LONDON — Browns continue to support young fashion designers.
The boutique “Browns Focus: Series Two” will spotlight seven fashion designers including Ahluwalia, Bethany Williams, Feben, Namacheko, Nicholas Daley, Selasi and Wales Bonner.
Each designer has curated an exclusive capsule collection for the brand that’s available from Thursday online and in-store at Browns East.
The London boutique has partnered with Black-owned art space Home by Ronan Mckenzie and R.O.T.A., which stands for Representation on the Agenda, a Browns-created community with a mission to achieve diversity and representation across the business.
Browns Focus made a comeback last year, where designers were given creative control to produce small collections and visual imagery that best represented them and their community. The roster included Conner Ives, Labrum, Bianca Saunders and more.
“Browns Focus is our way of shining an extra strong light on our newest global talent outside of the general buys we do each season,” said Ida Petersson, women’s and menswear buying director at the store.
The concept goes back to the legacy of Joan Burstein, otherwise known as Mrs B., who founded the boutique with her husband Sidney in 1970. Browns Focus launched in 1997 as an incubator for new talent championing the likes of Christopher Kane, Simone Rocha and Hussein Chalayan.
Browns has been instrumental in underpinning the future brands of tomorrow by mentoring talent with substantial sustainable and inclusive credentials. They were one of the early stockists to take Bethanny Williams under their wing.
“We have worked only with organic or recycled content materials and subtly featuring throughout each garment are colorful patches and linings, which have been recycled from a public art installation we worked on last summer situated at Coal Drops Yard, Kings Cross,” said Williams, who won the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design in 2019.
Nicholas Daley, recipient of this year’s BFC/GQ Designer Fashion Fund, has created a collection that’s all about home.
“The jackets, trouser and waistcoat styles are all made in England, reusing deadstock fabrics,” he said, adding that he worked with Manchester-based quilter Chris England to select bespoke quills from past seasons.
The London-based designer also touches upon the reggae club his parents ran together in the Seventies, which has almost become a family crest among his family.
