LFW Interview: Jena Theo

Jena Theo claimed centre stage of the evening’s proceedings, bidding farewell to day one of LFW. Although this season tallies their LFW count at more than a couple, the twosome admit to still suffering those pre-show nerves every fashion week virgin is all too familiar with. Stone wash legs opposed the emerging penchant for asymmetrical lines and sweeping silhouettes. All in all, it made for a nothing less than immaculate presentation.

We sent Laura backstage to dig a little deeper.

Planet Notion: Great show guys! The model sequencing was so good, is that something which is pretty easy to organise or does it take a lot of practice?

Jenny Holmes: Oh you’d have to ask our production manager!

Dimitris Theocharidis: We were a bit nervous about it….

JH: But she pulled it off amazingly! She was like ‘trust me, trust me,’ and I was like ok we will. We just thought we had that amazing space, and we decided to do salon shows so everyone could see the clothes in a little bit more detail so we felt it would be a shame to just have them run down and then come back up again. And our production manager has had so much experience so that’s how you get that!

DT: It was only a 10 minute rehearsal though wasn’t it?

JH: Yeah 10 minutes…

PN: Oh wow, you would never know, it looked so polished. So what was the inspiration behind this collection?

JH: Well, it’s funny we were just talking to Vogue and we were saying that with ’Heavy Metal’ everyone kinda came with the conception that it would be like last season, last autumn/winter. But because we love the fluidity of silk and the fabrics that we were using, we’ve used some new Japanese spun polyester, it’s kind of slightly more out there. We wanted to imitate mercury and looking at heavy metal and what that meant. We love the phrase coined back in the seventies by heavy metal kids, you know, when Black Sabbath was coming about and stuff like that. So we were working with our print designer on the concept, and with us concepts are not something that come about over night, they are something that you really let grow, right up until the last minute, until it’s perfect.

PN: The prints were nice as well because you had the prints on the silk and on the sheer material.

DT: Yes, that was embroidery, but was inspired by the print yes.

JH: Again that was kind of the reaction of mercury and how that would affect the fabric, and that’s why the leather was merging into the silk. So it was almost a bit deconstructed, and all blending in together.

PN: And is that what directed your choice of fabrics as well?

JH: Yeah, and we went for the most luxury, luxe timeless fabrics, you know, you’ll be able to buy and wear them for forever, it’s trend less.

PN: And very timeless designs as well.

DT: That’s excatly what we want them to be.

JH: Yes, and we also really wanted to combine the silk and the denim, and I think previously people have not understood that from us. We really wanted to show that and so even the evening wear pieces were worn with denim because that’s excatly how I would dress.

PN: Yes, it set up a lovely contrast down the catwalk. And so what will you be moving on to now?

JH: Next season…

DT: Paris!

JH: Yeah Paris. For me it’s always like I’m the ideas and Dimitri’s more practical so for him it’s the sales.

DT: Yeah we go to sales next month and then we start working on the next one!

Words – Laura Peebles

Photos – Kaye Ford