Kerrie Reeves - portfolio

Kerrie Reeves

Customer Profile
Our customer is the mature modern woman wanting to express herself
on a whole new level of freedom. She appreciates the beauty of
what life has to offer such as eclectic and creative movement of
many forms. She is between the ages of 50 and 70 crossing many
demographic boundaries.
Design Philosophy
Believing that fashion is a creative force for expressing
your true self, we bring together a collection that flows
freely into one another creating a strong style that sees
trends but does not feel the need to conform. A simple yet
elegant collection, allowing freedom and expression.
Comfortable and flexible fits movement. The mix between
sheer flowing chiffons and more structured fabrics express
the soft yet strong nature of this collection.

SS15

Depth.Colour.Texture
This drapery shows how the fabric has got a real depth to the colour and texture. I found draping
very helpful to create shape and understand how different fabrics fall. It was very helpful to work
in 3D form allowing me to take in all of the aspects.
Paper & patterns
Using paper on the stand to create this top really made me think about pattern cutting and made me
think more deeply about certain elements of my design.
The grey suiting fabric will create a whole top underneath and the lilac shall be a silk georgette
over-lay. The top shall be fastened with an invisible zip down the side seem.

Digital Print
“what is really beautiful can i
ntrinsically enchant women by exciting
their five senses in an overwhelming manner.”
laduree

L ets
fly away! some where warm where the sun shines.
The birds sing,
The sea is warm, to feel the sand between my toes.
Lets drink wine and eat fruit off the trees.
EYE MASK £11.99
PASSPORT HOLDER & LUGGAGE TAG £19.99
SUIT CASE £159.99
PHONE CASE £12.99

Dyeroom Experimentation and Digital Enhancement

Drawing and Digital Exploration

Sustainable and Ethical Pulication
In this publication I explored Esthetica, London Fashion weeks centre for sustainable
fashion.
I incorporated some of my own illustrations into the publication, Whilst working on this
publication my skills in photoshop and Indesign grew.

white shirt manipulation and Construction

Marketing and communication – Denim +
In this project I specialised in marketing and communication. I put together a hypothetical
campaign for Hiut Denim co, called #Myvision. I wrote a market report for a Big Red Festival
Bus to have a pitch at UK festivals, selling and promoting Hiut Denim Co. I arranged to
visit Hiut in Wales and was fortunate enough to carry out an interview with David Hieatt. I
also delivered my pitch to him that he saw potential in. To back up the campaign I designed
a newspaper that would be handed out at the festivals, I made a short film, a tote bag
on which I experimented different styles of screen-printing and a small accordion style
publication to be distributed with a pair of jeans. During this unit I strengthened my
skills in Photoshop and In-Design and learnt about filming and editing.

Photography and Film
I photographed these pictures using my Iphone 5s using a range of lenses and used effects on
instagram to enhance and edit them.
During this unit my Iphone has become my best friend, I have been able to film great footage
on it using Filmic Pro take great photographs and instanly update my blog.

