What with the red and white Virgin logo popping up as often as Richard Branson's hot air balloon comes down, it is no surprise that when the Virgin Clothing Company first hit the rails in Britain last summer everyone expected the collection to be plastered with logos, lettering and even perhaps with Branson's grinning face. But Branson is also known for delivering the unexpected, and the clothes range, which will be available in Brown Thomas stores from next week was certainly a pleasant surprise. Logos and branding were hard to find whereas clean lines, interesting fabrics and a kind of up-to-the-minute functionality were hard to miss.
There were capsule collections for men and women that offered the type of clothes that blur the lines between work and leisure gear - loose pants and to-the-knee skirts featured alongside street-style outerwear. It's a modern look and one unfazed about the debt it owes to street fashion rather than catwalk style.
Simon Glasgow, the CEO of Virgin Clothing, started putting together the label in 1996 after 12 years working as general manager for the brand Timberland in Europe. His main brief was for a clothing collection that was international rather than a brand purely for British retailers. He put together focus groups around Britain to get some impression of what the customer wanted and the results very much influenced the way the brand took shape.
"First of all we asked whether Virgin should get involved in fashion at all and the answer came back that yes, it would fit in with the other areas of the Virgin group - music, travel and so on. "However, there was an apprehension that as Virgin matures they are throwing the brand onto everything. So we decided to go for the strong points associated with the brand, namely that it's good value, quirky and fun. It's fair to say that a lot of people thought we'd just be turning out T-shirts, jeans and baseball caps."
Originally the brief from Branson had been for a jeans label, but Glasgow was wary of concentrating solely on these type of clothes. "So I went to Richard and said that I thought the denim market would be fine for a year or two but that I felt it was going to get rough. I also felt we shouldn't get caught just knocking off versions of other people's clothes with our label on them but do something completely new." Branson knows a good idea when he sees it and agreed to a clothing range that went beyond just denimwear.
The result is a collection that the company likens to a designer diffusion range such as Polo or CK, but with more realistic prices. They claim the money saved by not using a big-name designers goes into ensuring the garments are of the highest quality. "We were never going to be a brand known for one figurehead. The collection is put together by four young designers and Richard Branson is hardly a name you'd automatically associate with high fashion," Glasgow points out.
In their first six months of trading, they feel it's a point that has worked in their favour.
The pieces that make up the Virgin Clothing collection are not garments that are going to make headlines on the catwalk, and nor are they going to shout marvellous messages about your personality when you wear them.
Colourwise the spring/summer collection coming to Ireland is predominantly neutral - black, white, navy and every shade of taupe/stone/beige under the sun. However, this is undoubtedly a strength rather than a weakness. Most people rely on pieces such as these; well-cut black trousers, long-sleeved T-shirts and shirts, jeans that fit, all with some touch to make them slightly unusual. Spicing up the collection are interesting pockets, skirt lengths or shirt details as well as pieces like a zip-up high necked gilet that is smart and, right now, a fashion essential. For men there are bowling shirts and Mod-style zip-up harrington jackets in navy and black. What they are is simple, well-shaped garments that are perhaps best matched with other, more colourful or dynamic wardrobe favourites.
Glasgow and his team found the pieces that flew out of the shops for the first collection were the younger, sexy pieces in the womenswear range and the youthful parts of the mens collection. "Interestingly, they were the pieces that best summed up how Virgin sticks out as a brand; innovative, good quality and just a little bit cheeky." The way in which the spring/summer collection sticks out is in the use of unusual fabrics such as stretch gabardine for a pair of tailored jeans or a smart, fitted jacket made up in smooth, matt nylon.
So has the ubiquitous Virgin branding worked for or against Branson as he tried to move into the notoriously hoity-toity world of cutting-edge fashion? "I think Virgin as a brand polarises people; they'll either say `I would never wear anything with a Virgin logo' or they'll idenitfy it as a brand that offers good value and good fun."
As for Branson himself, he wears it all the time and was quite happy for his daughter Holly to model it in Cosmopolitan magazine last year. "He's a man who likes to do things quickly so I think he'd prefer it if I was set up world-wide by now," Glasgow laughs. "But he likes the quality and really, I think he's very proud of it."
