After releasing a $25 hoodie in 2018, Ikea is returning to fashion with a new limited-edition collection called Annanstans.
The collection is a collaboration between Swedish fashion designer Martin Bergström, Ikea, and artisans from four socially conscious manufacturing companies in India, Romania, and Thailand.
According to Ikea, the collection exists to both dress you and create good quality, non-exploitative jobs in those three countries. “Annanstans” is a Swedish word that means “elsewhere,” and it’s meant to conjure up the idea of international connection.
The collection features a $30 scarf made of sheer, 100% cotton fabric available in two different print designs. There’s also a caftan, a type of robe that has been used by all kinds of cultures since ancient Mesopotamia and is usually made of wool, cashmere, silk, or cotton. Ikea’s version is more a $30 long shirt with a V-neck front and round neck on the back made of 100% sheer cotton. An $18 100% cotton tote bag, made in India by artisans, has a print designed by Bergström.
Annanstans additionally has some non-fashion items, such as woven baskets made from banana fiber–which go for $20 and $30 depending on the size.
Will we see even more fashion at Ikea? The company has extended its catalog into non-furniture categories, from high-tech smart electronics to gardening. I wouldn’t be surprised if clothing became as much a staple at Ikea as the meatball.
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San Francisco brand partners with Yerdle to repair old, worn clothing.
Taylor Stitch
San Francisco-brand Taylor Stitch has been advocating for a slower, more thoughtful approach to fashion for the past 12 years. But co-founder Michael Maher argues it’s not enough. “We wanted to bring circularity to our model. We have been focused on making high-quality clothing. But how do make sure that it stays out of landfills,” he asks.
That’s why this month they’ve launched a new program, Restitch, which will enable the company to take-backed used, worn Taylor Stitch clothing in need of repair. By partnering with Yerdle, a startup backed by Patagonia’s Tin Shed Ventures and working with brands such as Eileen Fisher and REI, Taylor Stitch can give these old clothes a new life. Their website reads, quite bluntly: “We Want Your Old Sh*t.”
Here’s how it works, Maher explains: Customers send in used clothing to Yerdle. They receive a credit towards another Taylor Stitch garment (which can be new or used). Meanwhile, Taylor Stitch works with Yerdle to take that used garment and patch it or restitch it. They can take almost anything but T-shirts or footwear, because those two categories are hard to repair into a resellable product.
So far, they’ve received about 1500 garments. These have been divided into two categories -- about 40 went to their vintage collection, suggesting that they’re a bit above the rest and can be re-sold at a premium. The rest fall into the restitch program. The goal is to iterate to consumers that products don’t have to meet their end of life so quickly; they can be reused repeatedly, even it’s not by the same person.
It’s an age-old concept of repair, one that Patagonia has been doing as well, to keep apparel out of the landfill. By some estimates, the average American throws out about 80 pounds of clothing each year. With that comes a resurgence to go shopping, and invest in new garments -- that all has a carbon, water, and materials footprint.
There are other ways to recycle old clothing, particularly denim which is often sent to be reused as insulation. “But that’s not as cost-effective or resource-effective as keeping it as old denim,” Maher says.
Plus Maher wanted Taylor Stitch to be one of the early adopters of a circular model for a fashion brand -- not an outdoor one, he clarifies. So much of this emphasis on repurposing has been within the outdoor industry instead.
“I’m that guy who likes to fix up clothes. And I’d like to say that the clothes we make get better with age. So we wanted to bring this concept to the everyday guy.”
Yet doing it as a small brand, Maher explains has been a challenge. “We chose to partner with Yerdle, because we wanted to be a part of that movement and concept, even if we are pint-sized.”
However, getting manufacturers and building an eco-friendly supply chain in textiles, Maher says is hard for such small players. Plus, he says the apparel industry is now crowded with those who do a lot of marketing, suggesting they’re sustainable when they’re not.
“We focus on responsibility, not sustainability. Sustainability is hip right now. Everyone is using it as a thinly-veiled marketing word. I applaud the big guys that are actually making the effort to push forward standards in the industry. But you have to discern between the BS and those that are actually doing it. We don’t want to market it. We want to report it.”
For instance, he says, Taylor Stitch was not using organic cotton in 2016. The following year, in 2017, he made that shift and by the end of this year, they’ll be using 95 percent organic cotton. “That’s the kind of stuff we want to report. So consumers can see that we’re taking every single step we can, being a relatively small business.”
