DEPARTURES STYLE
DEPARTURES STYLE GETTING IT RIGHT 36 THE HEAD OF steam building around sustainability in fashion is created by people with two things in common – passion and optimism. Both are necessary to build a business that fights overconsumption and – given the pressing threat of climate change – has urgency. Their consensus is remarkable and their enthusiasm infectious. Young experts in industries like regenerative agriculture and high-tech bioscience are just as essential as the designers themselves when it comes to incorporating new knowledge into commercial collections – some taking an avant-garde approach and others doing so slightly more conventionally. The passion of Montserrat Alvarez, founder of Heimat Atlantica, based in Pontevedra in lush, green Galicia is, she says, “not for trends or seasons but finding a space in contemporary culture for our endangered local crafts”. Indeed, the region has a distinct, Celtic-influenced culture and language distinct from its Iberian neighbours. Her studio bursts with artwork and ceramics from her artist collaborators, alongside bags, made from basketwork woven on handlooms, recalling those vessels once used to carry farm labourers’ lunches but in modern shapes with re-proportioned patterns in rich vegetable dyes, coated for durability with natural varnish. Craftswomen add organically dyed leather trims or charms in ceramic or metal featuring Galician symbols of protection or love. Others have embroidered patterns of tiny shells, gathered for generations from local beaches by women who are expert needleworkers, or polished like mother-of-pearl by the one remaining local practitioner who has mastered the technique. Much is made on order in an effort to save waste. Founded in 2016, the brand, which now has 15 weavers, is sold globally and shown in Paris. Jewellery is made from the same natural-toned shells with tiny, bright Swarovski beads. A homeware basketwork range is showcased at local Michelin-starred restaurants. Alvarez works long hours, overseeing every detail, but she is hardly alone in her dedication. In an airy East London studio, former styling expert Anna Foster has recently expanded her ELV Denim brand. She combats waste by buying damaged or leftover goodquality jeans and upcycles them into patchworks, or cuts down front or Clockwise from far left: a patchwork jumpsuit by ELV Denim, crafted from 46 vintage garments, elvdenim.com; Julie de Libran’s retroglam look, made from leftover fabric, juliedelibran.com; slated for a spring 2024 release, Allbirds is heralding the M0.0NSHOT hightop as the world’s first net-zero-carbon shoe, allbirds.com; a winterfriendly creation by the Waste Yarn Project, wasteyarnproject.com back halves to pair with another in toning or contrasting denim. The extra seams create a smoothly tailored, flattering fit, fine-tuned to each body shape. Her shelves are piled with items to be sorted and matched, done by hand and with a good eye. Foster often returns after a night out to “spend a few hours pairing”, her young family notwithstanding. “For me, that’s the exciting, creative part,” she says, along with adding new lines like surplus morning coats, which she slices off and augments with pleated hems, and beautifully tucked cotton shirts made from bedlinen from The Ned hotel, discarded for no more than a pen mark. Having started ELV five years ago, Foster is contemplating a similar system in several countries where she has manufacturers. The passion in the manifesto on Skall Studio’s elegantly minimal website is fierce, stating principles on which Danish sisters Julie and Marie Skall founded their brand in 2014. “We grew up surrounded by nature – we use only natural materials (never leather or fur), until recently in natural CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: © ELV DENIM, OLEG COVIAN, © ALLBIRDS, BENT RENÈ SYNNEVÅG
FROM LEFT: LUCA TOMBOLINI, JAMES COCHRANE, © HEIMAT ATLANTICA Skall Studio uses European linen and rare Danish wool, spun by a fourth-generation mill and which is traceable from sheep to sweater shades, though now we use gentle natural dyes,” they say. They have a deep love of India and its crafts, and source much production there “from family-run factories with whom we have shared values and which make the best quality embroidery or handloomed linen”. They also use European linen and rare Danish wool, spun by a fourthgeneration mill and which is traceable from sheep to sweater. Easy shapes and discreet, beautifully executed embroidery became a definition of quiet luxury before it was a fashion trope. As demand increased, they turned from individual home knitters to one of the few remaining Danish knitwear factories. Still, the sisters appreciate their method’s limitations. “You can’t just order more; it emphasises the time that skilled artisans take to make such pieces.” To prevent waste, the Skall sisters also offer a repair service, and again they are not alone. What seemed natural to our forbears is now seen as fashion disruption even for established brands. Founded in 1997 by knitters James and Jessie Seaton and based on nostalgic workwear and artisan craft, Toast was early into slow fashion. Now owned by Danish billionaire and rewilding enthusiast Anders Holch Povlsen, it has developed a network for repair and resale through its stores recently. Thousands of its garments are repaired free for customers every year, often creatively with expert embroidery or contrast stitching, or become Renewed, where items are repaired and resold in return for a voucher. There are in-store mending classes where, over tea and cake, customers learn how to darn or patch. “With 87 per cent of clothing eventually landfilled or incinerated we need to extend its life and reduce the desire to discard and consume,” says Madeleine Michell, Toast’s “social conscience communications officer”. “Reinvigorating items using traditional techniques is part of our drive to circularity.” Luxury bagmaker Mulberry, founded over 50 years ago in Somerset by Roger Saul, shares a similar approach. Its hand-plaited belts from the local Clarks shoe factory’s leather offcuts enjoyed a hippie-era success, and they climbed the luxury tree with signature bag models like the Bayswater and Alexa. With their bold oval hardware, they are still top sellers. For three years now, Mulberry has offered free renovation of its bags, either returned to the owner or swapped for a voucher and resold. This shows the brand’s enduring design power and has freed it to make adventurous new creations like the Lana, with its “melted” hardware, or the Iris Swirl with a surrealist, “squashed” shape. Mulberry uses traceable leather and is searching for alternative materials but has so far not found the durability it requires. Preventing waste reaches the highest levels with haute couture. In Paris, Julie de Libran uses leftovers of handmade fabrics from top mills that she knows well. “I discovered they had small remnants of intricate materials that inspire me to make very limited or unique items,” she says. Her cool, 1970s-inflected Parisian From far left: Yuima Nakazato crafts avant-garde silhouettes with fabric rescued from a Kenyan landfill, yuimanakazato.com; a casual-chic runway look by Skall Studio, skallstudio.com; crystal-and-seashell earrings by Heimat Atlantica, heimat-atlantica.com 37 DEPARTURES