a man with a vision
David Hieatt Interview By Kerrie Reeves
david Hieatt is one of those people that I
can’t decide if I would like to be in his
mind or not. David is the Co founder
of Hiut Denim Company along with his
wife, Claire. You can almost see the cogs
continuously turning through his forehead.
It looks exhausting, yet this man is so
awake. So alive. David is not only the mind
behind Hiut but also The Do Lectures, an
inexplicable cross section between a festival
and a conference. There are no name badges, no
bad coffee and impersonal, draughty lecture halls. Instead, an intimate number of
speakers and attendees gather under canvas on the west coast of Wales and share
a three day experience as a community. “To share ideas we can accelerate change.”
The Do Lectures have had some of the worlds leading geniuses as guest speakers
including Tim Berners-Lee, the guy who invented the World Wide Web. It is now
run over three separate continents, California USA, Glen Valley Australia and
Cardigan Wales. So where do Hiut Denim Company and The Do Lectures come
together?
Hello David, Firstly can you tell me about when you first had your vision for
Hiut?
Well I suppose a lot f things came together, 1, myself and Claire leaving Howies,
the other thing that came together was the factory that used to employ 400 people
making jeans closed in 2001 and the 3rd thing that came together was smart
phones and the internet. If you imagine those three things in circles where they
converge was a thing called Hiut Denim Company, because our town could make
jeans, Claire and myself had a pretty good idea how to sell them and the 3rd circle,
the Internet letting you sell to your customer. Without those three things coming
together there would be no Hiut denim company. Hiut Denim, the mission and
the aim, the reason it gets out of bed in the morning is how do we go and get 400
people their jobs back? I’m a great believer
that your dreams should
really scare you. Sometimes I think wow is that
possible? I do genuinely believe that it is possible because of the world we live in
right now, because every one has got a smart phone. If you have a great product
and you have a great story and you can use these tools that are given to us free and
master them, then you can speak to your customer. What used to be really difficult
things to start, really expensive things to start, suddenly you can be the small guy
and look like the big guy on the Internet. A lot of life is about timing and if we
tried this in 2005 we probably would have failed because not many people had a
smart phone but now our frustration with the internet is that its not fast enough
although its a lot faster than it was two years ago. So it was that moment where, we
realised you could actually go and make, and in affect we all get a second chance
and our town got a second chance to make jeans, they had a second chance to run
a business. In life if you get a second chance you know how important it is to get it
right.
In those early days what where some of your first steps to turn your vision into
reality?
The first thing I did was find the people to enable us to make, so I told the
newspaper that we were going to start making jeans again and that was front page
news the next day. Then I had email after email saying, “ I want to make jeans, I
want to make jeans again” So we collected all those emails wrote back to them and
interviewed them. It was that really because unless they had the desire to make
again it was a beautiful notion that wouldn’t of worked.
How important do you think it is to have a vision?
Well its probably incredibly important, because if you imagine going to a train
station and you don’t know where you want to go you’re definitely not going to get
there.
A vision is just like a map,
even if it’s really hard to get
there you’re vision guides
you.
I would find it hard if people wanted to achieve things without one, id
be really surprised.
Often I have an idea that I’m really passionate about, I can envision working
at it for the rest of my life, and so often once the ideas process has fizzled out
and I have accomplished my vision the passion wears off. The passion seems
short lived. How do you think you know when you have a real passion, one
that will last, one that that won’t fade?
Creative people have lots of ideas and actually what we really love is setting up
a business, doing the logo doing all that stuff and then there’s the other things
perhaps the less glamorous thing of actually building the business. There’s the initial
excitement but then there’s the relentless slog of building something and that’s less
glamorous and I think that’s the problem with creative people they get a bit board
after the initial phase is done but the real genius is making that idea alive. And that’s
called hard work and hard graft, I’ve not found a substitute for it I would love to
find one but there doesn’t seem to be one so you get up at 6am and you work hard.
To answer your question probably the ones that stick with you, the idea that won’t
leave you something inside you says this is important to you. I think you need to
find what matters to you and your instinct probably tells you in about 10 seconds.
That instinct is rarely wrong and yes we get seduced by other ideas now and again
but the one that you stick with is the one that matters to you most.
Is there a way of finding that great vision, idea, passion?
I think you have to ask your self some interesting questions, when I do my
course I get people to draw three circles, what is my skill? The next circle
is, what is my passion? And the third circle is what is it you’ve seen that
others haven’t? This is where your vision comes in, where those three circles
collide is where you’re most alive. So the question you should ask your self
is what matters to me most? And how do I spend my time doing the thing
that matters to me most? Invariably a lot of people spend a huge amount of
time doing things they have to do rather than they want to do and they have
good excuses like ‘I have to pay the mortgage I’ve got this and that’ but those
barriers are ultimately put there by us and they have to be taken down by us.
If you have a big mortgage
sell your house, rent, live
somewhere cheap, don’t
have a posh car. The biggest value apart from your
health is time, so if you can say to your self ‘I spend my time really well’ then
you’ve lived a really successful life. If you’ve spent
your 40 years in work
doing something you did
for money but didn’t love
that’s a really bad example
for your kids.
You have been running Hiut for 4 years now, is your passion still as strong as
when you first started out?
Yes I’m pretty good at endurance. I’m pretty good at sticking with things. I’m
pretty stubborn. I seldom quit on something. When we set out on Hiut it was a
very clear goal, to get 400 people their jobs back and as we sit out here in the
sunshine feeling ever so proud of ourselves that we’ve got 15 people their jobs
back, that does mean there’s 385 to go and find. Even getting to 15 is hard, a lot
of people don’t get to that point but we can’t sit here and relax and say, yeah were
supper cool, the companies profitable we’re making a good name we’re
making jeans for some of
the most creative rock
bands in the world because we’ve still got
385 people to get their jobs back so were not even a tenth of where we’re supposed
to be, so yes the passions still there.
You have written a book, Do - Purpose – Why Brands with a Purpose, Do
Better and Matter More. Can you explain how this concept is used within
Hiut?
The book is about purpose driven companies and our purpose is very clear. The
clarity is there and the clarity is also to do that by having ideas so there’s double
clarity. We use it in terms of some certain techniques, when you don’t have
a marketing budget you’ve got to use the thing called the multiplier which is
essentially spending a penny and getting a pound back and that stems from doing
really interesting work. So have really brave
ideas rather than average
ones because in the digital
world average sinks to
the bottom faster than its
ever done before. Digital
is quite binary; it’s either
brilliant or shit! There is
nothing in between.
So does the purpose come first or the business idea?
I think its difficult to separate the both, ultimately you want to do the business idea
because its something you want to do and what you want to do is driven by your
purpose. It’s quite hard to separate them both. I know a lot of people say I’m just
doing this to make money and that’s good enough for them. I think there’s a bunch
of us that need greater motivation than just money alone, don’t get me wrong we
need to run businesses that make money just like the human being needs to breath
but its not the reason we get out of bed in the morning, its just a by product of
what we do. They are like a left leg and a right leg. Purpose is long lasting it’s the
feel for the journey when the journey is sometimes difficult.
You run The Do Lectures, You have written a book and Own a Jeans Company,
You must be very busy! Do you have a preference of which you enjoy?
I suppose the thing that puts the food on my table is Hiut and it’s really important
to me looking after the team, the quest is really important getting the town making
jeans again but in a way The Do Lectures provides beauty where it’s a very innocent
thing. I love learning and I love meeting amazing people so it’s a very beautiful thing
whether it’s a business or not I’m not sure? Perhaps needs to be, actually both give
me immense satisfaction I love them both it’s a bit like choosing which daughters
the favourite, tricky!
1 Find something you love doing
2 Spend as much time learning to do it well
3 Go and do it for yourself
You clearly have a very creative mind, what is it about running the businesses
that drives you, I mean why not sit and paint a picture?
I love business. I think business
can solve most of our
problems. I suppose what I love about business is having those
ideas and the other bit of genius is not just having the idea but the execution of
the idea, you’re kind of critical. I always have loved being an entrepreneur really
it comes from a very early baptism of fire in it. I haven’t lost that love of it. I like
selling and I like taking an idea and seeing if I can make a difference with it.
You Co-founded Howies clothing company with your wife Claire, and now
Hiut. What is it about fashion that pulls you to work in the industry?
I’m not that interested in fashion in terms of like every one else is. I’ve got my
eyes wide open to it and understand it. I don’t love that world. I love
the world where you build
something that is classic
and over time it just gets
more beautiful. Doing the jeans thing now is as
fashionable as I want to get. Howies was just a vehicle of ideas it was perhaps more
of an ideas company than a clothing company if I was being honest. Any idea needs
a vehicle to go take it somewhere and clothing was a good vehicle for Howies. The
jeans is another great vehicle for us because we love them, were very geeky on
them, for me its one of the rare pieces of clothing I’m interested in just because
there’s so many nuances to it whether you’re a non washer whether its plantation
denim whether its red cast or green cast whether or grey cast or organic or
prewashed or sanforized. There’s a ton of things that make it very geeky. It’s also the
uniform for that ideas person and I quite like being the jeans maker for the change
maker. Those people that change
the world are wearing
jeans; all I want is for them
to be ours.
Do you have 3 pieces of advice that you would give to someone starting out?
Interview By Kerrie Reeves

