The Future of Denim : Avery Dennison RBIS

The denim industry has long reigned as one of the most unshakable sectors of the fashion world. A wardrobe staple throughout the decades, no one really questioned the power of the blue jean basic until the emergence of the athleisure trend graced the catwalks several years ago. 

This market shift, along with growing consumer interest in more sustainably, ethically produced clothing, is forcing the denim industry to take stock, innovate and quickly evolve.

Last week, Avery Dennison RBIS invited a stellar panel of industry visionaries to discuss the Future of Denim in Downtown Los Angeles. A global leader in apparel branding, labeling, packaging, embellishments and RFID solutions, Avery Dennison RBIS hosted the event at the company’s DTLA Customer Design and Innovation Center.

Focus was placed on consumer trends, expert insights, and increased sustainability in the retail industry. The panelists discussed the unique findings from Avery Dennison RBIS’ recent consumer and denim insights research, including consumer preferences impacting purchase intent across the denim industry and the influence of the ever-growing athleisure trend.

Chaired by Amy Leverton, former Denim Director at WGSN and author of acclaimed Denim Dudes, guests were treated to insights and foresight from Adriano Goldschmied, Founder & Creative Director of Goldsign; Miles Johnson, Creative Director at Patagonia; David Hieatt, Founder of Hiut Denim; and Marco Lucietti, Global Marketing Director at Isko Denim.

Adriano Goldschmied and Amy Leverton

The importance of fit was immediately emphasized in response to Amy’s opening question about consumer loyalties. Branding will always be important in a competitive market but the panel discussed how consumers primarily make repeat purchases due to finding the right fit.

Miles Johnson and David Hieatt

Technological advancement in stretch denim has certainly upped the fit game, but the industry competes with the comfort levels offered by sportswear brands, a segment that is now crossing over to also offer denim lines.

The panel agreed that the denim purists will always want their selvage denim, but the industry is in need of innovators. There is no equivalent of Nike in the denim world and the space is ripe for change.

In recent years, knit has challenged the traditional woven technique for making jeans; subsequently opening up the market.

“The present always looks like the most important thing, but there is no present without thinking and preparing for the future. ”

— Adriano Goldschmied

Growing consumer awareness and the increasing demand for supply chain transparency, are putting pressure on an antiquated manufacturing system. When asked who should be pioneering the change towards a more conscious fashion industry, the response was that it can’t simply be one company or brand.

It has to be a joint effort as ultimately the responsibility rests on all of our shoulders. 

“The responsibility comes back to us, the consumer. It’s cool to care about the planet we live on.

”

— David Hieatt

Standards are slowly rising and the digital era allows us to be as informed as we choose to be. Consumer demand could effectively force apparel companies innovate or die. With a notable rise in jeans made from organic cotton, alternative design and manufacturing methods are becoming increasingly accepted and expected.

“Make them well and make them look good.
There needs to be a massive cultural shift; it’s not a trend, it’s the right thing to do.

”

— Miles Johnson

Cost is of course an issue, to both companies and consumers. If the price tags remain prohibitively high, consciously made denim will remain a commodity for the minority. An undeniable source of pollution to our planet, the industry does not currently have economies of scale on organic cotton. It is a highly political topic that requires a revolutionary answer.

Marco Lucietti

““Jeans are a democratic product. We should not position responsible jeans as a question of price. We need to make them accessible for everyone.

”

— Marco Lucietti

As the panel dispersed, guests returned to the party, customizing t-shirts and gorgeous Isko Denim totes, and generally bonding over their collective love of the blue stuff. 

In addition to denim, an inescapable factor brought us together that evening: a shared passion for creativity and innovation. And so to my favorite quote of the evening...

“I want to sell to ideas people. Creative people wear jeans; people that change the world wear jeans.

”

— David Hieatt

To find out more visit rbis.averydennison.com

Or email: maria-teresa.ortiz@averydennison.com

@AvyDenRBIS

#BeyondThePatch

Creative Direction & Writing: Jennie McGuirk

Photography: Betsy Winchell

Inspiration LA

Freedamn Heads came from far and wide to gather in Downtown LA yesterday, for the 6th Annual Kulture Recycling Show, Inspiration LA.

