If you have an important point to make,
don't try to be subtle or clever.
Use a pile driver.
–– Winston Churchill
“Imagine a world where there is no unwanted clothing in the market,” continued Greg Rosborough. “Everything newly made is spoken for. Minimal wastage. No sales discounts at the end of the season. Yes, this is a utopian vision, but our times demand that we think in new ways. Every day we read the headlines about global warming, pollution of the fashion industry, how big retailers are failing. We want to be part of the solution, and we’ve built a model backed by tech that is powerful, to share and build upon with other designers.”
“When you think about these futuristic ideas and designs, they often feel really synthetic,” Rosborough said. “We intentionally only use natural fibers, like cotton, wool, cashmere, linen. We’re not going into hyper-tech nylons. It’s about keeping it natural, and mixing these ancient fibers with the most innovative technology.”
“This is a quantum leap forward,” Rosborough said. “We’re still making clothing, but it cuts out all the unnecessary steps. And we’re only making things that we’re guaranteed will sell. We’re doing the whole vetting process digitally.”
“Every day we read the headlines about global warming, pollution of the fashion industry, how big retailers are failing. We want to be part of the solution, and we’ve built a model backed by tech that is powerful, to share and build upon with other designers,” said Abasi Rosborough’s co-founder Greg Rosborough.
“Frank Lloyd Wright once said he designs ‘from within outward,’ and I always thought that was a great starting point for a clothing designer—to think about the body first, then design clothing to accommodate it. Anatomy studies inform our designs, so we’ll think about the range of motion of a sleeve or pant.”
“Sustainability means integrity. We source and produce locally in New York City, everything is made in the Garment District on 35th street. But in order to be truly sustainable, you have to be radical and question entire process. How do we revolutionize from the ground up??”
Having never wanted to be “a lifeless, soulless fashion brand that just has nice items. We want to speak to bigger themes that are going on around us in our own times,” Rosborough said. Looking to relay a sense of “intellectual rebellion” — a sentiment that has struck a chord with musicians, architects and designers of different disciplines, Rosborough said, “From a branding standpoint, when you put on our clothing, we want you to think of those instances of this is what this brand stands for, this is what they speak to, these are the things they care about.”
“We were trying to capture this really poetic idea of we’re all one tribe,” shared Rosborough pre-show. “Our lives and spirits are vanishing, and there’s this interesting juxtaposition, so how do we capture that within the clothes so that it touches on spirituality and humanity but is also a reaction to our times and the divisiveness.”
Whatever you do, don’t call Abasi Rosborough clothing of the future. According to founders Abdul Abasi and Greg Rosborough, it’s the clothing of today. Abdul and Greg stopped by to discuss the origins of their brand, designing for the modern age, and the importance of sustainability in fashion.
“Besides the iPhone, another one of the things that influenced the collection was Blade Runner 2049. Jared Leto’s Niander Wallace character is clearly evil. But he wears the most utopian, Zen clothing. He’s always dressed in these simple and clean black-and-white kimonos. It was an interesting juxtaposition that showed that the Eastern-influenced design that we love can be both dark and menacing or cerebral and utopian.”
“Where is humanity going?” posits Rosborough. “Are spaceships taking us to our dystopian future or our utopian future?”
“The collection shows two sides of that idea. We’re referencing technology like cryptocurrency, self-driving cars, face-recognizing phones and we want to know: Where is that all taking society? The collection starts with suiting with eastern influences — in line with our past designs — with the zen influences getting more dystopian, with more color and less dark stuff.”
"When you go to Paris, you don't like hearing that there's not really avant-garde or good creative designers in New York," says Rosborough on the recent exits of NYFW heavyweights for Paris. "We're from New York and we have some avant-garde ideas. We're pushing this aesthetic that's not just sweatpants and jean jackets." Indeed, with prize nominations from Woolmark and LVMH, if there's a brand that the industry should keep an eye on right now, it's Abasi Rosborough.
“It’s this arc,” said Rosborough, “we have simplistic and then it gets more complicated.” He was speaking to the question-mark paradigm of whether we are moving more in the direction of a utopia or a dystopia, given advances in facial recognition technology, autonomous cars, cryptocurrencies, gene editing, and all the other newfangled stuff that, depending on the observer, is either absolutely fantastic or utterly terrifying.
