Kintsugi

Interview by Ursula Lake
Photography by Chloe Mallett
Fashion Editor – Stephanie Wilson

Make chats with Justin Thornton from Preen by Thornton Bregazzi about going green, the art of kintsugi, working with children and more!

Can you tell us a little bit of the backstory of the brand and how it came to be?

Thea and I began Preen from a small shop on London’s Portobello Road. We used to make the clothes in the back of the shop, it was such a brilliant time, Brit Pop was massive and London was the most exciting city in the world. Everyone went to Portobello at that time, we had Kate Moss, Janet Jackson and Cher buy things in the first week. It was a load of fun. We started to get a bit of a following for our Preen Pants (drainpipes with wing pockets on the bum, designed to make your bottom look tiny. Friends said we should do a show, so with help from them and customers, and with no money at all, we did an off-schedule show. It was really exciting and we got lots of press, received orders from The US and Japan and Selfridges. That’s when it became more of a business.

Who would you say is the Preen woman?

We don’t pigeonhole our woman; she has always been diverse and modern. We were aware from the start, having the shop, our appeal was across the board.

Who, what or where informs the creative process for your collections?

We are inspired by feelings and moments, things we find or experience. Friends can be a great inspiration, as can film and art.

We love that you have been working with your children on this collection, can you tell us a little bit more about this? Did they bring any unusual insights into your normal working methods? Did it change the way you worked?

We worked on Spring Summer ‘21 in the first lockdown. We were in Suffolk at our cottage, home-schooling our two daughters, and one of their school projects was about making something new out of broken or unwanted items. Thea has loads of vintage china that we use all the time and a plate got dropped and smashed. We were going to just throw it out but the girls wanted to use it. They made beautiful earrings, and it inspired us to do a collection, ‘Broken but Holding it Together’, as that’s how we were feeling and there is something beautiful about things that are mended. Kintsugi (the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold, is built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections, you can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art) was our inspiration for this. We worked with our children on the collection, they draped on the stand and came up with amazing designs. It was a wonderful thing to come out of such a hard time; a very special experience.

How and where have you spent lockdown? And how has it affected both you and the brand?

We spent lockdown in Suffolk. We felt blessed to be in the country and be close to the sea. It has been a very hard time and tough for business. We had to go through a major restructure and re-think the way we worked. It has given us the opportunity to focus on the ecological side of our business so that 70% of our products are now sustainable. We are working on limited runs of dead-stock; individual items from recycling vintage. Most of our fabrics now come from sustainable mills and we only make to order. This means we have no excess stock. Our production is in Europe and the UK and we import by road and sea to reduce our carbon footprint.

We are obsessed with your homeware line too. How did that come about? Is it a very different discipline?

Preen Home has been extremely successful during the lockdown. The Home Collection came about when we were doing duvet coats for a collection, Thea said I want them as eiderdowns to add to her already large vintage collection. We made a few for our Suffolk home, and friends wanted them, so we launched Home– it really was as organic as that!

Our theme for this issue is Intimacy. We chose this in light of the pandemic with the contrasting experiences of people being isolated and some people having no time or space for themselves. Has the pandemic experience altered the meaning of the word for you?

We feel differently about the world now. We are more focused on working on what we feel passionate about and love and are less focused on the constant desire for new. We are in a happy place now and looking forward to what’s to come.

Makeup by Kim Brown at Premier using Kjaer Weis
Hair by Richard Scorer at Frank Agency for Harringtons using L’Oreal
Digital photography operator by Roland Gopal Chowdhury
Fashion Assistant Stephanie Kelly
Casting Directing by Paul Issac
Model: Sophia Roberts at IMG