A memorable show with a feel-good vibe, it was fantastic to meet up with old faces and new friends.

Inspiration LA is part trade show, part hang-out, for counter culture Denimheads, vintage Americana enthusiasts, artists, surfers and Kustom Kulture aficionados.

The show celebrates independent labels, slow style designers and local businesses.

Founded in 2010 by photographer/journalist Rin Tanaka, of My Freedamn fame, the show now draws several thousand visitors through its doors each year.

One of the highlights of the day was meeting fellow Brit and denim lover, Amy Leverton, who is in the process of launching her excellent new book Denim Dudes.

A stylish compendium of some of the most influential men in the industry, Denim Dudes also acts as a guide to the latest denim styling from the world's most fashionable cities.

Click here for an inside glimpse and order your copy today!

Photography: Jennie McGuirk

Revoterial : Cradle to Cradle Innovation

Yotam Solomon is a whole other breed of fashion designer; not only is he committed to designing consciously with existing alternative methods, but he is actively reshaping the fashion manufacturing industry through cradle to cradle innovation.

Despite facing a multitude of challenges and barriers, Solomon is gaining incredible momentum with his mission to detoxify the fashion industry; his big-picture mentality has empowered him to take the visionary step of rejecting the status quo in order to usher in change.

Currently one of the pioneering companies at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), in the burgeoning Cleantech Corridor of Downtown LA, Solomon and his company Revoterial, are setting the stage for the next era of clean manufacturing.

The La Kretz Innovation Campus will bring 60,000 square feet of cleantech innovation and commercialization activities to the Cleantech Corridor.

Yotam grew up in Israel, moving to Los Angeles in 2003. Showing a passion and gift for the arts as a viola prodigy, he went on to study Fashion Design at LA’s Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM).

Upon graduation Yotam took a pattern making position for a menswear line and continued to work on product development with large companies and brands. He also launched his eponymous label in 2007, at the tender age of 20.  

Having witnessed the potential impact of his products on a multitude of levels, Yotam aims to inspire and encourage public awareness of social and environmental issues through his collections.

As a person, I go through a lot of learning stages and sometimes I find information that I really want to share. I like to express it through fashion; I think it’s a wonderful medium and at the end of the day, it’s art that we get to wear, so what’s more fun than that?

The Yotam Solomon Ready-to-Wear, Footwear and Accessories collections focus on environmentally friendly production and natural materials, with low impact glues, and natural dies; everything is sourced and manufactured here in the US.

Yotam’s fashion is sold internationally and worn by the likes of Victoria Beckham, Kim Kardashian, Stacey Keibler and Sandra Bullock.

Items from the Yotam Solomon collection; drawing inspiration from social and environmental issues.

Due to his exposure to the inner workings of the fashion industry, Yotam became increasingly conscious of the negative aspects of large-scale manufacturing.

This knowledge continues to drive him to push the boundaries and challenge the current system. 

When you see the giant factories manufacturing mostly with harmful and toxic materials, you think to yourself, "this can’t be?" But more than just thinking about it, I really had to do something about it.

People can make profits by creating renewable materials.

For me it’s really about making cradle to cradle solutions, period. If it won’t make sense for us in 50 years time, what’s the point of making it now? That’s my biggest design and core business value.

Yotam recognizes how the industry is essentially stuck in a time warp, operating in a way in which change is long overdue.

During the industrial revolution, we created a lot of wrongful ideology using materials that would eventually harm us, but nobody knew back then, and the problem now is that we became dependent and haven’t moved away from that yet; we are still working with the same old materials.

Over the last eight years he observed what was going on and made a commitment to creating non-toxic solutions. One of his ongoing missions is to educate people about the issues, in order to minimize confusion and misinformation.

My biggest issue with large corporations is that they always focus on recycling and they don’t understand how recycling works; recycling is not enough.