“I would say it is a forward vision of tailoring that involves military and sport and architectural elements. Of course we wanted to design clothing, but the idea was—and when I was at Purple Label I would ask some of the old tailors this—"What do you think guys are going to look like in fifty years?" Because while at FIT, we had taken this history of menswear class and saw the iterations of how things evolved up and through time. And I remember this one old guy told me, “The suit’s perfect. It'll never ever change." I just thought, as a designer whose at the beginning of my career looking forward, I'm like, "Well that would be a travesty.” That was part of the impetus of like, "Hey, we can just take this idea up ourselves and try it. We may fail greatly, and that's fine. But we do know how to make a suit. We've been educated in this. We know the traditions of the past. Let's talk about how it can move for the man in the modern world.”
“As I designer, I realized that I did not want to continuously reference things that have already been designed before. I wanted to look forward instead of always looking back into archives, searching through vintage. I kept thinking the designers of the past would be disappointed to know that the designers of the future only copied their work for new ideas – it lacked progression. And I kept thinking that in my lifetime I would love to see design evolve, change and improve and I did not really see anyone else in the industry doing the ideas that I had in my head.”
“It’s about time and persistence and consistency of vision. You can look at guys like Rick Owens, and you can take first collection pieces and current collection pieces and it’s the same vision. We’ve had so many people tell us you should change this or change that. I remember reading that everybody told Thom Browne he should change the fit of his suits and they’ll sell better, and there was that horrific Cathy Horyn review of Rick Owens that was basically saying he should change his aesthetic, but you have to somehow stand up against all these forces telling you to normalize yourself. You have to stand for your perspective. If Rick Owens had normalized he wouldn’t be where he is.”
“Everything you wear is a costume of some kind. Everything speaks to what you are thinking about, what you’re feeling, what you represent, and where you’re from –– so it’s very personal.”
“To be nominated was a strong point of validation for our work, process and story,” Rosborough says. “We had deep design discussions with Linda Loppa, Cathy Horyn, Tim Blanks and Nicolas Ghesquière, who intellectualized our work and gave us great insights, comparisons and thoughts.”
“All men are wearing suits, the suit is not going anywhere. Businessmen will still need to wear this thing that symbolizes respect and sophistication, as will the politician – but do they still need to be wearing the same one that was designed in 1870? No. I think part of being a contrarian or being a rebel is seeing all these rules, knowing all these things – this is what politicians wear, this is what businessmen wear, this is the ultimate sign within Western society of respect and dignity and sophistication, depending on the context – so why don’t we just try to upend that and break that idea?”
Playboy –– Fashion Design Duo Abasi Rosborough are Finally Bringing Men’s Style into the Future –– 19 April 2017 –– Sean Manning
“On the interior of our label we have this quote: “The vision of who or where you want to be is the most important asset you have.” Our clients all have a strong sense of individuality. That comes through in all aspects of their life. They define themselves very much on an individual level, not as they might be defined by society or what a man should be. As opposed to being afraid of wearing something that stands out, they want to wear something that says, “I’m individual.” You put it on, people ask you what it is. I was at Staples buying boxes the other day and a guy asked me where my jacket was from. It’s interesting because that’s a dialogue completely away from the fashion context. It’s everyday life. I’m standing in line at a check-out counter. We’ve both had it happen. It happens on the subway all the time.”
“There’s a great quote by Charles Eames that we’ve been saying to one another as a reminder or a pep talk that goes, “The details are not the details, the details make the design.” The little details are why you love anything you have. We just try to find those details that feel natural to us and bring them out.”
“Designing the collection started with an emotional conversation, ‘How’re you feeling about the election?’ And our friends too were like, ‘I’m pissed off, I’m disgusted, it makes me lose passion for this country.’ You just feel disconnected, and the word that kept coming up against was ‘dissension,'” Rosborough says. “We have a country with a lot of smart and interesting people, and this is what we’ve got.”