Taylor Stitch’s model addresses some of the concerns around waste inherently: in 2015, they launched the Workshop, an internal crowdfunding platform that enables them to only manufacture a select number of products. A design is posted; customers support it by pre-ordering and the brand then has a sense of how many people want it. “It helps us mitigate a lot of the overproduction that takes place in the apparel industry.”
While all of this are signs of progress, Maher has a bigger vision: he wants to see if the brand can use renewed fibers as opposed to recycled fibers primarily. “Then you’re able to do that with true circularity,” he clarifies.
With renewed fibers, the brand is sending in old clothing that’s being turned into new material. With recycled fibers, they’re relying on a third-party to procure that material.
Yet that model has its challenges: a longer staple fiber recycled get shorter and loses its strength, making it harder to work with the second time around. “And customers still want a high-quality product, even if it’s made from repurposed material.”
Thus, he concludes that the supply chain is simply not there yet to make entirely circular products. Hence, Restitch, the Workshop, and their collaboration with Spanish manufacturer Recover to give garments a new life and cut down on excess production are all on that pathway to circularity, he says. “We can push the other players. We can help with the pilot programs. But we still have a ways to go as an industry. There is no perfect solution yet.”
SAN FRANCISCO, May 28, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Academy of Art University School of Fashion hosted its annual exclusive graduation fashion show on May 11, 2019 in San Francisco, featuring top work from its womenswear, menswear, knitwear, and childrenswear B.F.A. fashion design graduates.
Top press and industry professionals watched as models walked down the runway sporting innovative designs from graduating students. Designs included womenswear, menswear, knitwear, and childrenswear collections. Students' creative inspirations for the 29 unique clothing collections ranged from the Japanese technique of Shibori to the vibrant culture of Colombia, strong women, coffee, and even pencil shavings. Other influences included the fluidity and movement of water, colorful birds, functionalism, drag performers, and one student's experience of heritage and identity as a Chinese-Indonesian.
"It is so interesting to discover the possibilities that this school gives to everyone, the materials, everything is amazing. The students have big possibilities to work, to be free, to create." -Livia Stoianova / founding designer of On Aura Tout Vu
"The visual and aesthetic developmental innovation is always so evident with the design students. I just love the creativity here and what Simon and the department in general does with the students, is always amazing to watch." - Andre Walker / designer
Previous graduates from this program have proceeded to work for major fashion labels, including Alexander McQueen, Nike, Oscar de la Renta, Chloe, and Marc Jacobs upon graduating.
About Academy of Art University Academy of Art University is the largest private university of art and design in the United States. Established in 1929, the Academy imposes a rigorous curriculum that requires the students to produce a portfolio of work that demonstrates a mastery of their field.
About the School of Fashion Graduates have gone on to such companies as Abercrombie & Fitch, Adidas, Alexander McQueen, Azzedine Alaïa, Banana Republic, BCBG Max Azria Group, Blanc de Chine, Burberry, Calvin Klein, Corso Como 10, Chloë, Diane von Fürstenberg, Donna Karan, Gap, Kate Spade, Kiton, L.A.M.B., L'Ecole Lesage Paris–Atelier de Broderie, Liz Claiborne, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Martin Margiela, Martine Sitbon, Missoni, Nike, Nordstrom, The North Face, Old Navy, Oscar de la Renta, Phillip Lim, Pottery Barn, Ralph Lauren, Reebok, St. John, Tocca, Viktor & Rolf, and Williams-Sonoma.
About School of Fashion Executive Director Simon Ungless, Executive Director of the School of Fashion, graduated from Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design in 1992 and was awarded the prestigious M.A. Degree in Fashion with Distinction. He collaborated with Alexander McQueen on the first 10 collections shown in London and New York, and personally introduced Sarah Burton, Creative Director of Alexander McQueen, to the late designer. His work experience spans fashion design, textile design, forecasting, brand development, and marketing for such clients as Givenchy, Paul Smith, and Versace.
Franny Kansteiner, owner of Gum Tree Farm Designs, raises merino wool sheep on her farm then creates sewn, knitted, woven and baby goods, all handmade, which she sells online and in her shop in Middleburg, Va.
Gum Tree Farm Designs’ showroom is far enough out in horse country Virginia that the dry cleaners down the street also offers mane pulling. President Kennedy had a house near here; it was where Caroline Kennedy’s famous pony, Macaroni, lived while her father was in office. Located in downtown Middleburg among brick sidewalks and across the street from an old church, the showroom is a cozy, light-filled shop full of luxury wool goods — baby sweaters, socks, fingerless mittens, all artfully arranged and hand-knit.