Sustainability has represented a gap between technology innovation and top executives, not allowing true clean and green manufacturing into the marketplace.

Clean manufacturing is a system where you don’t have waste; where you get your money for your own products back, to do full cycling ability.

Recycling and renewability are two different things; recycling something means that you can use a specific amount of products again. An example for that are plastics. Grade 1 - 4 can only be recycled between 30-40%, which means that 60 or 70% is always wasted, ending up in landfills or the ocean.

Renewabilty means a product is natural and can be fully recycled. One of the things that upsets me is that we don’t have the right terminology; we don’t have the right vocabulary, language or jargon to really scale up and let people understand how these metrics can affect this giant industry.

I want to focus on renewability, which is what clean manufacturing is all about; a closed loop, and a triple bottom-line balancing Profit, People, and Planet.

Yotam founded Revoterial in 2012. The Los Angeles-based material development company is in the process of pioneering seismic change within the fashion manufacturing industry.

Currently owning exclusive rights to dozens of university and institution patents, the company is introducing sustainable raw-material, processing, and finishing technologies that are fully integrated into existing manufacturing standards.

Yotam explains,

We are, in a way, a research and development company. We are going to be initiating product development so we are very R&D focused, and we are producing healthy products for generations to come.

We have quite a few things that we’re working on right now at Revoterial; our premier technology is called Silxt, which is based on low cost bulk silk, that’s based on the fiber silk, not on the yarn.

We are able to transform it into composite materials to replace products like plastics rubbers and foams, for fashion manufacturing because they have the correct metrics for what we need in this specific industry.

Silxt is a farmed material; the cocoons are grown in a very simple farm method, the worms only nourish on mulberry tree leaves. It’s a very simple farming method that can be done anywhere on the globe, which in turn, helps to revive the natural farming landscape.

With Silxt we can create fully-assembled products like shoes, bags, and phone cases. Using a single material that can be directly adhered, and is naturally waterproofing, eliminates many harmful chemicals and simplifies the entire process.

Incredibly enough, there is also a price advantage, with first material analysis showing competitive price savings compared to conventionally used materials.

We have multiple projects that are coming up in more material spaces and projects that include micro-technology and nano-technology as well, so we will be able to engineer materials into different products by modifying and engineering the nano scale and molecular formation of materials.

Working at this level means that Revoterial will be able to affect change across many fields: from the appearance to the functionality and performance of many products.

Revoterial currently has technology projects that are both in lab and factory scales. All of our development projects focus on cradle to cradle orientation, price competitive solutions, and direct integration into existing assembly lines. We initially help domestic companies source materials and then support local manufacturing in the US and all western regions; an industry sector we lost decades ago.

Yotam's goal is to bring full-scale manufacturing back to the United States, with a projected timeline of just three years.

Another challenge that he has encountered is, of course, finding and securing funding.

We are looking at many different technologies and really focusing on scalability and getting funding is not as easy as it may seem.

A lot of people are very skeptical; I learned that some of the hardest fundraising projects in the world became some of the most successful projects, but nobody believes you at first.

The technology is out there but it’s about getting the funding to make it all happen. Surprisingly there are a multitude of existing technologies. Usually it’s in the medical space for material development but not for fashion. It’s interesting to me because there’s so much need in fashion for these types of projects.

What it seems to boil down to is whether people care or not, and whether they can see value in the change. People are all-too-often dismissive of this kind of development, even thought it’s incredibly fundamental.

There is a baffling irony about the way we are socially programmed to care more about our cars and homes than our personal effects, even though we wear them next to our skin.

The number one question I get is: what’s wrong with fashion now? They just don’t understand what goes into it. It’s the number one misunderstanding when I start talking, they say: well, why do you need to change that?

Members of the LACI team are currently located at the temporary facility on Hewitt Street.

As one of the successfully nominated LACI portfolio companies, Revoterial is provided with a wealth of support and business resources that include help finding grants and investor connections. Run by the Mayor’s office, it is an integral part of a greater vision to build LA’s green economy.

