Vanessa Seward Presents First Collection for Begg x Co
GOING PLACES: Vanessa Seward presented her first capsule collection for Begg x Co at Paris Fashion Week as the company embarks on a global retail expansion.
Since being named creative director of the Scottish cashmere brand, Seward has done a deep dive into luxury yarns. A fan of King Charles‘ “buy once, buy well” philosophy, she felt right at home at the company’s knitting base in Hawick, known as the home of cashmere.
The lineup of elegant wardrobe staples included a matching ribbed sweater and cable-knit skirt, dressed up with a belt and riding boots; a pink and red tie-neck sweater, and long cardigans with mother-of-pearl buttons that could be worn over jeans or as a dress.
Seward’s capsule spanned womenswear, menswear and home, and sat alongside the brand’s main collection. The speckled cashmeres had just a hint of country practicality, and many of the sweaters worked equally well for women and men.
“The idea is to keep the identity and just make it evolve,” she explained. “I’m probably going to add in more dresses and bottoms to make a real wardrobe.”
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Bruno Guillon, chief executive officer of Alex Begg, the 159-year-old Scottish manufacturer behind the label, is spearheading the store expansion drive that will include opening several locations in Japan under a new license with Toyoda Trading.
Begg x Co, which has just one boutique in London’s Burlington Arcade, is also in talks with potential partners in China, and is considering additional stores in Paris and New York City, he said.
“We’ve always had superb quality, but our distribution was not necessarily in line with our quality,” Guillon said. Sold at Harrods in London, it will soon enter Harvey Nichols and is talking to several Paris department stores, the former Hermès executive added.
Alex Begg is a subsidiary of Swedish industrial group Lindéngruppen. Hiring Seward, who has designed for Azzaro, A.P.C. and Bonpoint, as well as her own label, is crucial to this next phase, said Guillon, who took over as CEO a year ago.
“When you sell in markets as varied as Europe, the United States and Asia, it’s easy to get lost, so I think it’s very important to have a consistent creative vision,” he said. “We need to bring this touch of fashion and creativity and at the same time maintain our roots as manufacturers of very beautiful cashmere in Scotland.”
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