Some things I couldn't fit in synopsis

ZERO WASTE

My goal for this project was to teach myself how to make zero waste. I wanted to create three main pieces. Firstly a piece that LOOKED zero waste therefore was draped and grain lines etc were not a main issue. This is present in the Micah jacket where the overall aesthetic is baggy and urban/modern. Secondly I wanted to create a piece that DID NOT look zero waste and followed a similar traditional aesthetic. Hence, the Jaycen shirt that has a very similar structure to your traditional men's shirt and fells the same on the body. This shows that zero waste can be tailored and made to measure. Lastly I wanted to show how SIMPLE zero waste could be. This is shown in the Duncan pants where there are few seams and the pattern is extremely simple. Fit is slightly compromised due to the lack of seams however if I combined some aspects I used in Jaycen shirt I believe I could get the fit I wanted. I believe the three samples do show the beginnings of these ideas.

ALAIN IN THE MARKETPLACE

I anticipate (and hope) that zero waste will take off in the next few years. I am so happy and excited to be learning and engaging with these techniques at such a budding time in its life. I wanted Alain to tap into that market who are growing up with an understanding of climate change and the need to be sustainable. I believe that this type of person would effectively engage and promote the brand bringing about a craze in this style of dressing. Alain would work best as a diffusion line to an established line because you would need to firstly get customers asking questions (educating) therefore being in well established store like area 51 or Good as Gold /being on a well established website to get these connections. Imagine if Alain was a diffusion label to Toms shoes. Just that first connection between the successful brand and Alain would enhance this area/time for education and therefore understanding of zero waste pattern. I would love to go deeper into this project by first outlining why zero waste does not work/why people say it doesn't and making a collection inspired by this. Whenever I have spoken to people about this project and the fact I am doing zero waste they say "don't all the garments look the same? Aren't they all baggy and ill shaped?" I would really like to challenge these questions and make a statement of why zero waste should be in the market place. I believe it wouldn't just fuel the design and environment but also the cost of production.

Synopsis

The Alain collection, primarily inspired by the Margareta collection tells the story of how elderly (focusing on my grandmother, Margareta Morvan) feel in today’s world. In the last collection, I wanted the wearer to feel over protected although suffocated by the numerous layers, which presents my personal incapable willingness to help my grandmother get out of this channel of life. The Alain collection conjoins these ideas into a wearable unisex diffusion line intended for the middle to high market. Alain is a certified organic fair trade label using more sustainable fabrics and design practices such as zero waste where possible. Taking the quote by Kate Fletcher, “Relationships can be fostered by designing garments that encourage us to ask deep questions about our sense of place in the natural world…It is about designing confidence and capability-including pieces that encourage versatility, inventiveness, personalization and individual participation” Alain pushes the boundaries of mass produced fashion by opening its market to men and women allowing them to style the clothes in their personal way. This is then reinforced by the advertisement of the zero waste pieces in the collection seen in the exclusive khaki topstitching and unusually designed clothing that stirs a popular craze in the market place bringing about a new way of zero waste designing and unisex dressing. Alain customers feel positive about using and buying the pieces and are intrigued by this new way of dressing and therefore tell their friends and family. They feel comfortable, warm and modern.

The key word behind Alain is effortless. It is effortless in its styling, its effortless to wear and effortless to pile layer upon layer. Alain is for rebellious girls who like to dress up in theirs boyfriends and brother’s clothes, tying a belt around her waist with her hair in a messy bun. On the other hand Alain is for guys who want to be comfortable and are interested in mixing their wardrobe up a bit. He is relaxed with who he is and likes the fact that a girl might wear the same jacket or shirt, he believes this is a ‘cool’. Whether the Alain customer is creative or not, they consider themselves creative. He or she is interested in fashion but not a fashion victim. They are growing up in the present day where Global warming and ideas around sustainability are constantly swirling the media. Although they don’t always use there green reusable shopping bags at the supermarket, they try to conserve power, shop organic and reduce waste as much as possible and therefore are interested in Alain as it encompasses sustainability as a key motive.

