TONY NEWSHAM___ LIFE AT COMME

Every time fashion designer Rei Kawakubo, founder of Comme des Garçons, presented a new collection in Paris, she turned to Tony Newsham with the same word, “Commercial?” Newsham, who became Vice President of Comme des Garçons, would have never have said “no”. Based in New York for 13 years, it was his job to realise Kawakubo’s vision for the American, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand markets. “Rei always designs for herself. That’s what makes her so unique,” adds Newsham, whose career path started in Australia.

Newsham, who founded the Trellini stores in both Melbourne and Sydney, opened his first menswear boutique in 1977. At the time, Italian labels ruled the roost, with labels such as Versace and Armani dominating high-end men’s fashion. That was until Rei Kawakubo presented her shattering deconstructed fashion collection in 1981 in Paris. “I first saw Comme at Browns in South Molton Street [London]. It was completely different to anything I’d been selling up until then, from the fabric to the cut,” says Newsham, recalling the baggy sweaters, often riddled with holes, and the boxy-style jackets. “Even their shirts had a different edge,” adds Newsham, recalling the knitted patches combined with the pinstripe cotton shirts.

By 1983 the final word on Japanese fashion, centred on Comme des Garçons, was out there across the globe. At first, there was some resistance from Newsham’s clientele. But as men ditched their stitched-up suits, the demand for Comme grew. However, by the mid-1990s, with an economic turndown, Newsham closed his stores and headed abroad. After being the largest customer for Comme in Australia for more than a decade, Newsham was approached by Comme President Adrian Joffe to take on the position of General Manager for Comme. “At the time, I was looking for a job, and I knew the Comme products intimately,” says Newsham. “You couldn’t have worked for a better label. By then, it was truly well-established.”

One of Newsham’s first tasks was overseeing a new flagship store on West 22nd Street, New York, an arts rather than a clothing precinct. “Rei has always aligned herself to the arts community,” says Newsham. Rather than a retail-shopping strip, the warehouse shell, formerly a car body factory called Heavenly Workshop was completely transformed by Future Systems, a UK architectural practice. The only sign of Comme’s presence is an extruded aluminium canopy that forms the start of the shop’s ‘tunnel’. When the store opened at the start of the millennium, there were queues halfway down West 22nd Street. “That queue went on for months, particularly with all the coverage given by The New York Times.”

While Newsham knew how to sell the various collections to buyers, he also had an innate talent for sourcing some of the most prized manufacturers and creatives worldwide. The company, Dry Shod, based in Italy, was approached for its ability to produce high-end shoes with a point of difference. Later, in 2010, Newsham orchestrated larger collaborations, including Converse and Comme’s success with sneakers. “That’s the challenge. Finding the right people in the world to collaborate with,” says Newsham.

As time went on and Newsham’s role expanded, becoming Vice President of Comme, so did the amount of travel. There were trips to Japan four times every year and four times to Paris to see the Comme collections, both men’s and women’s. And of course, given his task of overseeing the Australian market, part of the year was spent travelling Down Under.

Irrespective of how adventurous each collection was, including memorable collections such as the bump in the 1990s Newsham’s role was to sell Rei Kawakubo’s vision. Department stores such as Saks and Bergdorf Goodman were likely taken back each time a new collection was presented. “I found that if you explained the ideas behind each collection, the buyers became more receptive, irrespective of how avant-garde it was,” says Newsham, who thinks even the term ‘avant-garde’ is now a little dated.

As well as explaining concepts to key buyers, Newsham was also aware of the size of each collection, often numbering up to 340 pieces. “There are usually three deliveries. It’s not unlike building a bridge, where each delivery forms a piece of the total structure. Buyers needed to understand the full concept that was realised over a period of time,” says Newsham.

While Newsham had secured an important position at the top of the Comme apex, in 2011, after attending his daughter’s wedding in Melbourne, he made the decision to leave the company. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t long before Colombian designer Amelia Toro approached Newsham to establish a presence for her fashion label in the American market. And while Amelia Toro is now firmly ensconced on New York’s 10th Avenue, Newsham is finally back in Melbourne.

Although Newsham has stepped back from the fashion industry, he continually receives emails from ex-colleagues, suppliers and friends looking for leads. “I want to remain here, without all the travel that fashion demands,” says Newsham, who delights in the memories of his early beginnings. “See that store [in Collins Street, Melbourne]? That’s were I first introduced Comme. And let me tell you, in the early 1980s, getting Comme accepted took considerably more than pointing out a few holes in sweaters.”

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