Proprietor Franny Kansteiner, 61, designed almost all of the items, and knitted about a third of them herself. The day I visit, she is wearing a dark blue woolen work shirt of her own design, which retails for $475. With silver sneakers, bobbed blond hair and jeans, she looks a little practical for how you might imagine a fashion designer. She looks quite glamorous, though, for how you might imagine a shepherd — which is her other job.
Two miles away is Gum Tree Farm, a hundred acres where she lives and raises the flocks that provide every scrap of wool in her store. She calls herself a designing shepherd, and she labels her corner of the clothing industry “farm to fashion.” The term has been around for a few years, but it mostly refers to designers and sellers who know and approve of how sheep are treated. A fashion designer actually raising sheep from birth to death is somewhat less common in America — let alone being “owner, CEO, everything” on the business end, as Kansteiner describes her role.
Rita Kourlis Samuelson, director of wool marketing at the American Sheep Industry Council, says that, while Kansteiner’s all-in-one operation is rare, it’s part of an overall industry trend towards more transparency: “Consumers want to know more about the products they’re buying. Sometimes it’s about their own values. Traceability, identity, a story about where the garment comes from. They want to make sure that some of what they’re purchasing matches the values of who they are and what they think is important: animal care, sustainability, carbon footprint.” Gum Tree Farm Designs ticks some more feel-good boxes as well: local, small business, woman-owned.
“It seemed very important to me to make something beautiful out of [my sheep’s] wool,” Kansteiner says. She moved onto a farm when her children were small. She wanted her kids to know where things come from, food and clothes and everything. She started teaching horseback riding and got a three-sheep starter pack. She watched friends who knit and got the hang of it. “Originally I was spinning [wool] and knitting it into garments for my friends and family,” she recalls. Her kids kept giving their fingerless mittens to their friends and asking for more. It’s what made her think she could make it a business. Knitting was a little limiting, so she wanted to move into woven goods as well. She went to New York to get garments made from her wool, but “I realized not a lot of shepherds are hanging around the garment district in New York. They said, you can’t get fabric made in the U.S. And I said, ‘No, we did.’ ”
The farmer-artisan-chief-executive-retail-seller was a much more common business model 150 years ago, but now it seems incongruous that all the pieces of the process of making clothes can fit together and can, for the most part, happen in one place, just a 90-minute drive from Washington. Though she employs others to do the dyeing, some of the spinning and knitting, and all of the weaving and sewing, Kansteiner still knits one piece a day.
André Chung
for The Washington Post
Baby goods at the Gum Tree Farm Designs shop in Middleburg.
She also squelches those silver sneakers through the mud down at the farm, unfixing the fence to get into a paddock with one flock of mothers and lambs, pointing out the sheep droppings, which are everywhere. One white lamb nibbles her finger in case it might be food. “That’s how you can tell they’ve been bottle-fed,” she says. The ones who nursed with their mothers are more cautious. About 80 of the farm’s 300-ish sheep are munching at bales of hay in this paddock, baaing. One sheep in particular sounds like a person making fun of the other baas.
They are currently safe because of the llama. Summer, who has large, sharp eyes and resembles a huge, long-necked sheep herself, has been watching the approach of people. She has quit her munching and devotes her full attention to evaluating the danger of the situation. If she determines it necessary, she will move away from the interlopers, and the sheep will slowly follow. When she’s threatened, Kansteiner says, she shrieks, and the sheep all get behind her. The whole production is enough to scare off a coyote, but not two coyotes. Two coyotes will probably get to take home a lamb.
Summer is devoted to her flock. Llamas are pack animals, Kansteiner says, but if you keep them separate from other llamas, they bond with sheep. Summer is helpless, though, to protect the sheep against another predator the flocks face: a local bald eagle. It will claw a sheep’s back legs, but can’t carry the whole body away. Kansteiner has several survivors of such attacks in her flocks. One had a talon injury that went all the way through her neck, but she still showed up for breakfast the next morning. “They’re very stoic,” she says. This is not the reputation sheep have among people who do not hang out with sheep — think “sheepish” or “sheeple” — but their wide, expressionless faces are exactly that. They are here to eat, and they work hard at it.
Shearing happens in March. Kansteiner employs a shearer who gets all the wool off a sheep in one piece. It takes about four minutes a pop. After the shearing it takes a moment for them to recognize one another. At a year old, the gentlemen lambs will be escorted off the premises to find new employment as high-end organic sausage. Some of their skins will become shoes.
