Well who knew eh, after nine years of chasing the end of the White Label rainbow it's actually finally really in sight and within grasp.
Yeah Yeah Yeah, what is all this White Label crackle everyone is banging on about, who cares?
Okay, for those who've followed the Pretty Green brand since the very start the myth of a White Label has dodged about endlessly. We've had Green and Black Label's, we've had collaborations and Theme Label. We even had Denim Label for a period, bring that one right back I say.
Over the years the myth of White Label has taken on many unfocused shapes, never really firming into anything solid. It's something that has been spoken of by the folks at Pretty Green pretty much from the off in 2009, it gathered huge pace at the legendary Tribe nights where secrets and plans were aired to the loyal and like minded over a beer or 12.
It's remained in conversations ever since, usually resurfacing every 18-24 months. The rumours would swirl round, 'ah tell ye man, my best mate's Mum once served a bloke a pint of milk and his pal is an ex of the bloke who once tried a jumper on in Pretty Green. White Label is nailed on for next month'. We've waited and waited....
There have been quite a few options for a White Label shared, among them:
It'll be a best of the best label, the very best materials and designs to form a collection that sits above Black Label
It would be a hand-picked by Liam Best Of Collection of the best PG has to offer
It would be a Best of PG collection
It would be a unique collection of designs, pulled together for Liam to wear
and some others I have likely forgotten, the Tribe will remind me I'm sure
As always, the standard disclaimer, if you don't like the gear, the style or anything else, I am not in the business of trying to convert you or trying to tell you how to spend your hard earned. It's just a view, the same as yours. Each to their own, etc.
So, what are we getting.....well, we know Liam wears it and I can't see a Fool On The Hill in sight anywhere on PG's previews.....don't think we need Sherlock here.
The biggest open secret in the world is that the rock n roll swagger of a certain William Gallagher has been helped along in the last couple of years by the layering of the finest cloth cut in the designs he wants to wear.
Does LG wear PG, of course he fucking does. He wore it for the recent MTV Unplugged session. Don't believe the negative hype, there's been plenty of PG in plain sight.
PG pulled a flanker, the blink and you'll miss it slight of hand. Liam wears a lot of brands that feature minimum branding, how could we have seen the White Label goodness? Well, if you use your inbuilt eye zoom feature attached to your face camera, on a number of images of LG you'll spot a small square white outline randomly on a number of the pieces he's sported, that was your little sneaky hint from the PG Design team. Naughty Naughty.
That little detail isn't on the final produced pieces, alongside some other small tweaks designed to create the best look.
Yep, they do have slightly different details to Liam's, but remember who would have wanted the changes made....
So what did we get....3 pieces of Outerwear and a pair of shoes. The shoes we'll come back to.
The outerwear pieces all show off the military influence that fills their design, no great shocks with Liam being a very big fan of military styling. The pieces are of course designed to be worn by Liam himself, and he's been giving them a good run out the last 18 months or so, helping tweak the designs to the finished pieces we are able to purchase today.
PG have gone out of their way to source a Japanese cotton they like, added some pixie dust in the dye process and BOSH, we have the jackets. And in quite an array of colours which massively surprised me. I was expecting the usual procession of khaki, black and navy, so it was good to see some eye popping blasts.
They've even gone to the bother of corozo buttons coloured to the fabric, looks a lot cleaner than the usual polished brown version. A good touch.
And no obvious branding, very well played. I admire the way the likes of say Engineered Garments don't feel a need for over-branding, good to see PG do the same here.
The shoes, well the shoes are something a number of people have been desperate to see for a long time now. It's a style, again, Liam has been wearing to nail down the design from the prototype to the finished production article. It's fair to say the hype for these has quite likely reached the same heights as for White Label.
So......
It's just a load of re-hashed Stone Island innit. Well, if we're going with that we're going to have throw in APC, Arpenteur, Folk, Albam, Enginnered Garments, Nanamica, Barbour, Universal Works, Ten C, Nigel Cabourn, Beams Plus, OrSlow and a whole host of others. Yes, some of it looks like some Stone Island pieces,of course it does, it also looks like the gear from loads of other brands as well. Best just to agree they all make similar looking military influenced gear or that the whole lot of them are ripping each other off. The fuckers.
I agree, it does look like Stone Island, well the Overhead does. But it really does look like so many other brands as well.
We could just not bother comparing, and just review the pieces on their merit as a Pretty Green item. Bollocks to what others are doing. Like it, buy it, Don't like it, crash the cash on something else you prefer and enjoy it.
Pricing, always a tricky topic. It's a designer brand and its new items on their first ever release of a new coveted label, it was never going to have pricing aligned to say Green Label. It is not cheap. It is also not shite, which keeps the price up. Exclusive Japanese fabrics cost wedge. A little tag inside mugs you and I out of wedge, but that's the deal when you buy a label or a designer item. We all know that, we all made that deal with the devil when we started buying this stuff. Otherwise we'd all fuck off to Asda for a £4 t-shirt.
For me personally, the pieces have come in slightly under where I expected if I'm honest. Again, that's not me saying it's cheap, I just think the price point is less than I thought it would be. In comparison to a lot of the brands above, yeah, it's likely coming in about where it likely falls.
When things went tits up for PG not that long ago, the cries were for a return to the PG of old, that premium edge. Well this feels like the start of that. We're not being asked to flash out £675 on a coat, but we are being asked to pay a premium price for what they believe is a premium product. When the orders are delivered we'll know how we all feel about that.
Everyone sets their own budget, for those that feel this is too tall an order I keep the fingers and toes crossed that some may make it to the Sale and you can rock in at a price you feel fair.
Pricing is emotional, if you feel it is too expensive then it is and there is no argument there. If you feel you can afford it and want to buy it, crack on.
Here's a look at the items we got, I've used the brighter options simply because it makes it easier to see the detailing on them.
Peace&Love&Mercy, theSub