ThreeAsFour Final 2/4 - (A) Brand audit

After almost three months, I finally got this done. As I mentioned in the very beginning, ThreeAsFour is a very young brand that it is quite difficult for us to find their information through the web or in other ways. The order of colors from them may be in consistent at first which is quite confusing while analyzing. However, my groupmates and I have overcame these problems eventually.

Since there is too much information in the for the final report, I decided to divide it into three parts. This is the first post of the final report. (So please make sure you read them all.Thanks!)

A) Brand audit
B) Analysis of the color orders
C) Color forecasting 09 F/W

In this entry, it contains the brand audit that my groupmates and I did at the early stage, I have tried to organize again in order to make it more clear.

A) Brand audit

1) Profile of "ThreeASFOUR" (and "ASFOUR") and design theory
2) Designers' biography
3) Downtown in New York and the influences to its use of color

1) Profile of ThreeAsFour

(starts from left) Kai=Germany, Gabi=Lebanon, Ange=Russia, Adi=Israel

ThreeAsFour was originally formed as AsFour by 4 people. 2 men: Kai Kuhne from Germany, Gabi Asfour from Lebanon, and 2 women: Ange Donhauser from Russia, Adi Gil from Israel. ASFOUR made its runway debut in the New York fashion week in 2001. It was best known for its "circle bag"
(see fig 1 on right hand side)

However Kai left and set his own line in 2005, the three remains continue their fashion collectives in the name of ThreeAsFour.

Design elements and style

- They are regarded as avant-garde designers
- Their designs are mainly inspired by the natural world - the anatomy of the human body, plants and animals whose graceful forms exemplify perfection in design, balance and motion (see the tag on the right hand side)

1) Unusual curve cut
2) Asymmetric and off beat silhouettes
3) Medium-chroma colour are used mainly

1) Unusual curve cut

2) Asymmetric and off beat silhouettes

3) Regard to the outfits above, medium-chroma colors are used mainly. High-chroma or other alternative colors are used as the embellishing colors.

Target customers
- Urban individualist and the who enjoys being noticed
(e.g BJork and Mariah Maray are in love with it)

2) Designers' biography

Adi Gil and Angela Donhauser met each other as a fashion student in Munich since 1991. At that time, people have already thought that they are avant-garde (<--some may treats them as weird)After graduation, they moved to New York. Adi and Angela began styling for Paper and working in the now-defunct store dressing room where they met Gabi Asfour. (he was enlisting others' help for ths first solo collection at that time) Kai Kuhne, whose allowance has been cut off by his parents after his dropped out the Economy studies in Hamburg went to New York eventually. Though his male-modeling career wasn’t going quite as planned, it's a fate for being introduced by mutual friends to threesome. They are all avant-garde and have their unique ability. They are all very talented and when four combine together, it sparkles.

3) Downtown in New York

At that time, New York was in a style funk. As they said, they were told that New York was dying out. In response, they set out to become beacons since they have their own views on styles and fashion; it makes them start influencing over downtown fashion.

Chinatown
In such a style funk period, some young designers find a new frontier in New York- Chinatown, which is a destination for large numbers of Chinese immigrants since the mid-19^th century. From the late 1990s the area hosted the workspaces of several young fashion labels while ThreeAsFour became one of the neighbourhood’s fashion trailblazers. They have lived and worked at their silver-painted Chinatown loft since foundingtheir label in 1998.

Chinatown seems impossibly far removed from fashion’s power centre of retailers and press. Its chaotic street-level commerce creates the sensation of what Ange referred to as ‘being on our own planet’. She even praised Chinatown’s relative lack of gentrification by saying ‘ It’s a little unspoiled. It isn’t hip or trendy. It keeps us real because we’re with the real people: the immigrant Spanish, Chinese, and Pureto Ricans’ .

(snapshots at studio in Chinatown)

From the statements above, it is obvious that they are always inspired by the whole thing of living in Chinatown. When designing a collection or even creating art-piece, both internal and external impacts may affect. Where does the idea come from? I believe that it usually comes from daily lives. Your living style definitely has a great influence to your design. Same for ThreeAsFour, they are inspired by this city, this specific place. It reflects in the themes of their designs, (e.g. they are seldom inspired by the concrete world and some artificial atuff.)and also the use of colors.