Saying this, while sustainability is a key focus for Alain, it is primarily a fashion label and as design in New Zealand is facing a number of challenges where skilled workers are going offshore, small factories have shut down and therefore the capabilities to implement a lot of design features featured in the Alain collection simply don’t exist in the New Zealand market. In conjunction with this, if the collection was totally made in New Zealand the price point for a lot of items would increase beyond my markets financial capacity. Consequently, there is a push toward a more designer loaded sustainability technique using zero waste and unisex dressing to minimize waste and mass produced garments that are thrown out after each season.

The color palate for the collection includes warm and cool greys, black, khaki and a cinnamon brown. These color’s were foremost inspired by the concept of deterioration in the Margareta collection and then edited to fit a more modern style of dressing that suits both men and women. The fabrics include some sustainable/organic textiles such as hemp blends and organic cotton in conjunction with some cozy New Zealand made Merino’s and wools. The merinos are lightweight therefore designed to be layered and worn under t-shirts. Most of the jackets and outer shells are bound inside and out to enable the wearer to wear the clothes in really unusual ways (inside out). As mentioned above, the zero waste items are top stitched in green khaki to tell the costumer and the general public that they are sustainable. The small gun print that mimics the same style of tiny geometric symbols seen in brands like Lonely Hearts are intended to add a more youthful trendy element to the collection. The idea of the gun in the print plays on the ‘protective’ element in the collection and would be digitally printed onto merinos and organic cottons.

With all these aspects in mind, Alain is what you get when you take the unisex silhouettes of Jimmy D, the organic and relaxed cottons of Kowtow, the innovative design of Maison Martin Margiela and the price point of Kate Sylvester’s diffusion line, Sylvester.

Final Pictures of Portfolio Presentation

I planned to bound the portfolio but it ended up being way to thick to even fit through the industrial sewing machine. So, in true zero waste fashion, I made a padded cover with my left over fabric. Its all merino and really soft! Plays along with the protective theme. 

I printed my portfolio on canvas and stitched 'Alain' into most pages. I really liked the back of the page on the later pages so I decided to incorporate this for the cover page by stitching the title in the Bebas font and have the guns on the back in reverse. I really like the the simplicity of this look, it makes the folio look very organic and effortless which is mirrored in my collection. 

Back of cover page and intro. 

Macro board showing influence from Margareta collection. Alan in stitched in khaki thread which draws on the zero waste themes. Gun print cut out in window. Pretty much all textures are introduced in this board. 

Concept board. Bringing the idea of the stereotype through - the idea that the jacket is just a square of fabric that the wearer has to construct on their body - not your standard dinner jacket. 

Zero waste board showing the simplicity of zero waste fashion design along with quotes of people who have inspired me. Zero waste garments are stitched around the edges which makes an effective pattern on reverse side. 

Women's and men's line ups. Really happy with how these turned out. I liked the mix of zero waste and non zero waste, I think this is sellable and very marketable. Looks really good on canvas as lighter colors have more of a texture. 

Illustrations of garments. I think these also portray my idea well and I like that secondary texture from the macro board. 

These sheets hang over the zero waste samples that I did. They show the patterns along with ideas I was trying to push. 

Relaxed Tuxedo strap sample

I used a lot of tuxedo strap tighteners in my collection so decided to sample. The sample does not show the end of the strap as seen in the drawings but this would flap out so the belt can be tightened between men and women. 

Machine quilted Pocket sample

Machine quilted pocket sample. Building on the idea of protecting etc- great for boys who like big pockets. 

Couples Photos with toile!

In the rush to finish these toiles, I couldn't find models in such short notice so the mannequins had to do! I tried to mix them up a bit and show outfits. I think the garments work really well together.

Duncan Pants

For the Duncan pants, unlike the other garments, I wanted to show how simple zero waste can be by creating the simplest pants I could design. With less seams etc fit is compromised however with a few adjustments and tuxedo ties at waist band I think they could really work. These pictures are on the men's form. 

Pattern for zero waste pants.