Condé Nast College of Fashion plays host to Simeon Fararr

After staging David Gandy in July, Simeon was next up on the club’s enviable calendar, interviewed by long-standing member, Donna Ida Thornton. Owning a retail mecca of denim boutiques, the jean queen grilled Simeon on outlandish London Fashion Week stunts, ducking lawsuits against Dior and Chanel, and causing chaos with partner in crime, Cara Delevingne.

“For a brand to get anywhere you have to take some risks,” revealed the artist-cum-designer to a full house of Industry members sipping cocktails courtesy of Sassy Drinks and Brokers Gin. The event was packed to the rafters with designers, editors, stylists, photographers, retailers, consultants and more.

Back in 2012, Black Score burst onto the fashion radar when he staged an impromptu and unauthorised catwalk through the courtyard of Somerset House. “I’ve been kicked out of Somerset House three times,” Simeon admitted. “However, the press we got from the first London Fashion Week Black Score stunt was more than we’d get if we had a stand.”

In fact, being chucked out of Somerset House has been the least of Simeon’s worries over the last few years

Breaking the rules is a winning formula integral to Simeon’s business plan. Referring to himself as a “spanner in the works”, Simeon explains that “as an artist, seasons were quite hard to come to terms with at first” and therefore, Black Score works to a six week lead-time.

“It allows me to react to certain things, a lot of companies can’t react to things quickly – in six months the moment has passed.” When Donna drew parallels between Black Score and Tamara Mellon’s new buy-now-wear-now model, Simeon joked: “Tamara has totally ripped me off!”

However, it is endorsement from the world’s top supermodels that has really pushed Black Score into the upper echelons. The million-dollar question: how did Simeon win the heart of Cara Delevingne?

“As with anything, it didn’t start with any kind of plan – total fluke!” Simeon confessed. “We went around London Fashion Week and took pictures of people in the t-shirts. Cara and Jourdan were coming out of the Topshop Unique show surrounded by paps. I didn’t even know who they were, but I got someone to give them a t-shirt and got snaps – that’s how we met.”

In true Black Score style, Simeon dismissed traditional methods of professional correspondence, instead embracing the power of social media. “We kept in touch through Twitter,” the designer adds. The rest is history.

The Industry