One of the things I like the most about LACI is they bring some amazing talent as far as the CEOs, Product Developers and Executives that have experience.

We are developing milestones for when we bring manufacturing back here, and offer interesting incentives for companies like New Balance or Columbia, to actually open factories in the US, and more specifically Los Angeles, as we have the harbor and the city itself offers different resources as well.

I think that LACI as a full-scale incubator provides great resources; it's very helpful for me as a new clean-tech business to have that backing and the opportunities that come with that.

Yotam chats with incubator colleague, Jon Edward Miller, Chief Product Officer at Hive Lighting.

When questioned if Revoterial is regarded differently, due to its fashion focus, Yotam explains that there is a valuable exchange of knowledge and experience between him and his LACI colleagues.

For me coming from fashion I do bring a very specific insight to the table, that a lot of professionals in finance or the Cleantech sector don’t necessarily have an understanding for. A lot of people appreciate that it’s a tough industry and that I was able to have a successful business in this industry, and that I’m maintaining everything.

So far I’ve been able to help different companies with different connections and resources as well.

I’m really happy that I have all of this acquired knowledge so far and hopefully I can have a lot more in the next few years.

Pioneering a revolutionary kind of sustainable design thinking, Solomon has proven his ability to make sizable waves in short space of time.

Acting in awareness of both the short and long-term impact of his work, he strives to promote greater understanding and appreciation for kinder design and cleaner manufacturing processes.

I hope we can create solutions that revolutionize some aspects of fashion, but even if we change one or two materials it would be a dramatic change.

I really hope to create things that will use natural technologies, change how manufacturing is done here in the US, provide healthy solutions for manufacturing, and at the end of the day, help raise awareness and allow people to be more innovative when it comes to eco-friendly practices.

To find out more visit Revoterial.com

Creative Direction & Writing: Jennie McGuirk

Photography: Betsy Winchell

Studio Lighting Courtesy : Hive Lighting

With special thanks to the LA Cleantech Incubator

 

 

EcoDivas Shorts & Sizzles Fest : Fashion Revolution Day

Thursday night we turned our clothes #InsideOut and joined a passionate group of conscious fashion Angelenos for an evening of discussion and informed programming. 

Hosted by EcoDiva's Taryn Hipwell and Fashion Revolution Day USA Coordinator Oceana Lott, we listened as the panel of three pioneering ethical fashion designers: Sandy Skinner, Rebecca Mink and Fahmina, shared their business challenges and triumphs:

  ecoSkin

  Mink

  Fahmina

Stand out clips from the screening were Thread, Amber Valetta's new four-part documentary series about the fashion industry’s social and environmental impact, and the highly acclaimed 2011 animation from Greenpeace's Detox campaign, which still packs a clever, satirical punch.

Thread, Driving Fashion Forward with Amber Valletta & L Studio

Detox Fashion, Greenpeace.

Lovecraft Leather: Perpetuating the Art of Custom Shoe Design

With Chris Francis of Lovecraft Leather.

Nestled among one of the most exciting creative hot-spots of Downtown Los Angeles, Chris Francis has one foot in the past and one foot in the future of custom shoe-making.

He dedicates his time and energy to finding and restoring original cobbler machines, creating inventive new solutions for design challenges and preserving the knowledge of the traditional craft for generations to come.

My workshop is very important to me as this is where all my inspiration comes from; it’s organized chaos with a lot of ghosts from old shoe cobblers.

Lending a poetic twist to Chris' Los Angeles-based story; heels are made from the melted down plastic of countless Hollywood movie reels.

He meticulously creates bespoke footwear for colorful characters on and off the stage, mixing self-learned shoe-making skills and a plethora of experiences from his own eclectic background.

Part art form, part method of communication; his process is defined by a genuine desire to connect with his subjects and translate human form into designs that are loaded with their personality and his own creative flair.

Growing up in Kokomo, Indiana, Chris was surrounded by factories, machinery and a working class labor ethic.