In this paddock — which was literally the poster farm for a recent Certified Humane ad campaign — sheep do their sheeply job, the irreducible process of turning hay and grass into fiber and more sheep. Considering all the steps involved, all the creatures and their lives and the work they will do, suddenly a $375 woolen sweater starts to make some sense — even if you can buy a much cheaper one at Macy’s. Gum Tree Farm isn’t that long a drive from Washington, but it’s long enough to make you think.
Rachel Manteuffel is an editorial aide at The Post.
PARIS — Playing in just her 10th match of the season, Serena Williams overcame a rocky opening set at the French Open Monday to advance to the second round.
Williams, 37, was hardly at her best against Russia’s Vitalia Diatchenko, 28, who is ranked 83rd in the world and had never beaten a top-10 opponent. But she summoned her fierce fighting spirit to compensate until she found the range on her serve and groundstrokes to prevail in commanding fashion, 2-6, 6-1, 6-0.
A three-time French Open champion, Williams has scarcely been seen on court this season, limited by illness and injury, so she enters the French Open amid questions about her health and fitness. Her 2019 record, before Monday, was 7-2 after she withdrew from tournaments in Indian Wells (viral illness), Miami (left knee) and Rome (left knee).
Over the course of her 24-year pro career, Williams has started majors in rusty and ragged form before. But her pattern has been to battle her way to early-round victories while raising her level of play at each stage.
Whether she can do that here, on the French Open’s red clay, which blunts the impact of her powerful first serve, is unclear.
Amid gusty winds, her game was riddled with unforced errors in the first set, which the Russian claimed in 34 minutes.
Serving to open the second set, Williams blasted yet another ground stroke well over the baseline and howled in frustration. The outburst seemed to focus her, and she held serve. She stopped pressing and over-hitting in subsequent games. And after breaking for a 2-0 lead in the second set, she unleashed a cry of “Come on!” and rolled from there.
Seven-time French Open champion Chris Evert, an ESPN commentator who’ll provide analysis for Eurovision this fortnight, counts herself among those uncertain about Williams’s readiness for the season’s second major given how little she has competed.
“You need your body, your fitness and your legs more than anything on the red clay,” said Evert, who compiled a 382-22 career record on clay, in a telephone interview before the tournament. “Even if she does have her fitness and her health, how much preparation has she had? Is that going to affect her, too? It hasn’t been ideal.
“I think she would have liked to have played a tournament or two and gotten some more matches on red clay. So, it remains to be seen.”
Williams made a strong fashion statement in her return to Roland Garros, one year after a French tennis official took issue with the black catsuit she wore here last year.
A 23-time Grand Slam champion, Williams strode onto Philippe Chatrier Court in a billowy, black and white striped outfit that consisted of an asymmetrical skirt and long-sleeved blousy jacket that fluttered in the late afternoon breeze.
She had previewed the outfit via an Instagram post Sunday, alongside its creator, fashion designer Virgil Abloh, founder of the Milan-based label Off-White and the men’s designer at Louis Vuitton’s menswear line. It is her second Nike tennis-wear collaboration with Abloh, who designed the one-shoulder dress with flouncy, ballet-inspired tulle skirt that Williams wore at the 2018 U.S. Open.
After a brief warm-up with Diatchenko, Williams unzipped the jacket to reveal a fitted top-that repeated the skirt’s striped pattern.
Williams was criticized by one French tennis official, who said after the fact that her catsuit had “gone too far” and suggested that it showed a lack of respect for the game.
Williams explained that she wore the outfit — a compression suit — largely as a medical precaution to help guard against a recurrence of blood clots that endangered her life during the birth of her first child, daughter Alexis Olympia, on Sept. 1, 2017, roughly nine months prior.
PARIS — One year after a French tennis official took issue with the black catsuit she wore at the 2018 French Open, Serena Williams made a strong fashion statement in her return to Roland Garros Monday.
Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam champion, strode onto Philippe Chatrier Court in a billowy, black and white striped outfit that consisted of an asymmetrical skirt and long-sleeved blousy jacket that fluttered in the late afternoon breeze.
She had given a preview of the outfit via an Instagram post Sunday, alongside its creator, fashion designer Virgil Abloh, founder of the Milan-based label Off-White and the men’s designer at Louis Vuitton’s menswear line. It is her second Nike tennis-wear collaboration with Abloh, who designed the one-shoulder dress with a flouncy, ballet-inspired tulle skirt that Williams wore at the 2018 U.S. Open.
After a brief warm-up with her opponent, Russia’s Vitalia Diatchenko, Williams unzipped the jacket to reveal a fitted top that repeated the skirt’s striped pattern.
Williams was criticized by one French tennis official, who said after the fact that her catsuit had “gone too far” and suggested that it showed a lack of respect for the game.
