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A fashion show, a new shop and a busy season ahead. Sara Villiers pOpped into Cruise to find out what makes designer clothing leave the shelves.
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The East/West coast rivalry has a lurking and ludicrous omnipresence. The ongoing subtle war of contrasts between the first and second cities has entered the fashion arena — itself a tense battleground of individuals competing for the title of hipper-than-thou. Pundits are declaring that the inhabitants of Edinburgh, who have long lagged behind trendsetting Glaswegians, are becoming increasingly style conscious.
Fashion guru, James Gibson, whose company Cruise has been in the vanguard ofstreet-level haute couture, has gauged the mood of the moment and is about to open a new shop in St Mary Street. Cruise, who moved north of the border from Newcastle in ’82 to establish a shop in Rose Street, met with more fervent appreciation in Glasgow. They quickly expanded and now occupy three shops in Renfield Street — two menswear and one female. Gibson and his wife Jane who formed the company with him, were never surprised at their success in Glasgow; ‘There's a long tradition of Glaswegians working hard and playing hard,’ he says ‘they‘ve always been big fashion consumers, spending their money on clothes and going out at the weekend. Edinburgh is starting to catch up‘.
Steven Melrose agrees. A part-time assistant at Cruise in Rose Street with an entrepreneurial spirit, he has organised 0 Zone, a forthcoming fashion extravaganza at the Fruitmarket Gallery, to publicise the new Cruise shop. Fashion slots are a gimmick increasingly utilised by clubs, with events like ‘The Hype‘ in Glasgow generating a lot of , attention. A Commerce student at Napier College, Steven (21), has been involved in the club scene for years and had been looking for an opportunity to put together a large-scale event. “Edinburgh is beginning to tie in clubs and fashion. In Glasgow nightlife and clothes have always gone hand in hand, the clubgoers have had a reputation for , . I I being incredibly well-dressed. That - _ , kind ofdesign awareness is booming 4 in Edinburgh.‘ '
The Gibson‘s search for interesting clothes of high quality takes them on constant tiring trips around the world to Florence, Milan, Paris, Dusseldorf, Cologne, London and Barcelona— where interest is increasingly focused on the young
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The List 29 September- 12 October 1989 69