Mark Holgate from Vogue has written an article on the Corniche Archive Collection, which can be read on the British Vogue website https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/corniche-boutique-edinburgh-vintage-archive-sale

Mark, who has known Corniche for a long time, remembered purchasing a BodyMap Coat from us in the 1980s and on a recent visit to the shop was introduced to a small portion of our archive. which, it would be fair to say, he found impressive and important enough to justify an article.

The article focuses on the designers found within the archive and on Nina Grant the founder of Corniche. There are strong, early Japanese examples, represented by Kansai Yamamoto, Michiko Koshino, Issey Miyake going back to the early 1970s and later 1980-1990s Comme des Garcons and Yohji Yamamoto. From the UK Gold Label Vivienne Westwood late 1980s to 2000s, BodyMap, John Flett, Swanky Modes all innovative leaders in late 1970s to the 1980s UK fashion and styling and early Katharine Hamnett, Betty Jackson and Alexander McQueen amongst many other.

The European representation comprises Moschino (late 1980s to 1990s), Jean Paul Gaultier, Romeo Gigli, Christian Lacroix, Claude Montana and others all from the same period.

As Mark points out most of the pieces are “almost all of it minty-mint unworn, with a few things perhaps worn only a matter of a few times, at most“.

The article makes good reading and is very informative about the origins of Corniche and its development over its many years in the fashion world. We are currently compiling a comprehensive list of pieces within the archive and are displaying some pieces on the website, currently without pricing.

Wishing you all a fantastic Christmas and a wonderful and prosperous 2024.

Here at Corniche we look forward to 2024 and we already know it will be a good one, with new designers coming into the store for the first time. 2023 was an excellent year and we made many new friends from amongst our customers.

As we head towards Christmas it is our wish that everyone has a chance to enjoy the holidays and look forward to a New Year and all the possibilities that brings.

Lots of love and best wishes to you all

Nina, Liz and Ian @ Corniche

We are slowly adding more items from our archive amongst some phenomenal pieces the Issey Miyake blue striped jacket from the early 1970s (we believe 1973), which was purchased backstage after the catwalk show by Nina’s brother in Tokyo, Japan. This was sent to Nina before Corniche was formed to sell in her pre-Corniche shop. It was never put up for sale and we have had it in storage for over 50 years. It is in great condition.

The garment features a soft collar with thin notched lapels, pleated sleeves running down from the shoulders, but not puff sleeves, double breasted with an inner and outer button.

There is only the classic Issey Miyake label at the back of the neck, no other labels, as is quite common with sample pieces used at shows. We estimate it as a medium size. It is very interesting in that it suits both women and men. The piece is a wonderful example of progressive fashion in the early 1970s and will speak volumes to those who remember that era.

At the same time as adding the Miyake jacket we added a fantastic Gold Label, Vivienne Westwood faux-astrakhan fitted jacket from 1994, it is a work of art and a fantastic example of Vivienne’s work from that time. There is also a beautiful Junior Gaultier Skirt Suit in off-white brocade and blue grecian style borders from the mid 1990s and a very rare John Flett dress circa 1985 which has beautiful ruching and again is a great example of John Flett’s work. John was such a great talent and his early death was a tragedy.

What this space for more archive pieces women’s archive

We are delighted that just about all of our collections have arrived and are instore and online. The Autumn Winter 2023/2024 Season is very strong and one of the best we have seen for a long time.

Every designer appears to have excelled on all levels, with amazing fabrics, unique, strong designs and that extra something that makes the real difference. It is just one of those special season!

Rather than bore you with my hyperbole it is best to just go and look. So visit Corniche Designer Clothes Store and you will not be disappointed.

Since we first decided to begin making pieces from our own archive available it has forced us to take a close look at what we have stored away in seal bags. Doing so has been a revelation and even we have been surprised at the extent and standard of the the pieces we are uncovering. Many of the pieces have never been worn and those that have we only have been used at a fashion event or two at the time they were first produced. Pieces go back to the early 70’s with Issey Miyake pieces purchased straight off the the catwalk in Tokyo and we are amazed at the number of Kanzia Yamamoto pieces we stored away from that era, including the amazing Wolf Tunic/jacket.

Vivienne Westwood Gold Label pieces from the late 80s/90s and 2000’s are well represented as are early Moschino pieces. One box revealed Jean Paul Gaultier items, while another Yohji Yamamoto and Comme des Garçons. Early Katharine Hamnett and Kenzo keep appearing. It is all very exciting.

We have created a little Archive section in the Shop and a new Archive ticket to describe each piece, who it is by, when and any other relevant information and we are slowly adding pieces to the website Archive Shop. Most of the pieces we have unearthed today have been for women, however we are finding wonderful pieces for men.

To view the Women Archive pieces online go to – Corniche Women’s Archive or to view the Men Archive go to Corniche Men’s Archive

We promise we will be adding many more pieces as time allows us.

Every year we just get used to some warm weather here in Edinburgh, Scotland and we are suddenly reminded that Winter is not so far away with the first arrivals of the new winter collections. This year the first collection to arrive has come from Barbara Bologna, it is always a delight to receive the wonderful, unique and idiosyncratic garments from this most creative and avant-garde of designers. Each collection is an example of Barbara’s artistic background as a performance artist and sculptor and as ever she continues to push the barriers. Elegant prints on lightweight polyesters and silks, beautiful, warm faux-furs in different styles and materials, stunning and exuberant shirts all full of joy. Every piece is notable and a guaranteed to be noticed in the very best possible way. Check out these latest pieces at Corniche – Barbara Bologna Autumn Winter 2023/2024

Call it what you will, un-gendered clothing has slowly become mainstream. It would appear that this has been a fast change, but in reality many designers have been presenting their collections fully or in part as genderless for many years, what we are seeing now is a culmination of this.