Williams explained that she wore the outfit — a compression suit — largely as a medical precaution to help guard against a recurrence of blood clots that endangered her life during the birth of her first child, daughter Alexis Olympia, on Sept. 1, 2017, roughly nine months prior.
A three-time French Open champion, Williams, 37, has scarcely been seen on court this season, limited by illness and injury, so she enters the French Open amid questions about her health and fitness. She has played just nine matches, posting a 7-2 mark, after withdrawing from tournaments in Indian Wells (viral illness), Miami (left knee) and Rome (left knee).
Diatchenko, 28, is ranked 83rd in the world and has never beaten a top-10 opponent. Williams won their lone previous meeting, on the U.S. Open’s hard courts in 2015.
Canada-born designer Chelsea Claridge is making her mark in the outerwear market. After identifying a need for fashion forward, slight and sustainable outerwear, Claridge sought to create her own line, Caalo, a New York-based brand that offers ultra-cool coats that are transformable, trans-seasonal and non-gender specific.
Claridge spent 10 years in the industry as a designer, but was inspired to create Caalo after battling wet and frigid winters in New York and Canada while wearing bulky, sporty outerwear that felt unfashionable. Caalo’s first collection is for fall 2019, and offers shoppers minimalist, almost futuristic-looking coats that are backed by peak performance and sustainable production. Chelsea Claridge, founder and creative director at Caalo, told WWD, “We believe that when we create something, we need to be conscious of its impact on everything it touches, throughout the whole lifecycle. To have the largest impact, we focus on product materials, quality and a sustainable production process, both environmental and social.”
Caalo’s coats are made of Thindown, a new down technology hailing from Italy that is RDS certified and Oeko-Tex class 1 certified, which enables greater traceability. “Not only does this fabric innovation allow us to create a new silhouette for warmth, but it’s completely sustainable and is held to strict guidelines where the geese are treated humanely since hatchery,” Claridge noted. Caalo also uses “Seaqual,” a fabrication made from upcyling plastic bottles from the Mediterranean Sea. “We are constantly looking at advancements in material sciences to see what new fabric technologies have become available and how we can utilize them,” adding that Caalo exclusively scouts high quality fabrics that are recycled whenever possible.
Photo courtesy of Caalo.
Caalo’s commitment to the use of more costly, well-made materials is less about luxury and more about being sustainable. Claridge told WWD, “We believe if you make garments timeless with high-quality materials, people can and will wear them for a long time, and as a result will keep more clothes out of landfills. This is critical, as the fashion industry is one of the biggest polluters in the world. Also, because our jackets are transformable, they can be worn for multiple seasons and climates, which helps reduce waste and over consumption.” In a way, Caalo’s garments have a lifetime guarantee: “For those customers that no longer prefer to wear their garments after a number of years, we have a ‘2nd Home’ initiative, where customers are able to return their garments to us to be resold or donated in exchange for a credit toward a future purchase.”
And the brand’s small batch production policy aligns well with its careful selection of factories, one of which is based in New York City, that “supports our local economy and helps reduce our CO2 footprint.” Claridge told WWD, “We have made the conscious effort to only partner with sustainable factories to produce our collection. When selecting our factories, we wanted to make sure they were both environmentally and socially responsible. This means they utilize as much of their energy from renewable resources as possible — [such as the use of] solar panels — and are as close to our core market as financially feasible. They all provide a clean and safe working environment for their staff with adequate space around their desks, access to natural light and are paid a living wage. Surprisingly, these things we tend to take for granted are not a given for most factories. We [also] produce in small runs, allowing us to be a part of the process, reduce waste and maintain our high standard of quality.”
Regarding the fashion industry-at-large, Claridge offers sage advice: “Every brand can start contributing, however small, in their own way. For us, it’s a core aspect of our brand and we are glad sustainability is becoming more and more essential for our customers and the fashion industry as a whole. We are dedicated not only to our initiatives, but also to actively improving upon our sustainable practices as new materials become available and as we grow.”
PARIS — Rihanna may have looked cool and collected next to the debut collection for her new fashion label, Fenty, donning a brilliant white tuxedo dress and a 1,000-watt smile. But on the inside it was another story.
“It’s all a facade,” said the Barbados-born star who has become the first black woman to launch a major Parisian fashion house.
“Pressure? Of course … I’m passionate about what I do, so there’s pressure every single second. It’s not like crumbling pressure, but it’s like: ‘You better get it good, girl.'”
