Interview with Gant Rugger Head Designer Christopher Bastin
Christopher Bastin is the Swedish-raised head designer at Gant. His devotion to studying brand history has been ironically visionary; his work has garnered unceasing customer and media attention. Since his tenure began, we’ve seen the most wearable Rugger collections yet, and today, the opening of the Rugger Shop on Bleecker Street. Read on to find about Mr. Bastin’s career in fashion, his approach to revamping the Rugger line, his vision of this summer, and his plans for the future.
Prepidemic Magazine: First we just wanted to talk to you about your design background.
Christopher Bastin: So I have no formal design education at all. Basically, when I was young, I was supposed to start working at this record store because I wanted to be a rock star like everybody else. But it turned out to be a record store that sold only classical music. It was totally the wrong place for me. So I went across the street, asked this clothing store if they needed help, and I was very fortunate to start working there. This was all in Sweden. I worked there for a couple years. Eventually, I started as a buyer’s assistant at H&M. And I just got more and more involved in buying. Then I worked at Acne, but basically Gant was the first place I started working 100 percent on the creative end. I came from a product developer background and started working as a designer at Gant 5 years ago.
Rugger S/S '10
Prepidemic Magazine: What drew you to Gant Rugger – Swedish owned, but definitely American influenced in design?
Christopher Bastin: I’ve always been very interested in the history behind brands and what makes a brand interesting. At first, what I did at Gant was design shirts. All the shirts. I realized when you start scratching the surfaces of Gant, there’s all this history, which is something that we in Sweden don’t really know about. And Gant has been run from Sweden, designed there, since the beginning of the 80s. People thought of Gant as a Swedish brand. And yet it kind of got lost that Gant was one of the American sportswear originators, starting in 1949. And it got lost in our country as well. When I started at Gant 5 years ago, there was nothing in our office pre-1980s. We didn’t really know what to do with the brand, how to get it coherent. So what happened is, I started buying all this vintage stuff from eBay and all around.
I was asked to take over as head designer at Gant Rugger, so I would be able to do everything myself. Since I started doing that at Gant, I’ve been able to look at the company’s history and take Gant back to basics.
Prepidemic Magazine: How did you come to get a sense of American sportswear?
Christopher Bastin: I’m born and raised in Sweden, so our view of American sportswear, of preppy, of sporty, is very different there. So what I think we were trying to do before was try to create American sportswear in the way that we thought it was. But the more I learned, and the more interested I became, and the more I started reading about it – it was a learning process. And when I bought Take Ivy a few years ago, it showed this preppy look a way I had never seen it. It was just a super easy look, and I began to see Gant Rugger in a new light. I wanted Gant Rugger to be a perfect brand for guys. And I think it’s really easy to like. People should be able to come into the Gant Rugger store and find anything they like.
Prepidemic Magazine: How have you seen the Gant aesthetic change from when you took over as Head Designer at GANT Rugger?
Christopher Bastin: When I started working there we were all over the place. Some seasons it became more Scandinavian. But I wanted to base a lot of the work on actual Gant history. I wanted to recreate the old shoulder construction, recreate the look of our shirts like we did in the ‘70s. Sometimes you read fashion magazines and you get a lot of inspiration from what other brands do, but it gets a lot easier to just look at the history of your brand. Hopefully now it looks a lot more “Ganty,” a lot cleaner than it used to.
Prepidemic Magazine: What’s been your role in getting this new shop off the ground?
Christopher Bastin: We had an architect. He and I worked together a bit. We knew it should look very different from the regular Gant store. We wanted something that was a bit more quirky and something that was a bit more personal. We liked the idea of going back to our tradition. So it’s got old sewing machines in it, it feels like a factory almost.
Prepidemic Magazine: What do you think Summer ’10 is all about?
Christopher Bastin: Again, going back to the basics – a pair of denim shorts and your old favorite shirt. We’ve also got a couple of outerwear pieces that turned out really nice. We have a waxed poplin jacket. It’s very, very thin and it’s super.
We’re also launching an oxford pullover. That’s also something Gant did really early on – these popovers. I don’t know that we were the first to do them, but we were definitely one of the first. That will launch very soon.
Rugger S/S '10
Prepidemic Magazine: How does one wear a popover? It feels half like an oxford shirt and half like something you’re supposed to pullover other stuff.
Christopher Bastin: Just wear it with a pair of really worn in jeans or a pair of really old khakis. It feels like a really casual item. On the other hand, our CEO, he wore it the other day with a tie, so it can be more formal, but I wear it very, very casual.
Prepidemic Magazine: Seems like a really auspicious time for Rugger. Where do you see the line down the road?
Christopher Bastin: Basically, on the US market, we are in so many great stores right now – I can’t believe it. And it’s been happening so fast. Gant Rugger is designed for the US market primarily and international sales have been sort of an added bonus. For now, we just want to keep growing and maintaining our classic aesthetic.
Check out our preview of the new Gant Rugger store here.
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