Jane Grimme, who is Trenery’s Head of Design, cuts an elegant figure. Dressed in double-pleated flannel pants – which are straight from the Trenery Autumn/Winter 2017 collection – and a relaxed shirt, she browses through the rack where all the clothes hang.
Make-up artists fuss over models and there is someone ironing clothes with a garment steamer that puffs steam like Khaleesi’s dragons. Grimme pulls out a thick pea coat and it’s clear that men will be snug this season. She also shows us silk shirts, jerseys, flannel pants and scarves for women.
Grey is the most common colour through both menswear and womenswear in this collection. But when it comes to items like shoes, the neutral colours that the clothes are treated with a complimented by browns, nudes and pinks.
During the fashion show, the models strutted in garments that make layering look luxurious. “We love to layer the items and play with new proportions,” Grimme told us. “We talk about evolution and not revolution for the Trenery customer because our pieces have a real timelessness to them.”
“We speak more about fashion and style than about trends. We’re looking at that perfect trench coat and what you can pair with a white trainer, for instance. We love the versatility and modernity in how you can put your clothes together. The pieces are informed by what’s current. We have high-waisted rinse jeans that flare to the hem and that you can wear over a boot.”
Although the brand is more focused on style than trends, Grimme says at the core of Trenery is the basics: fabric. “Our working process is very much about fabric, print and texture and we start with piles of inspirational swatches and prints,” Grimme says. “We then carve collections out of what we see as very organic moods.”
“Fabric informs a lot of what we do. We’re able to visit some of the best mills in the world. It’s all about being able to craft things out of the best raw materials we can find. It’s about what instinctively feels right and new for us.This collection was about really rich colour palettes and really using the raw materials – wool and silk and cotton – to their best advantage. We played with texture and pattern. Colour is very important to us.”
For the launch, Trenery also collaborated with perfumer, House of Gozwada, to create a scent that the audience could take home. Trenery also tasked mixed media artist, Liza Grobler, with making a piece especially for the launch.
On these collaborations, Grimme said: “What was important was to be able to take the same raw materials – which was cashmere yarn that we make our knitwear for both men and women with. To see an artist use that same material and come up with something so engaging and different was inspiring. With the perfume: there was this idea about going back to natural scents. So we wanted to make sure there are the same values that we share.”
As far as the overarching principles that this collection reflects about the brand, Grimme shared: “Authenticity is probably a word that is overused a bit but we genuinely believe in everything we do. It may sound trivial but we’re about never putting fake zippers into garments and making sure that everything has a function. Even the techniques we use to dye our leather – everything is based in authenticity.”
Trenery’s AW17 collection is being rolled out in stores over the next few weeks