News of the singer’s groundbreaking deal with LVMH, the world’s largest luxury group, shook up the fashion industry earlier this month. Rihanna is the first woman, and the first person of color, to create a major brand under the luxury giant from scratch. At age 31, that’s no mean feat.
“This is a moment in history … It’s a big deal for me and my entire generation,” she said.
The collection is named after the singer-turned-designer’s last name: She was born Robyn Rihanna Fenty. The ready-to-wear, footwear, accessories, and eyewear are available for sale in Paris’ Le Marais area in a popup store from Friday and will debut online Wenesday.
Speaking in the store amid snapping cameras, she said she felt the time was right to make a move like this. It comes one year after LVMH’s Louis Vuitton named its first ever African American designer for menswear, Virgil Abloh.
“Right now, fashion in general has been stepping up a lot and been vocal about issues — whether it’s subtly or aggressively,” she said.
While she said Fenty’s ambitions are not “political,” they’re infused with the story of “me as an immigrant moving to America. That was a big journey for me. And to even get here to Paris — it’s something to celebrate and embrace.”
The singer already has a track record for embracing diversity in the luxury industry after she featured some 40 shades of foundation in her hugely lucrative Fenty Beauty line in 2017. Many said that revolutionized the makeup industry and plugged a glaring gap in the market for women with diverse ethnic backgrounds.
That initiative was said to have caught the eye of Europe’s most powerful luxury CEO, Bernard Arnault of LVMH.
But the launch — steered by an outsider with no formal design training — has also been greeted with a dose of cynicism.
Fenty is a recognition that the fashion industry now formally considers a major popstar to have as much to say in design as established figures such as Nicolas Ghesquiere of Louis Vuitton, or even the lauded Alber Elbaz, formerly of Lanvin. He is currently out of work.
Some say Fenty is the first major house of the Instagram age.
Streetwear with luxury
The Parisian fashion industry — dominated by white males — is famously snooty, and Rihanna will have a lot to prove.
At the launch, top designers in attendance such as Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing and Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri studiously picked through the clothes on display.
The wearable designs channeled an oversize, street aesthetic, with garments like cross-over jackets in thick cotton canvas or a button-down shirt dress in stiff Japanese denim.
“It’s hardcore, but still chic. It’s that juxtaposition that I really enjoy,” Rihanna said, reeling out technical terms and fabric names she’s recently discovered.
“Knowing me, of course you’re going to have streetwear elements that are done in a luxury way,” she added.
Fenty — not to be confused with the storied LVMH brand Fendi — says it will be based in Paris but will operate online with a “See-Now-Wear-Now” model, forgoing the usual luxury fashion seasonal previewed designs.
“They were flexible enough to allow me to have a different perspective on the way I wanted to release things,” she said. “Coming from such a traditional background in fashion (as LVMH), you don’t think there’s another way that will work — but they allowed me to do that.”
The head of communication of LVMH, Bernard Arnault’s son, Antoine, admitted Rihanna was not a traditional kind of designer, but said the company had given her total creative freedom.
“Calling it an experiment is a little reductive, given the ambition we have for the project,” Antoine Arnault told The Associated Press.
“There are lots of firsts: It’s the first time we, in fashion, are collaborating so frankly with a popstar. But she’s so much more than that. She’s someone who has a bird’s-eye view on fashion and pop culture, who is at the same time obsessed with details.”
“(T)here’s an enormous opportunity to talk about sustainability and environmentalism in a way that captures the imagination of an everyday consumer or an everyday fashion lover and find a way to make it exciting and interesting and accessible.“ Laura Jones on Green Connections Radio
Celebrity stylist Laura Jones found herself overwhelmed when she realized the field she had dedicated her career to was damaging the environment big time: fashion. Then, she resolved to do something about it.
At first, she thought her skills were not appropriate to helping to find a solution and thought she needed to go back to school to study environmental science or such. Then she realized she could use her skills to tell stories and engage fashion lovers who were accustomed to reading fashion magazines.
“I decided to create a platform for people who have consumed regular fashion media to be able to consume a similar type of media but that suits their value systems better and that speaks to issues that are more topical and more related to environmentalism and sustainability,” Jones told me when I interviewed her at the Earth Day Network 2019 gala recently about her new magazine, Frontlash, about sustainable fashion.
Here are issues the fashion industry faces as it confronts a market increasingly focused on sustainability:
The biggest issue fashion faces in relation to sustainability: Fashion encourages over-consumption – that is, buying the latest fads over and over – and it’s over-consumption, in Jones’ view, that is the most detrimental.