At Corniche genderless clothing has been a feature since the 1970s and 1980s, with many of our collections having whole sections perfectly suited to both male and female and we have never found it problematic providing gendered collections to the other sex. Women look great in suits and shirts designed for men and always have done.

Gender seems less important to many of the newer, emerging designers, with whole collections being presented as genderless, this is especially apparent with designers from the far-east, where the only categorisation is size. Vivienne Westwood was very much of this mindset and had been producing unisex clothing for many years.

There is a distinction between instore and online, with one of the most common questions from instore shoppers being “where are the men clothes?” or “which is your women’s section?” and to be honest we will be living with this for many years. Online it is difference we are able to present whole collections as genderless without the questions. To visit our genderless section just click Genderless Clothing and you will be whisked off to a world without boundaries.

We are honoured and delighted to announce that Corniche will be welcoming Ziggy Chen in Spring/Summer 2024 to join our other designers in store and online. Ziggy is Shanghai based and has carved a real and well deserved name for himself since the inception of his own collections. The creativity and standards found in Ziggy Chen’s clothing is of the highest standard. We are excited!

Nina and Liz have just returned from a really exciting visit to Paris, looking at collections for Spring/Summer 2023, it has been quite sometime since I have seen them so excited with what they have seen.

Wonderful new designers from the Far-East and new to Corniche from Europe will be arriving for the SS 2023 season. We are also delighted to say we are continuing to increase our offerings to men also.

I will update you on all new arrivals as soon as they come in.

Meanwhile the Autumn Winter 2022/23 season continues to progress, albeit the speed of deliveries is lamentable, and it appears everyone is beginning to get back to some level of normality.

As ever our very best wishes to all our customers throughout the World. Visit Corniche Online

Novemb3r has always been a collection we have liked, really good fabrics, casual styling and easy to wear. We haven’t had the collection for a few years, cover making it difficult to visit the showrooms and shows. However we now have pieces, for men in for the Autumn Winter 2022/23 Season. To visit click Novemb3r Clothing for Men

After 48 year of being in the fashion business, Corniche has accumulated some amazing pieces, ranging from the early 1970s to date. We were very lucky in the early years that Bill, Nina’s brother was living in Tokyo and attended many fashion shows, from where he was able to purchase pieces from designers like Kansai Yamamoto, Issey Miyake and Michiko Koshino and sending them back to Nina in the UK, some of these date back to 1972/73. We have now started to add archive pieces to the website and we are working to have a significant number of pieces available to purchase. Many of the pieces are important, for example Issey Miyake 1970’s petrol blue, pleated, cropped legged, zip play suit. This is an important garment from one of Issey Miyake’s early collections. Made in Japan around 1973-1974. This piece is unworn and has the original Issey Miyake label and a very faint garment No. EP77111 (we think). A superb piece that deserves to be in a museum of design or part of a loved collection. Exceptional and extremely rare and in wonderful condition. Our archives can be visited here – women clothing archive men clothing archive. We will be adding to these pages on a regular basis and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do when we unpack these wonderful garments.

Another new addition this season to our collections is La Haine. The garments fit seamlessly into Corniche, with great design, high quality fabrics and superb Italian production. It has an edge, which reflects the name (La Haine (Fr) – Hate (Eng), but the philosophy of the brand is that that emotion is within all of us and it is up to each person to chose their way, in their words -“We are free to choose to be good or not. To let the hate, within us, win or not.” Hence the full name “La Haine Inside Us”

Most pieces in this collection are genderless (unisex), they are refreshing garments, with attitude and a little edgy, but with a sense of fun and drama. Click here to view the men’s La Haine and to view the women’s click here

We are delighted to introduce from Greece the mainly genderless collection La Vaca Loca. We really like this collection, which for Winter 2022/23 is entitled Carbon. The fabrics are beautiful and the designs adventurous, with great cuts, styling and shape, it aspires to combining Japanese (Far East) design with a Mediterranean style, we think they succeed. Please check them out we have just started to put the garments on the website and we should have the collection on by the end of the week. Check it out here La Vaca Loca

We have stocked the MarcandcraM by Marc Point – Venezia for the last 2 seasons and it has proven to be a real success with our customers. We are now stocking the Marc Point Mainline for Autumn Winter 2022/23 and it has arrived instore and online. Great pieces, easy to wear and very distinctive, using wonderful fabrics. No short cuts on these garments, each one is great design and production. To visit the collection go to visit Mark Point

The New Unisex Vivienne Westwood has now arrived in instore and online. Great colours, designs and fabrics. The oversized T-shirts with the neon print of Eva Herzigova are brilliant. The wool mix Check Peacoat is an exceptional piece of clothing. See Latest

We are still not completely back to normal after all the disruption of the last two and a half year and our shop opening hours are a little different from previously. To save confusing and disappointment here are our current opening hours. Obviously the our online store is open 24/7.

Monday – 11am to 5pm

Tuesday – 12pm to 4pm

Wednesday – 11am to 5pm

Thursday – 12pm to 4pm

Friday – 11am to 5pm

Saturday – on alternate weeks the shop is open from 12 noon to 4pm, the following week 11am to 5pm (to help the Saturday 23rd July is 12 noon to 4pm)

Sorry if this is confusing, if you are unsure then please email us on info@corniche.org.uk or call on 0131 556 3707