The name Les Hommes is the embodiment of the founders’ personalities, Tom Notte and Bart Vandebosch, two young men who met in Antwerp at the Fashion Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1996. They formed a friendship that culminated in a much-respected brand blessed with a look said to be a modern rendition of a classic theme.
It was no easy feat. Both men attest to the numerous hardships they faced in founding the company, and the struggles they overcame in their plight to assert their mark at the very top of the fashion world. So arduous was their ascent that neither Bart nor Tom seem to understand what a hobby is. “Our work consumes 99 per cent of our time so there is not really much space for other activities. We don’t know the meaning of hobbies; it is an invention of the human race in which we regretfully cannot participate.”
Following the career mantra of ‘making your passion your profession,’ the two designers are clearly in love with their work. Yet both have arrived at such a point via highly differing paths. Bart, the son of a gifted painter, leaned towards a future in art. Tom, on the other hand, comes from a business-oriented family and after initially dabbling in economics and later graphic design he finally found his calling in fashion.
Their different routes into the fashion industry are not the only things that set them apart; they revel in their differences and find inspiration in the way they compliment each other: “We are truly each other’s ying and yang.” Appropriately, one of them is left-handed while the other is right-handed so they actually design on the same sheet of paper. The result is a final design that is an expression of a collision of ideas and opinions, and an entire collection that is a combination of their distinct personalities and creative visions.
It all started in a little loft in Antwerp that they rented and where they designed their individual collections during their studies. They started off advising each another and soon found themselves working together on a joint collection. By their third year in the academy, Les Hommes was a fully developed concept ready for the fashion world. After graduation, it took them only a year and a half to set up the company.
They now design from a studio, which is home to a collection of artifacts and arts from their travels around the world. They find a lot of creative inspiration from their art collection and from the vast library, also housed in their studio. Life itself can be inspiring, Bart and Tom point out, as they have found inspiration while on a plane or in a café.
Today, they produce Homme and Femme lines which they show at Milan and Paris fashion weeks respectively. They are currently developing plans for sub-lines in the future and with a distribution network of over 100 high-end stores worldwide it seems they have the market to do so. The brand’s strongest market is Europe, particularly Italy, but it has also enjoyed notable market penetration in Russia and Japan in addition to the Middle East (thanks to Saks Fifth Avenue).
When asked about what makes Les Hommes stand out from other brands, Tom and Bart are quick to point out that it is their Belgian schooling, and the consequential development of an “Antwerp Hand” that guides their designs. For those not familiar with the different schools of fashion, the Belgian school emphasises analysis and research before design. “We deconstruct before we construct,” Tom adds. “We combine this with sheer tailoring and luxury, allowing for a combination that is very emblematic of the Les Hommes vision.”
Currently preparing their spring/summer collection of 2010, the duo is very tight-lipped about upcoming collections, claiming that they never unveil a collection’s theme before its presentation. They did want to talk about their 2009 spring/summer collection which uses a lot of black, white, grey and strong highlights of electric blue, with strong tones of red reserved for their accessories. As usual they work primarily with classic fabrics such as Italian wools, leather and suede, which they then rework in order to create a more contemporary “zeitgeist Les Hommes look.”
If you’re in the market for a more personal look, take pleasure in knowing that they customize designs, albeit mainly for celebrities. They recently tailored the jacket Rod Stewart wore to the Grammy Awards. After Stewart, they would like to see Johnny Depp wearing their clothes as he represents a timeless man, a “boyish rascally gentlemen that walks over the boundaries of history.” Les Hommes is a label that has grown up through contradictions and targets the men who capture this contradiction. Les Hommes-Femme targets a woman who “dares to be a true woman and who fully enjoys the beautiful things in life.”
Essentially the brand sells an avant-gardist vision of a classic theme. Though often compared to Costume National, Les Hommes deserves to stand alone as a brand at the cutting edge of volume, structure, fit and clean-lines. While exploring history and reviewing it in a contemporary way, the design pair has created a new form of luxury, of elegant nonchalant chic. Tom Notte and Bart Vandebosch are here to stay and for that we are thankful.
CONTACT
DUBAI
Saks Fifth Avenue
BurJuman, Dubai
Tel: +
KSA
Saks Fifth Avenue
Sari City Centre, Jeddah
Tel: +
KSA
Saks Fifth Avenue
???, Riyadh
Tel: +
BAHRAIN
Saks Fifth Avenue
???, Manama