Why women over-consume fashion: “Over-consumption comes from feeling like you don’t have enough and feeling like you don’t have enough comes from a place of feeling like you are not enough.” Jones “wants to push against those ideals” and remind women that they are enough without all the fashion trappings.
Why sustainability in fashion is complicated: Because it encourages disposability, and “sustainability is about not being disposable and fashion is considered disposable.” So she wants to use her new magazine to help create “greater value around the things we create, thereby giving them a longer life…than something that is disposable. This made me a lot better about wearing my older sister’s clothes a lot when I was a kid.
Laura Jones (l), Joan Michelson at the Earth Day Network Gala 2019
Photo: Joan Michelson
“Dress your values”: Jones said women need to consider the impact of what they wear, across the system, from the way the women who make these clothes are treated and their working conditions (and they are mostly women, not men and not machines, she explained), to where the fabrics come from, to the impact making them has on the environment, including water use and pollution, waste, and energy use.
Why designers don’t talk about sustainability more: Designers and retailers fear that if they aren’t 100% addressing every issue related to sustainability, that if they talk about what they are doing that they will be attacked. But that’s a goal that’s unrealistic. “I think it’s a real way to limit innovation in the space,” Jones said.
Sustainability is a journey with multiple aspects.
At Frontlash, she said, “we try to celebrate the journey of the consumer and the designer” getting to a sustainable place knowing that “it’s never going to be perfect.” They embrace the technical, not shy away from it.
“We’re talking about how science is reimaging the textile industry, which is really exciting…People get really excited about innovation.”
Jones also had unusual career advice, which you can read about in my next Forbes blog.
At first glance, Matthew Rugamba’s big break was the result of pure serendipity.
The Rwandan designer had long harbored dreams of designing for Hollywood’s biggest stars. Since 2011, he has built a loyal following for his House of Tayo brand, fusing African heritage with contemporary designs to create brightly colored, mixed-print items like bow ties and infinity scarves. But he had struggled to break out from the local fashion scene.
That changed in 2018, with the premiere of one of the most anticipated movies of the year: Black Panther. Rugamba discovered that a mutual friend knew Peter Junior Nyong’o, the brother of Kenyan Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o, who plays the powerful spy Nakia in the superhero movie. He convinced his friend to ask Nyong’o if he was accompanying his sister to the film’s premiere, and if so, whether he had anything to wear.
He was going, he replied, and he didn’t yet have a suit. Rugamba immediately sent sketches to Nyong’o, who agreed to wear a three-piece design. Using measurements supplied by Nyong’o and photos as his guide, the suit was tailored in two-and-a-half days and hastily shipped to the US from Kigali. It arrived in LA a few hours before the premiere.
Courtesy/House of Tayo
After Lupita posted a photo of her brother wearing the suit to her 7.8 million Instagram followers, tagging House of Tayo and using the hashtag #FromRwandatoWakanda, thousands flocked to the brand’s social media accounts. “It was huge,” Rugamba remembers. “It was great for credibility.”
But it wasn’t just luck, hustle, and connections that propelled Rugamba to the Hollywood red carpet. Rwanda, a small nation of 12 million people, has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, with aspirations of becoming a middle-income nation by 2035. And Rugamba is the beneficiary of one of a series of homegrown initiatives aimed at sustaining high and inclusive growth in different industries—including the country’s nascent fashion scene.
One of those initiatives is “Made in Rwanda,” launched in 2015, which aims to recapture parts of the Rwandan market from imports while improving the competitiveness of Rwandan exports globally. How? By boosting (pdf) private businesses and the manufacturing sector, augmenting garment and leather production, reducing operation costs, and helping small businesses, like Rugamba’s, get finance from the government or commercial banks.
As part of this strategy, Rwanda this year will totally ban imports of Western hand-me-downs after years of raising tariffs on such goods in a bid to boost its own domestic textiles industry. Second-hand clothing is a multi-million industry in Rwanda that employed up to 22,000 people as of 2016, according to a study by USAID. Rwanda’s protectionist move drew the ire of the Trump administration, which last year suspended the country’s own clothing from duty-free access to American markets.
The government’s playbook for the fashion industry is visible in Kigali’s up-and-coming fashion houses and accessory brands, from jewelry retailers like Inzuki Designs, to clothing lines like Sonia Mugabo, Inkanda House, and Rwanda Clothing.
Rooted in culture
Rwandan designers say they are not just interested in sartorial elegance but in delivering designs steeped in heritage and storytelling.
