Pinned above a bulletin board in Smythe’s west end studio are line drawings of every jacket Andrea Lenczner and Christie Smythe have designed since launching their line 16 seasons ago.
There are sketches of sharp, shrunken blazers with peaked lapels, military style parkas and trench coats featuring oversized storm flaps and dropped epaulets. The images are their starting point every season. The shapes they’re feeling for a new collection get pinned on the cork below mixed with fabric swatches, inspiring photos and designs for new pieces that don’t already exist in the Smythe archive.
For Spring 2012, the collection that will be featured on the LG Fashion Week runway tonight as part of Holt Renfrew’s opening show, Lenczner and Smythe pulled out a shape from their very first season: a one button cutaway blazer that’s more recently been the block for their popular equestrian jackets. This time around it’s being reinterpreted as a tuxedo topper with a bold coloured stripe running down its side seam and a puff sleeve style in camouflage jacquard.
“We love hearing that a customer has several editions of a style she loves,” says Smythe. “But at the same time, we always make sure that each collection has plenty of newness to excite her and keep her coming back.”
Now that customer will have even more Smythe options to choose from. The pair is set to grow their collection from two seasons to four starting with an eight piece pre-fall grouping that includes checked blazers, utilitarian anoraks and pea coats.
“Everybody’s doing really well with resort and pre-fall,” says Lenczner. “Our larger retailers want more of a flow of merchandise throughout the year.”
Department store eagerness for exclusivity is changing the way they design too. Lenczner estimates that a third of what’s shipped to retailers are limited edition pieces that are worked out after they meet with buyers. Those pieces include a micro buffalo check jacket for fall, available now only at Holts.
