thing that is produced to be worn and loved and kept and passed on to the following era. This is not quick fashion it is arduous, passionate, and beloved fashion.”

Curtiss has been a fashion designer for in excess of 30 many years. He started out as a textile designer in London, advertising materials to
Vivienne Westwood
and
Paul Smith.
In the 1980s, he designed menswear for Comme des Garçons, performing along with designer
Rei Kawakubo,
and additional honed his capabilities doing work within the fashion houses of Yves Saint Laurent and Kenzo. Curtiss designed personalized clothes for
Mick Jagger
and
Arnold Schwarzenegger,
which led him to developing his very own eponymous brand.

Curtiss’ trademark is considerate fashion. He is recognised for crafting cozy goods from luxury cashmere, silk sourced from eco-welcoming farms, and denim dyed with a pure, plant-dependent indigo developed in solar-driven factories. In shorter, all products are produced in tiny portions, and the staff helps make an work to work with regional factories, organic and natural materials, recycled yarns, and eco-friendly packaging.

His most current line is a assortment of outfits influenced by the punk ethos of London in the 1970s—using loud designs, extraordinary designs and daring colors—which is satisfied with an upscale class. “It’s tongue and cheek, the spirit of the 1980s,” Curtiss states.

“Our largest success is our silk pajamas, which you can put on out to a restaurant,” he describes. “It’s multi-practical pajamas, they’re for adult men and women—everyone is utilized to putting on dishevelled, loose dresses, it looks neat and has a retro vibe, powerful prints with an exquisite aspect to it.”

Last November, he expanded into prepared to put on clothes along with his business associate and spouse,
Monica Mitro,
a previous executive from Victoria Solution. Some of the talents he has dressed consist of Close friends star
David Schwimmer,
Duran Duran’s
Simon LeBon,
supermodel
Lily Aldridge,
and actor
Mickey Rourke.

Curtiss not long ago shared some of his favorite issues with Penta.

My favourite thing about London is… I’m from Brighton, I couldn’t wait to get out. In London, I really like the Connaught Lodge, which is in Mayfair and definitely beautiful, and just all around the corner from it, Scott’s, the seafood restaurant.  

My 1980s fashion icons include…
David Bowie,
Versace,
George Michael
is exciting,
Holly Johnson
from Frankie Goes To Hollywood,
Simon Le Bon
from
Duran Duran,
the new romantics seem.
Steve Odd,
the co-founder of the Blitz club in London, way too.

My favorite community in Tokyo is… properly, I spent 13 years dwelling in Tokyo, and I even now just cannot get adequate of it. For me, I adore the quieter component of Roppongi.

My dream getaway is… Ischia, an island close to Capri, off the Gulf of Naples in Italy. I like keeping at the Mezzatorre Resort & Spa, they have unbelievable treatments. It does not have the range of holidaymakers that Capri has, it’s quiet and there’s no cruise ships.

My most loved position to seize a drink in New York is…
Casa Cipriani,
a member’s club on South Avenue in the Monetary District of Manhattan. It feels like you’re on a cruise ship from the 1930s, and the sights are stellar. They have a amazing jazz club there. You get to blend with the people today you want to mix with, it is a place to fulfill your mates.

My preferred art museum is… the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

In my art assortment, I have… art by unfamiliar artists. I would love a piece by Banksy, and its robust political messaging. I derive a ton of my inspiration from cloth archives. For my present assortment, I went to Lake Como and visited the factories that made silkscreen prints that have been in business for hundreds of years. For me, it’s like staying inside an artwork gallery. If you can come across a hundred-calendar year-previous paisley print and I can get 100 yards of it, that’s my sort of artwork.

My favorite item I very own is… I have a hundred-yr-old Japanese display screen on my wall in my flagship boutique in the Meatpacking District. It’s from Thomsen Gallery, which is on the Upper East Aspect. It’s my favorite New York artwork gallery, which to me, is a best kept key.

The most high-class matter about fashion is… clothes that sense as if they have been designed just for them—from the fit to the cloth and the style. Regardless of whether you are shopping for all set-to-put on or tailoring for a unique situation, picking garments should experience like a private discussion among the consumer and the model, and that is what we are thrilled to provide with my model.

The best tips I at any time received was… ‘don’t give up,’ particularly when you operate in a artistic discipline. So several people today arrive to me and say, “I want to be a fashion designer,” and I say, there is so a great deal rejection. It’s these tough get the job done. It’s difficult, but if you’ve acquired it and you hold attempting, you will get there in the stop. It’s so worthwhile, it’s these kinds of a enjoyment sector to be in.

A passion of mine that couple of folks know about is… biking. I totally like riding my bike by way of the Hamptons in the summer season.

If I could have a drink with anyone in the globe, it would be…
Keith Richards.

My most loved arrondissement to wander by means of in Paris is… the Marais in the 4^th arrondissement. There’s so a lot of minimal boutiques and retailers there, it’s an eclectic slice of charming Parisian society. This kind of good power, so considerably to do. It’s my most loved in Europe, by considerably the most lovely 1 but I would not want to dwell there.

The point that receives me up in the early morning is… my pet Max, he will come proper up and rolls into my deal with and wakes me up. He’s a rescue mutt. He does not do it to my spouse, though. Only me. 

This job interview has been edited for length and clarity.