While the designers have shown their clothing in architectural landscapes in the past, those photos were emotionally cooler. The pair’s aim this time was to make the imagery “far more direct,” says Rosborough. That’s in part because of the issues that have come to the fore in this election, like immigration. “Abdul is a first-generation American with Nigerian parents,” Rosborough says. “And most of the people we work with, as a company in New York, are from all corners of the world and represent the best American values—work ethic, innovation, and grit. Shouldn’t anyone who looks down on immigrants be considered anti-American?”
Abasi and Rosborough met at FIT in 2006, where they studied the traditions of men’s tailoring. They were surprised to learn that the suit was developed in Victorian England in the 1860s — but hadn’t changed much since. “Everything else around us is evolving,” said Rosborough. “Architecture, automobiles, communication devices — everything. And then you have this gold standard of men’s wear, but it’s not evolved.” After graduating from FIT in 2008, Rosborough landed an internship at Ralph Lauren Purple Label, where his work under old-world Italian tailors led to a job as a designer.
Rhapsody Magazine –– Satorial Slam Dunk –– September 2015 –– Sean Manning
“The simple premise we started with to remake the men's suit, which was designed as we know it in 1870 in England, and here we are 140 years later wearing the same design," says Rosborough. "Everyone says it's classic, it's timeless. But prior to 1870, no one had worn one. So it's not timeless. It's not the be-all and end-all of menswear. There are a lot of details that are outdated. We set out to create something more dynamic and progressive, and re-engineered for the 21st century."
“We were walking the other night – we’d been in Paris for four days, and we’ve been sort of cooped up in the apartment all day, every day, for appointments. Then, on our final night, we’re like, “Okay, we got to get out and just walk around.” We took like a 10-mile Parisian urban hike. We were walking along the river, and you’re like looking at all these magnificent buildings. No matter who you are, where you’re from, the buildings convey power. How they’re lit, the structure, the stone, the statues, everything. It’s like an archetype of humanity that wherever it may be, wherever you’re from, you’re going to be like, “These guys mean business.” We tried to take the same essence into our design. We always say that a vertical line or a horizontal line is not conveying much. It’s not very exciting. But an angled line is very exciting. In all the jackets, you’ll see there are angles.”
Style.com –– Abasi Rosborough Makes a Case for Menswear in New York –– 11 April 2014 –– Noah Johnson
"New York is in the midst of an exciting moment for menswear," says Greg Rosborough, one half of the design duo behind Abasi Rosborough. "As a reaction to all of the classicism and Americana that New York menswear has long been associated with, a new cohort of menswear designers is bubbling up. The old rules are being extinguished, and instead of looking to the past for inspiration, we and other designers are looking forward."
“We continued to ask ourselves "what does the 21st century man need from his clothing?" He moves around, he's always doing something, he's on the subway, he's driving a car, he’s going to the gym, he's picking up groceries. Why shouldn't his clothing accommodate that lifestyle? A men's suit looks great if you're standing still, but as soon as you do anything else, it starts to fail you. That was the idea - to evolve tailoring to allow the garments to flex and breathe, and the 21st century guy can have clothing that moves with him. But at the heart of it, menswear is still about looking sophisticated, dignified, having an air of intelligence, and we didn’t want to lose that. We wanted to build something new that conveys the same message.”
“I had a dream several years ago that I was an old man, and it was far in the future,” Rosborough, who got his tailoring experience working at Ralph Lauren, told me. “I was in a fine menswear store looking through their offerings and couldn’t find anything other than classic suits, shirts, and ties. I looked and searched, but there was nothing else there. The dream turned into a dark realization that, in my lifetime, men’s clothing had not evolved. I woke up and was haunted by this. And it electrified me into creating. The quick history on the suit is that it was designed in Victorian England, in the 1870/80’s. It’s riddled with outdated details and thinking, although it is still the hallmark garment of menswear and unchanged 140+ years later – worn by millions of men daily the world over. We started the label after three years of prototyping new ways of constructing men’s blazers and shirts. The human body is our inspiration and everything is designed around its needs, and how it functions and moves. The label was, and is, not meant to be fashion. It’s a contemplation on the future of menswear.”