Growing up in the Nyamasheke district in the country’s west, Moses Turahirwa saw women weaving baskets and making incredible artwork and decoration from beads. Looking to “recreate something unique reflecting the culture,” Turahirwa sought inspiration from imigongo, a once-dying 18th-century traditional art form featuring geometric designs like zigzags and squares. The array of black and white patterns became the signature look for his first Moshions collections, launched in 2015.
Turahairwa’s designs have even graced non-humans. When Hanson Robotics brought its humanoid robot Sophia to Rwanda to address this month’s Transform Africa Summit, she donned a custom-made traditional umushanana Moshions dress with the imigongo beading.
Courtesy/Moshions
Moshions founder Moses Turahirwa with one of his tailors.
Courtesy/Moshions
The “imigongo” pattern on a sandal by Moshions label.
Staying local is a central principle for many of these brands. When Priscilla Ruzibuka launched her children’s clothing line Ki-pepeo Kids in 2016, she chose to work with maids affected by the 1994 genocide, in which 800,000 people, mainly from the ethnic Tutsi minority, were murdered in just 100 days.
The designer set about training the women to sketch pieces, cut fabric, make patterns and use sewing machines. Ki-pepeo now employs nine women to make rompers, dresses, jackets, and jumpsuits with animal prints.
Haute Baso (HB), a casual clothing, décor, and jewelry brand, has trained also 300 local artisans across Rwanda on the entire production chain. “The whole point is to build a team that even if they went independent, they can start another label,” says HB’s founder and creative director Linda Mukangoga. “For me, success is seeing a thousand models like ours.”
Courtesy/Ki-pepeo kids
Ki-pepeo Kids founder Priscilla Ruzibuka with one of her tailors.
Courtesy/House of Tayo
House of Tayo 2018 collection.
Persistent challenges
Despite the enthusiasm, manifold challenges hinder Rwanda’s fashion industry from floating away on a nimbus of success just yet. Designers are particularly concerned with the prohibitive requirements set for them to obtain financing. Rugamba, for instance, says he initially couldn’t get a bank to issue him a point of sale gadget because they didn’t think his business would make money.
For now, incentives through the government’s Export Growth Fund Facility, which Rugamba was able to access, are helping ease the financial strain. The East Africa-focused HEVA Fund has also provided training and facilitated pop-up stores for Rwandan brands in Nairobi.
Courtesy/Haute Baso
Haute Baso design.
Gaps also exist in the supply chain, with many fashion houses still importing synthetic fibers and fabric from China, Turkey, Egypt, and India. Buttons, zips, and dyes are often sourced from abroad, complicated by the logistics and time involved in getting materials to the landlocked state. And while factories like Utexrwa make textiles for the domestic market, they mostly specialize in making uniforms for police and immigration. The Chinese company C&H Garments, which operates in Kigali’s special economic zone, produces mostly for export.
Because of these limitations, Ruzibuka says couturiers make do with whatever quality materials they can get at any given time—restraining how much they can work with a favored print or replicate a product.
Many also struggle to set up successful e-commerce and shipping operations, crucial at a time when African fashion boutiques are shifting to selling on popular platforms like WhatsApp.
The buzz around the fashion sector also masks that the majority of locally-made products are still out of reach for many Rwandans, where the gross domestic product per capita stands at $750. Some clothing traders have even switched to importing low-cost Chinese ready-made clothes in order to gain income and target the majority of people who can’t afford new clothing.
But Rugamba says that beyond logistical challenges, the biggest hurdle for “Made in Rwanda” products is overcoming negative perceptions. Buyers have the “perception that something local can’t be luxury. Or something local has to be cheap.”
To induce repeat buyers, Haute Baso’s Mukangoga says the sector should not only be producing versatile and quality designs but also ensure they are making a “well-made clothing that has a story.”
In the first two years since the launch of “Made in Rwanda,” the government said total export receipts increased from $559 million in 2015 to $944 million in 2017. To build momentum, Rwanda could learn from challenges facing countries like Ethiopia. As the Horn of Africa nation champions its own “Made in Ethiopia” shoe and garment-making sector, its workers have complained of low wages, inhospitable working environments, and inadequate training at factories.
Courtesy/Moshions
Accessing good fabric consistently is a problem for many Rwandan designers.
Fashion designers are so far trying to promote the industry’s dynamism through collaborations like Collective RW and the annual Kigali Fashion Week. The government also encourages civil servants to wear Rwandan designers on the last Friday of every month. Yet Mukangoga says the industry’s ambitions need to be more than just a policy statement.
“If it becomes natural, you are more likely to keep doing it,” she argues. “If it becomes a way of life, it is easy to sustain.”