Selvedge Denim Hack@
Slim fit
£230.00
A slim fitting five pocket jean
made from raw selvedge 14.5
oz denim. It’s woven on a 1959
shuttle loom from Kuroki the iconic
Japanese mill. 100% indigo dyed,
slub selvedge that gives those little
imperfections that go to make a
great looking jean.
The coin pocket is designed to fit
an iPhone 5. We have made the
back pocket a little smaller and
a little higher, which looks better.
Button fly. Key stress points are
bar-tacked for extra strength. The
hems are chain stitched. 100%
cotton.
Made in Wales.
Why great coffee helps make a great jean.
Before we could make a great jean, we had to create a culture where
excellence would be expected.
We did that by surrounding ourselves with it.
The award winning CD system had to be the best fidelity. Each sewing
machine was enclosed with a pitch pine workstation. We created a
wall of heroes and put the pictures of inspiring inventors, musicians,
designers, and entrepreneurs to watch over us while we made our jeans.
And yes, we had a coffee machine put in to make a great cup of the dark
stuff made with the finest coffee beans we could buy.
Even the factory itself doesn’t look like a normal factory. It is precise,
clean, and orderly.
If you want to be excellent, surround yourself with excellence.
Like a good indigo, that stuff rubs off on you.
Photographed by Lauren Quinn
Styled by Kerrie Reeves
Modelled by Paul Reeves