Art house fashion

Savvy business sense has become paramount in these recessionary times, a reality Laing explains to have hit fashion houses as hard as retailers. "I don't think it's business as usual at all," says the designer when asked about the economy. "I think everyone is really focusing on how better to do business and how to bring things to the customer and how to be more efficient and how to be more cost effective." Laing's own label is reexamining everything against the status quo, from promotion to showing to the size of the collection. "We're looking at every aspect of the business and seeing where our market is being underexplored and how can we better serve the stores," he shares.

The business of designer Dries Van Noten has been particularly inspiring to Laing, as has the Belgian couturier's approach to fashion. Praises Laing: "I like people who have a personal signature, who aren't really swayed by trend, who have an artful and thoughtful way of doing things."

The business of designer Dries Van Noten has been particularly inspiring to Laing, as has the Belgian couturier's approach to fashion.

The signature of Laing's own oeuvre is rooted in the classic tailoring, beginning with the patterns, constructed and cut by the designer himself. "It's something I'm really focused on personally, I normally do all my patterns," he explains. "I'm very involved in the process of creating the shape and the construction, which is not entirely typical internationally but I think it's important and gives the work a specific result and it tends to be the working method of people I admire."

Like those Laing admires, the international fashion media has lionized the designer for the sui generis nature of his vision. And, as seen in his collaboration with the Canadian Pavilion and his stunning fall/winter 2009 ad campaign featuring Canadian model Heather Marks, however globalized Laing's career has become, it continues to be streaked with a charming sense of Northern patriotism.

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