Preen

They may have been around for 10 years, but Preen is still in very much fashion. The British design couple behind the clothes talk to Philippa Ronald

Above: From left to right: Preen design duo Thea Bregazzi and Justin Thornton

Organic, recycling, seasonal, local produce – no, this isn’t another article about Kensington’s Whole Foods or saving planet earth. Rather, it’s the kind of language that captures Preen, a long-running west London fashion label set up by Justin Thornton Thea Bregazzi, partners in business and real life.

For over a decade, Notting Hill has been the live/work backdrop for Preen as it has evolved from its roots in recycling vintage fabric to burgeoning into one of the sophisticates of London Fashion Week. The shop is in Portobello Green and the design studio is, you could say, fashionably synergised with the W10 urbanscape – it’s tucked literally under the Westway, with south-facing views of the rail track. But, before you can say the word ‘Trellick’, stop and back up. Curious, as it may be – these fashion designers hail from a sleepy, sunny island in the Irish Sea where there are even palm trees. Mmmmm.

Growing up in the Isle of Man, Justin and Thea attended different schools and only met at the age of 18 on an art foundation course in Douglas, the island’s capital. They didn’t get together until they’d decamped to London, ended up in Notting Hill ‘by luck’ and haven’t renewed their Oyster card since.

Justin started out on the fashion scene working with British designer Helen Storey on Second Life, where the philosophy was ‘to deconstruct and reconstruct second-hand clothes and make them desirable.’ But the couple missed each other too much and so set up shop on their own. Even now, they spend 24 hours together and claim not to argue ever, well ‘maybe occasionally about hemlines or trouser widths’. The couple have never married, believing it’s only ‘a piece of paper’ and besides ‘there’s no time to plan a wedding!’ Two womenswear collections a year is commitment enough. ‘You can’t stand still,’ says Thea. ‘And we’d be bored doing the same thing again and again. The high street starts to pick up on it so you need to be two steps ahead.’

The early interest in recycling gave way to a new Victoriana, with the emphasis on quirky structuring and fabric mixes. A decade on and Preen are still constantly reinventing and reinvigorating their previous designs into new collections. Thea says, ‘We still love all the Victoriana but we’ve moved it on to more chic, pared-down sexy. We always use the previous collection as a base for the new one. Put a last-season dress on a mannequin, add a blouse and there’s the new look.’ The current collection is distinctively Preen – urban, minimalist shapes and a muted colour palette cut with splashes of vibrant colour such as bright pink. It’s very Eighties, sinuously body-hugging with surprises of pleats, zips and belts. There’s even fabulous hoodie knitwear, great for when you want to pop to Whole Foods but not bump into anyone you know.

If customers are drawn to shop at Preen for the more functional, tailored garments, many have found themselves leaving with a more daring choice, such as the hugely popular canary yellow summer mini-dresses. And if female customers leave the shop with those, their boyfriends aren’t going home disappointed either - Preen now do menswear. ‘It’s great finally to design something I can wear. Pink dresses really don’t do much for me,’ jokes Justin. ‘The menswear is an entity of its own but the colour palette is similar to the women’s. There’s definitely a link.’ Organic, of course.

While Preen remains proper high fashion, it was one of the first to produce a capsule collection for Topshop and still does. This was before the high street went mad and started commissioning ranges from any old Madge, Kate and Lily. On the recent Kate Moss for Topshop collection, Thea remarks, ‘Everyone wants to look like her. It’s a great marketing gimmick. I don’t see why celebrities shouldn’t do it but they’re not going to be as successful as Kate. People’s attention span is short and maybe they realise it’s not the star who’s designing it. It’s simply endorsement.’

An inconvenient truth about what the fashion industry has become. And certainly the name Preen has been prescient about how vain we’ve all become. Justin tells the story: living in Holland Road at the time, they’d had to come up with something double-quick. After fruitlessly flicking through dictionaries, it finally came to them. ‘We’d been working a lot with beautiful feather prints,’ explains Thea. ‘And we hit on the idea of preening feathers and sprucing yourself up. And then the double meaning occurred – “to spend too long on your personal appearance”. It felt organic and fun.’

No primping Wag clients for Preen. Their clothes attract stars known for their cutting-edge but classy, understated style – recent commissions have included red carpet dresses for coolest-girls-in-school Samantha Morton, Chloe Sevigny and Thandie Newton. ‘We’ve never courted celebrities. We do make clothes for them,’ Justin confides, ‘but we have to like them! They come to us because they want to wear something a little bit unique and a little bit cool.’

And it’s all thanks to the Isle of Man. Renowned more for the Manx cat than the catwalk, nevertheless Preen owe their teenybopper fashion influences to this isle. Justin explains, ‘Our friends were all sorts – Goths, Punks, New Romantics. We’d all converge on the one bar and two nightclubs – there’d be an hour of punk music and then an hour of rock. It was pretty influential fashion-wise.’ Thea adds, ‘I just couldn’t find the clothes so I’d make them myself. Actually doing it as a career only clicked later on.’

This summer is dedicated to preparing the Spring/Summer 2008 collection for this month’s London Fashion Week. But given that, what with Gore’s global warming, Summer 2007 hasn’t even arrived, goodness knows how designers can even contemplate next year’s weather forecast. Perhaps, by this time next year, we’ll be swimming lengths of Westbourne Grove in wetsuits. Flippers even. No doubt Preen will have already thought of that.

Preen, 5, Portobello Green, 281 Portobello Road, W10; 020 8968 1542

Preen’s Notting Hill address book

George’s Fish Bar, 329, Portobello Road, W10

Moroccan Tagine, 95 Golborne Road, W10

Osteria Basilico, 29 Kensington Park Road, W11

Paradise, 19 Kilburn Lane, W10

Duke of Wellington pub, 179 Portobello Road, W11