Beginning 21 January, MR PORTER and Off White will debut a new collection entitled “Modern Office”. Designed exclusively for MR PORTER, the 44-piece capsule of sportswear is inspired by new generation of workers and their work places. Ahead of the launch, George Archer, Buyer at MR PORTER, shares his insider perspective as part of the collection’s project team.
How did you go about building the collection and why is it special to MR PORTER?
Building the collection was a meeting of minds between the MR PORTER and the Off-White teams, but of course was led by Virgil’s creative direction and design. It was extremely important to us that the collection included all product categories such as tailoring, outerwear, shirting and also strong printed jersey, which Off-White is known and loved for.
I adore the tonal embroidered jersey in the collection as it elevates the product offering even further than sticking to just prints. I set out asking the Off-White team for more elevated pieces and sculpting around the ‘Modern Office’ concept which naturally follows on from the AW18 collection titled ‘Business Casual’. The result – an amazing 45 piece capsule that I know will resonate with our customers.”
What is unique about the MR PORTER x Off-White exclusive collection?
The MR PORTER x Off-White collection is unique as it’s the largest capsule ever produced with a retailer to date.
The collection is also designed with the MR PORTER customer in mind, with the inclusion of silk shirts, tonal embroidered linen and shearling-lined jackets while keeping the colour palette relatively muted with pastel tones. We wanted to have the capsule as a point of difference to what is offered in the strong SS19 pre and runway collections – which included rhinestones, hot pink, Donda graffiti and the Simpsons. Embracing the ‘Modern Office’ theme, the exclusive capsule offers something different to that!”
How did the project come about?
Exclusivity has and always will be a key part of MR PORTER’s offering and it’s important for us to work with our incredible brand portfolio to offer something special to our customers.
In the past year we have launched a series of incredible exclusive capsules from Prada, Ralph Lauren and visvim – to name a few – so we felt this was the right time to partner with more of a ‘hype’ brand to offer our customers something different. Off-White was of course the natural go-to, even more so with Virgil’s phenomenal presence in the industry at the moment which doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all.”
Which are your key pieces in the collection that you’d like to shout about? Why?
My favourite pieces in the collection are the silk camp-collar all-over logo shirt and the embroidered linen jacket, which hasn’t been done by Off-White before. The prints are the stand-out elements of this collection, the ‘Class of 2013’ print refers to Virgil’s debut Off-White collection while the number 23 is a reflection of the number used in his 2012 Pyrex Vision collection of tees, hoodies, basketball shorts etc., which is a nice reference to showcase how far Virgil has come in such a short space of time.