After they closed, we played in the factories and it gave me a love of machinery. It’s a big reason why I collect the machines and have the need to be surrounded by them; it evokes a kind of nostalgia.

He rode freight trains around the country and took work where he found it: the carnival, lumber-jacking and even sword fishing ships.  It was a baptism of fire for him each time, learning new skills in order to survive.  He now applies all of these diverse skills to everything he makes.

I apply knots that I learned on the fishing boat towards sewing or stitching on a jacket and I can use what I learned when I was a carpenter towards creating the architecture of a shoe.

Putting the final touches to Guitarist, Donna Grantis' heels.

Along with his multidisciplinary skill-set comes a resourceful mentality to create something from nothing.

Some of my favorite designs are when I’ve had absolutely no money at all to buy any materials and I just find materials on the street. That’s where a lot of really inventive designs come from.

A true artist at heart, Chris has continuously been creating work over the years. The guise may have shifted from painter to sculptor to designer, but the vision remains constant. His focus shifted to shoe-making just four years ago but footwear has been a common theme throughout his life,

I was painting pictures of shoes on the trains I was riding, or I was collecting shoes when I got off the railroad, and then my art at the time consisted of paintings of shoes that featured on billboards or in magazines.

When asked what was the first defining moment of his shoe-making career, he responds,

I guess maybe the moment when the shoes went out on stage at a rock ‘n’ roll show. Like it’s more than just something that sits on a shelf at a shop; the fact I had made something that was performing in front of people, that was a really cool moment.

In addition to his mind-blowing creative vision, one of Chris’ most endearing qualities is his humility. The shoes that he’s referring to were on the feet of legendary “Queen of Metal” Lita Ford.

Due to the fact he is so consumed in the design process, his marketing efforts are minimal, and he marvels that somehow he “keeps getting found”. However, once you have spent some time in his company and observed the care and attention that goes into each of these incredible products, it’s blatantly obvious why he attracts the people and projects he does.

Shoes are a way for me to take a concept, a thought, and then turn it into more of a two dimensional drawing and then use math and geometry to create a pattern that surrounds the complex third dimension. Which also for me goes to a different dimension of capturing someone’s personality in a piece, and that’s what it’s really all about, what I value is that experience.

Citing music as a huge inspiration for everything he makes, he also references the great Italian shoemakers Ferragamo and Di Fabrizio.

I’m always striving for perfection on every single detail, down the stitch. A lot of the people that I’m making for judge by the standards of the high fashion houses, and I have to live up to it. You have to make the equivalent of an Italian product.

Shoes Modeled by Vanessa Gonzalez

He consciously tries to use as little new, store-bought materials as possible; up-cycling leathers, wood and exotic skins whenever he can.  His love of animals and the environment drives his search for alternative materials and more ethical processes.

His dream is to make an impact through exceptional, bespoke design and leave a legacy that perpetuates the ancient handicraft of shoe making,

I hope to leave lots of art and shoes, and make things that get collected by others in the future, that get looked upon like the things that inspired me. I hope that other makers will find these tools, and that all these tools stay in use. I’d love at some point to be able to pass the trade onto others and help others learn the trade. That wasn’t something that was offered to me as a lot of the makers didn’t want to teach and now the trade is dying out.

No matter how tough the design challenge is, Chris refuses to give in.

Failure is never an option. Even if you feel that it’s not working out, you still have to make it and understand why it doesn’t work so that you learn for the next piece. You need all of that information. You run into every single situation imaginable during the design of a garment or a shoe, especially custom orders.

These things have to move on stage, they have to be tight fitting, they have to be comfortable, they serve so many functions and you always have to be ten or twenty steps ahead of the game. You have to have the end result in your mind at all times, and pull rabbit after rabbit out of your hat. It’s like you have to be a magician at all times to pull it off.

It can be tough and demanding, but ultimately very rewarding.

---

Chris can be contacted at : info@lovecraftleather.com

Spread the love by referencing Brilliant Collective.

Creative Direction & Writing: Jennie McGuirk

Photography: Betsy Winchell

Model: Vanessa Gonzales