“Daddy, who were the Stone Roses?” From of the mouths of babes shall we be reminded how generations are moving on. Nine-year-old Fauve, the daughter of Thea Bregazzi and Justin Thornton, asked this innocent question of her parents one day as they were going on about the music of their late-’80s Madchester heroes. What was the parental reply? “That they were the biggest band in the world when Mummy and Daddy fell in love,” Thornton said with a laugh. Meanwhile, Bregazzi hooted that it’s hilarious that Fauve’s words made an unconscious parallel to the title of Luella Bartley’s Spring 2000 collection, Daddy, Who Were the Clash?
It led the married couple to start designing into their memories of their misspent youth as students, clubbing and dancing at illegal raves in fields in the north of England. It’s all there in their Resort collection, as Thornton was pointing out at a party the pair threw for Preen-wearing followers.
The patched-in references to oversize nylon blousons, wide-leg rave trousers, and skimpy club dresses are all cleaned up, of course. Hybridization has been part of the Preen vocab for a while; the collage of raincoat and performance-wear harked back to an earlier day when the designers were first working in a more or less DIY way, out of a tiny shop under the Westway overpass in Notting Hill in the ’90s. Testament to them: They’re still in Notting Hill, but now highly established, with a signature look—the dippy, ruched, floral dresses that are such a constant business for them.
Thornton and Bregazzi learned long ago that following their gut instincts was a good guide for what people of their 40-something generation will identify with. Cozy rather than clubby, their experimental foray into home goods—vintage-look flowered eiderdowns and pillows—has proved a runaway seller since last year. They’re stepping it up. Longevity as a developing lifestyle brand is in the cards.
