Millhouse unveiled the Trafalgar Collection over the weekend. Here we give a profile of the designer.
Millhouse Design
Name: Gregory Mills
Brand: Millhouse Clothing Company
Number of years in existence: 11 yrs
Your niche: Sports Wear or Out Wear for discerning men. We have a ready to wear designer line and we also produce custom clothing.
Biggest accomplishment to date: Can’t say
How did you get into the industry: a ‘pardner’ in south taught me to sew a shirt and a pant so I could help him out in the shop. When I was ready to make my break, I left south with nothing; not even an old sewing machine, but I had a clientele. I opened a shop on Charlotte Street, and in the earlies, I slept on the floor because I didn’t have enough money to travel between Port of Spain and south every day.
Favourite International Designer: Giorgio Armani, and lately Oswald Boateng
Why: I like Boateng because of the way he came out of nowhere and now is on top of the market – a fresh new designer clothing names like Jaime Fox. He’s English, but is clothing the big stars of Hollywood.
Armani is inspiration –well fitting suits, plain, clean lines with detailing, simplicity. People think that designing is ridiculous clothing; Armani has disproved that by having clean lines with amazing detailing – wearable art!
One thing you would like to change about the local or regional fashion industry: If I could only get it through the heads of my fellow regional and local practitioners that it is not a competition – cause if it is, I am to see anybody win!
It is about you doing what you do – Heather Jones doing what she does best, Zadd and Eastman doing what they do best, Millhouse doing what we do best. People buy labels…. Armani customers will NOT wear Hugo Boss, because his fit and cut are different.
Do YOUR thing, and everyone will prosper; the customer buys what the customer wants and likes. None of the designers in T+T could clothe all the designer buying customers in the country…impossible!!! Each has their own tastes.
We need to come together, helping each other, with a shared vision……then we can see changes and difference. Unless we do that, we will NEVER be an industry….we have no standards, no unity, everyone is trying a thing in their own corner. This puts us at a disadvantage, because we are expending energy that should be put into each of us making ourselves better, and building the industry.
We need to strive for the quality of a master tailor in Italy or France. To do that, we MUST come together to strive for standards and for one platform from which we can be recognised and from which we can bargain, and stand up and be recognised as a group worthy of notice and recognition and praise.
