Architecture, Art & Fashion Combine in ‘The Essence’
Since the brand’s debut in 2016, Movers & Cashmere continues to create ‘of the moment yet timeless’ designs. We spoke with founder Leslie Tsang about her fourth collection, for which she collaborated with world-class Danish leather house Sørensen Leather and globally renowned Copenhagen-based architecture & design studio Norm Architects
Five years ago, former entertainment industry executive Leslie Tsang made a pivot into fashion and hasn’t looked back since. The Hong Kong-born entrepreneur says her ‘Aha!’ moment came in 2014 after years of managing celebrities and influencers and travelling with them to fashion shows across the globe. Tsang noticed a gap in the market for comfortable, stylish and timeless athleisure apparel designed for the modern woman on the move. And given her love of cashmere, the delicate fabric seemed like the obvious starting point.
Jumping headfirst into her passion project, Tsang short-listed a number of companies she found online and narrowed it down to one company, also based in Hong Kong, which shares her vision. The owner himself travels to Inner Mongolia each spring to grade and purchase the finest cashmere on the market. Being vertically integrated, they now take care of the entire process, including producing the finished garments.
A self-taught designer, Tsang says the most challenging part of starting an apparel brand from scratch was ‘learning the technicalities and terminology’, but she believes that not knowing the rules has allowed her to think outside of the box. Her ethos, a rallying cry against the fast fashion that still predominates, is seasonless, timeless pieces that she often updates each season in new colours or with new details. Five years and four collections later, Movers & Cashmere has evolved into a brand that caters to the modern woman’s lifestyle by producing pieces that can take you from the gym to coffee shop, meetings, dinner and, of course, the airport.
For the latest collection, titled Series IV - The Essence, Tsang approached Danish leather producer Sørensen, known predominantly for their upholstery-grade leathers — and most impressively as the supplier of the leather used for the iconic Egg chair by Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen — to collaborate on a new series that sees leather and cashmere in an incredibly chic partnership. The designs, Tsang says, are inspired by the biomorphic shapes and forms in the work of Japanese-American sculptor and designer Isamu Noguchi and Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși.
During the product development stage, the team at Sørensen introduced Tsang to the founders of Norm Architects. Tsang visited their Copenhagen office, and says that it was after a long conversation about the essence of things that the plan came together for founding partner Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen to art direct and photograph the collection for the upcoming campaign look book. The set and backdrop, also designed by Bjerre-Poulsen, were inspired by roman arcades and the work of Italian surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico and showcases the modern, subdued palette that Movers & Cashmere has become known for.
Tsang herself embodies the spirit of the brand, a frequent traveller with family in Hong Kong and Canada, she says the bomber jacket — made each season with updated colours and details — is the one piece that is a must-have for travelling.
Text / Suzy Annetta
Images / Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen
