Tiaan Nagel is not new to fashion. In 2007, he won the ELLE New Talent Award and opened his eponymous brand, “inspired by contemporary art and with great attention to craftsmanship and detail”. Three years later he became the creative director at the now-defunct local brand Marion and Lindie, and in 2014 started his career as editor, first at the Sunday Times’ Fashion Weekly supplement and then at House & Leisure.

Six months ago, the designer, now 37, decided to relaunch his womenswear brand and opened a store in Hyde Park, Johannesburg. The store pays homage to African craft and design, with pieces from Nagel’s collection, dubbed ‘Remember You Are Summer’ 2019/2020, inspired by ceramics from local artists Rorkes Drift, Esias Bosch and Andrew Walford, as well as poetry by Ntokozo Mbokazi. And then the lockdown happened.

He says, “I relaunched my business six months ago after a tiresome time in magazines because I wanted to be part of creating beauty again, working at it, crafting something instead of reporting, documenting or editing it. The constant panic about the future of media in the country left me uninspired. I really took my time and crafted every small detail from directing the exact curve of the new logo with super creatives at Unknown Design, to collaborating with TONIC on the interior for the first flagship store in Hyde Park Corner to planning a road trip with my four-year-old precious boy to the Midlands to visit master potter Andrew Walford for some pieces for the store.

“The last six months were a glorious blur and everything I wanted when I left media. I felt brave. It was exciting to figure it all out and go and hunt every piece of cloth for the new collection. And then Covid-19 happened and it all came to an immediate halt. First, clients started phoning and cancelled their forward orders. Then, the mall slowly started quietening down. Then the forced lockdown. I’m supposed to be producing the winter range but the factories and ateliers we use are closed. The pattern-makers and tailors are at home. Fashion is totally weird, it seems small and charming sketching some new ideas but the fashion industry is really big, it’s almost mechanical, it relies on many moving parts and is extremely collaborative. When you don’t have the tools to produce a range or have the artisans to make the items or the platforms that are super crucial to sell your product the whole process stands still.

“So, I panic. I panic about my staff, about my product, about the sales expectations when the store finally re-opens. The running costs. The actual season and what that all means. Do we skip winter in terms of production and go straight into summer production for August?”

While at home, Nagel uses his Moleskine, the Milan-manufactured leather-bound notebooks and sketchbooks modelled on the notebooks Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway used, to jot down his thoughts and fears along with drawings and dreams about the next collections.

“I have used Moleskine since early high school – I like the fact that it feels abstract and very basic on the outside, anonymous, but also very luxurious, which is great for everyday use.

Image by Tiaan Nagel

Image by Tiaan Nagel

Image by Tiaan Nagel

“I have to be brutally honest, I’m finding the whole Covid-19 uncertainty loaded with anxiety. I’m usually extremely sorted, confident and on the go, frank … way too often too frank, maybe even crude occasionally, but this process at home is unnerving. I usually like making to-do lists in my notebooks, quick notes to the production team, doodles and close-up detailed drawings of how I would like the garments stitched and finished off, ideas of new prototypes for the store but with the studio shut and the store closed due to the forced lockdown my Moleskine seems a lot more personal now. Sure, there’re still sketches and to-do lists but a few of my insecurities also crept in and I often find myself now scribbling random thoughts.”

Once a working tool, the Moleskine is now a place of introspection for Nagel. “I like that I have all my thoughts grouped in one item. I like that it feels basic and equally luxurious. I like the yellow tint of the paper. I like that I don’t have to share it. I have had Moleskine diaries, notebooks and drawing books and I love that they neatly stack on top of each other. A totem of black spines bound in leather. I like the fact that, unlike fashion, it’s seasonless – it’s simple and super effective. I occasionally cheat on them with a handmade book from my master maker Lunetta Bartz, but mostly reach for my Moleskines at the office. They are always packed and ready for holidays,” says Nagel.

“I watched this great documentary on Julian Schnabel, ‘A private portrait’, during lockdown, and it made me appreciate the personal and immediate process of sketching and doodling – the art of making something now. Everything is so over-produced, overworked and perfected that we have lost the appreciation for a handwritten note or sketch in ink on paper. It’s so gestural and emotive. I’m also studying and working on some shapes for the next range and looking at artist Zander Blom’s intense abstract artworks. So, today, while [writing], I’m working through all of the visuals in my Moleskine. It’s a basic process of sketching and writing, but I like that I still get to do that.”

Image by Tiaan Nagel

Image by Tiaan Nagel

Zander Blom Studio 18

As is the case for many other creatives, the lockdown has had a huge impact on his newly launched business.

“It will redirect my business in a direction that I’m not sure about. I’m sure this will force some new innovative ways of thinking around some of the obstacles but for the most part, it left me with uncertainty. On the one hand, we still have to pay our rent and look after our staff and on the other, we have no production of clothes happening and no sales for this period. And I think what freaks me out is what will the effect of all this be in a few months’ time. Even if lockdown is done and we are back at it, what would the landscape be and how would my small business navigate that? But, the reality is, it’s affecting everyone, from my staff, to the fabric suppliers to my customers. This imprint will be lasting and we all have to find a way around it,” he says.

Nagel adds that in today’s South Africa it is tough trying to work at achieving your dreams. “It’s expensive. And it’s full of responsibilities. But fashion design and clothes really run through my veins. It’s all I want to do. This is the thing I choose to work on. To figure out and make a career out of. Covid-19 will pass and I’ll still be a fashion designer and a creative. What I’ll create and how, I’m not so sure. And I suppose, now more than ever, beautifully handcrafted objects will be loved. Mass-produced items made with little consequence and longevity are hopefully coming to an end. This time at home made me interact [more] with my art/fashion/design books that I collect, and listen to podcast and music. It’s a wonderful time to reload and fill up on culture and the things that creative humans do when they are inspired. And that is what we all should support more.” DM/ML

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