In today’s society where everyone is trying to make quick money, and global conglomerates are set to take over the world, flooding the markets with their cheap and yet disposable clothing it’s very rare to find someone, let alone a brand that’s set themselves out to showcase the complete opposite. With all that said, along comes Noir, a Melbourne based brand that’s set themselves out to shift the properties that garments of yesteryear once had, whilst bringing back that personal relationship between the wearer and the garment that we’ve long forgotten about.
Utilizing hundreds of years worth of knowledge, hard work, and family traditions Noir has produced some of the finest garments. Taking cues from traditional wears from across the globe and pairing them with tried and tested manufacturing methods they’ve added the finest details to each of their garments. From the felled inseam stitching on their denim, to the selvedge cuffs on their jackets, and finally the jacquard woven stitching on their shirts Noir has set out to make clothes personal again, built to last not only a lifetime, but whatever the wearers experiences may take them through, whilst still looking good.
This past month we had the chance to sit down with Pete Le Chic Designer and Founder of the Noir brand in his studio in the heart of Melbourne to discuss all things Noir, past, present, and the future of the brand in a market flooded with meaningless garments.
Could you provide a little background about yourself and your brand Noir? Where is Noir located?
Noir is located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, but everything is manufactured in Japan.
Noir was really a reaction to what was going on in the market, with all this cheap and disposable clothing. To me it got to the point where the clothes kind of had no meaning to them anymore, and people would be buying cheap things wearing them a few times and then throwing them out. It doesn’t mean anything to the person anymore, and there is no longer a relationship between the person and the clothes that they wear anymore. What I was trying to do was bring something back to where the saying ‘clothes maketh the man’ came from, where clothing is really a part of you, and that’s the whole reasoning behind the brand, to make something special again.
How long has Noir been established and how long have you been involved?
The first proper collection/season for Noir came out in February of this year, and before that, there was a small capsule range that came out in September last year.
I’ve been involved with Noir since the start, I think everything like the planning before the brand started was a year prior, of not just working out what one season is going to be but more so how it was going to meld into many seasons. It definitely came about as more of a natural growth rather than just putting something out for the sake of putting something out, just to kind of let it breathe within itself.
How did you become involved in the fashion scene?
I started with working on a lot of graphic design work for skateboard companies, things like laying outs, ads, basic t-shirt graphics, board graphics, and other things like that. It got to the point where I eventually got asked if I thought I could do clothes, and I thought why not just give it a shot. I started designing stuff and it got to the point where it would leave my hands and then go to the pattern maker and then to be sewn, and all of these other people, and then it would come back to me as the end product. This caused a bit of a spark where it seemed interesting to really make something with my hands from start to finish and that’s how it pretty much started.
Where do you draw inspiration from?
A lot of inspirational stuff would be, experience, more something I have experienced myself much rather than just looking at a photo, it would be going somewhere and seeing something and touching something, it’s more about feel been equally as important as what something looks. It’s like a sense hearing, tasting, and touching as much as what it looks like. It’s not just about an image sparking inspiration; it’s not like that at all.
How long does it take to make and develop a season, and what are the outlining processes that go into Noir, and how much of this process goes over to Japan?
Well for me, it’s kind of actually really quick, I’ll sit down, and draw out the lines, and get down to work drawing up the patterns and getting the fits right. Prior to this there will be three or four months where I’m just thinking about the line as a whole, and each piece individually. I’ll be refining it in my head, and to a point where I’ll be editing the range myself, I would put an idea down, and see where it would sit against all of the other pieces, and then I’ll put it down and that’s it.
After thinking about it, doing all of the patterns and everything, but just the production will go over to Japan. Things like sampling will be done here in Australia, but then it will go to Japan where maybe one or two further samples will be done, and then they’ll produce it. All of the fabrics do come from Japan also, so I’ll go over there and see all of them and get a feel for what fits with the ranges and what doesn’t.
How would you describe your own personal style? Is that reflected in the designs that Noir produces?
Yeah! I guess it is kind of like a reflection of myself, and the quality that I want. Every piece has a story behind it, and where it comes from, so it’s more, not so much my style but it’s also a collection of things that have made me who I am as to what clothes end up in the collection, to a point where the clothes are just a collection of experiences, in that certain time.
What makes Noir so different from other brands?
That it isn’t disposable, that every piece is there for you to have forever, not to just wear a couple of times and for you to throw it away. It’s not going to disintegrate and fall apart in the wash, or something along those lines, everything is there for a reason, and it’s there forever, it’s certainly something that I feel is now left out.
How will the collection develop and change per season? Will we see parts of the range and certain silhouettes in trans-seasonal sense, or will each season of Noir be a stand-alone collection?
Everything will be trans-seasonal, in the sense that it doesn’t matter whether it’s a summer collection or a winter collection, and you should be able to wear it, and wear it all times of the year, you’ll be able to take a layer off or put a layer over the top, that’s what it’s about.
There are obvious plays on the attention to detail in certain pieces from the range, what should we look for in each piece, and what should people be looking at and expecting when viewing & buying Noir (Fabric, stitching, colour, style, etc…)?
That everything looks as good on the inside as it does on the outside, and that I’d like to think all that you have to do is touch and feel to see what you’re paying for and where the quality lays in each garment.
