Gant’s New Creative Director Christopher Bastin Talks Menswear, Bloggers, and Horrible Sketches

See how the Swedish native got his position at the classic all American brand.

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Complex Original

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Wax-Wane's latest interview is with the newly-promoted Gant Creative Director, Christopher Bastin. The Q&A reveals the Swede is just another down-to-earth guy with a cool job. He vents through his Tumblr, Ripped Back Pocket, and is a big supporter of menswear bloggers. With little training as a designer—he describes his sketches as "horrible"—but a wealth of experience in the fashion industry, he was hired as shirt designer for Gant and then gradually moved his way up to where he sits now. Check for some excerpts of the interview below, and visit the Wax-Wane website for the rest.

Excerpts via Wax-Wane:

What was the motivation behind starting Ripped Back Pocket, and how do you think it helps you as a designer?

I started writing the blog back in 2007, I think I had 2 readers for the first year; I’m actually still blown away every time someone knows about it, so first of all, thank you for reading. I kind of needed a vent for all the stuff that was going on inside my head that I couldn’t get out of my system other ways. I’m pretty narrow minded when it comes to what’s interesting (Basically food, art and old clothes) so I just had to share.  Sometimes “I get feelings“ and in that sense the blog has become a great way to thank people who inspires me, that’s probably the best part of it, to give some of the love back.  I also love the fact that there are dudes like Sean Hotchkiss who answered the question “Who has the best tumblr” with “Tumblr? I don’t get on that shit.”

What was it about Rugger that made you want to design there, and how did all of that come about?

I think it was a natural step, I started designing shirts at GANT, and that included the newly re-launched Rugger By Gant line. But at that time we were 6 different designers doing each department, so there was no coherency between the season, and no specific handwriting to it. My CEO liked what I had going with the shirts and knew I was a geek for our history and heritage and said “Hey, why don’t you just do it all.” Dream gig.

You’ve always been very outspoken in your supporter for menswear bloggers, how do you feel the internet has impacted menswear, both in your own work and as a whole?

Last couple of years I think Street style and the likes of Scott, Tommy Ton, William Yan and groupings like Lawrence Schlossman, Sean Hotchkiss, and Zeph Colombatto have had a huge impact on the kind of style we work with. Trade show coverage has become more important than the runway, it’s utterly democratic and I love it.  Why sit at the first row when you can BE the first row, you know?

[wax-wane]

 

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