Uniform Union..meet Franck Ford & Seven Loy..Designing Minds

In today’s world of fashion, we are faced with many types of designers who offer us their interpretation of what they think you should be wearing.  The business of fashion is populated with its fair share of those who possess a modicum of talent.  On the flip side there is a rare segment that can be considered to be the true and genuine designers as they truly and genuinely design with their own point of view and not a version of someone else’s.  UNIFORM UNION falls into the latter, more elite group, without a doubt. 

Franck Ford and Seven Loy are fiercely devoted to the art, craft and business of fashion.  These are designers who should be recognized for their design prowess, work ethic, technical abilities and their perseverance in delivering the absolutely best quality product to only those appreciate their output.  All you need do is ask their devoted clients:  Maxfield in Los Angeles, Ikram in Chicago, A’maree’s in Newport Beach or Montaigne Market in Paris and a select few more internationally.

 

Here, we get the opportunity to get inside the heads of these two very talented men by means of a few questions that expose their thoughts  on a cross section of topics , but always with the common thread (pun intended) of fashion.  Franck Ford speaks for them both mostly…. Enjoy the conversation …

1- What are your most prized possessions?

  F ~my diamonds, a valium pill made by Philip Crangi and 2 cowboys at the adductor muscle area on the upper inside of my legs.  

   S~My artwork by David Hockney and Andy Warhol

 

2-If you could come back in the next life, who or what would you like to be ?

   F~again ?  ok I do it as a sheikh 

 

   S~myself 

 

3-Can you define or describe who your ideal customer would be?

  Would be or is ?  It is a modern woman with taste and no instruction menu made by the press; and a name would be Liliane Jossua owner of Montagine Market in her high heels on a hardcore Triumph bike cruising the Avenue Montainge in Paris. 

4-If you were not designers, what would you have chosen as a profession and why?

  F~ … an architect... I don’t like power outlets and doors.

  S~ … a painter because he loves it, it is his passion

5-When you prepare for a new collection, what is the process? Do you do mood boards with fabric swatches, sketches and color preferences? Can you describe the progression?

  It starts with conversations, drawing, photos and moods from any time and everywhere.  We have an archive of over a million ideas/images and we study them to see if there is a theme waiting to be used.   In the end, we order many fabrics and then we move into draping, shaping and returning to the archive and then mood board at this stage could be a piece of art for the Tate museum .We go insane at least twice and then minimalize our  styles to make it salable  .  We keep a few over the top styles and add basics … at the end we have a small strong collection of 30 looks ... the day when it’s done we wish we could do better but we don’t have the Alexander McQueen team .... . It’s about fabrics and the patternmakers and seamstresses.  

 6-If you could invite 4 people, dead or alive, to dinner who would they be and why?

  F~ Valentino and Grace Jones! I wear yellow …

  S~ David Hockney and Petra von Kant  

 

7- If you could be wardrobing a celebrity for the stage who would you select and why?

  Courtney Love in size 6  . why?...  She is Courtney Love and not a joke pop star, but as twisted as we are, we would also do Madonna a favor and get rid of spikes .    

8-What is the ultimate goal for Uniform Union?

   A team of seamstress, patternmakers and production partners who can do it with us  .also the ultimate goal is to stay as we are and grow into the top 50 doors around the world.  For the other 2000 doors we can do a diffusion line today !!!!  a perfume and shoes etc;  … all the USA

9-Being based in California, do you feel that you are missing out or do you think that fashion is so international today that it doesn’t matter where you are based as long as you are visible?

  Where we  are based is even worse, we are in Palm Springs  away from all of it  and that’s  perfect because we travel and inhale all the fashion inspirations and do our social contacts and exhale our art and craft in a design studio.  Next, a quick jump in the pool and mountain views with an amazing green wicked garden and no one can bother us .

 We drive once a week to LA for production and manage all business on Skype and emails .  One thing further to say is Franck Ford flies for a day to Paris to fix a string on a dress and we are not afraid of distance and travels.  Last week was China for 3 days and next week is India for a few days and then Paris.  Our base is like a vase, the vase from a genie in the bottle.  One click and we are somewhere else again .

10-What would you like to people to think or say when they hear the name Uniform Union?

 Last week in China they love the name. In L’Officiel yesterday, they just use UU as credit and we LOVE that.  People should think they are part of our UNION, family,  and our Uniform is our look.  An army of pearls and beads;   they should think I want to be a member on the front and in the front row!

 

 

11-What are your personal pet peeves?

  99%  .. If we see high waisted camel toe denim short we run into our oasis and wish for less of that  . We really don’t like open toe shoes.  Show people who namedrop are the worst and we don’t like fashion editors who don’t write about us … haha .  We are not crazy about tourists wherever and practical polyester pants with zipper on the knee that convert  them into cargos should be forbidden by law.  

 

12-what makes you happiest?

LOVE & LACE and people who believe in our work because we believe in others and support everyone we like in their craft or talent. We never go by trend or who it is.  AND THAT WE WANT TO SEE ALL AS OUR FAMILY …. UNIFORM UNION MAKES US HAPPY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c042LWvq8iA