How To Get What You Want: KOBA etextiles tailorshop

January 16, 2018 in collaboration, commission, eTextiles, fashion, sustainability, tech, wearables

Hannah Perner-Wilson and Mika Satomi are best known for their epic explorations in DIY etextiles and documentation on www.kobakant.at. Anyone working with etextiles will be familiar with the incredible resource How To Get What You Want.

Their latest project KOBA takes this work one step further and offers an open studio and shop front allowing the public to walk in and commission whatever wearable electronic garment they can dream up! If you are in Berlin, I recommend you pay them a visit.

I started 2018 in style, spending an inspiring week in the KOBA Schneiderei in Kreuzberg. Working alongside Hannah and Mika I drafted the block for my unisex modular jumpsuit collection (more on that later) as well as giving a talk about 'how do we know what we want? making fantasies come true' at their first #Shoptalk event. We collaborated on a prototype jumpsuit (for ..me!) and you can follow the design and evolving documentation here. In the belt are vibration motors which tell me north when activated - by jumping, of course. It also wakes me up by 'purring' if I have been stationary for too long. Watch the video below or check out their blog post to learn more.

You can follow the evolution of the tailorshop and ongoing documentation on the KOBA website. If you want to be inspired and lose yourself in a web of inspiration, I encourage you to follow the multitude of links in this post and explore their work. You won't regret it.

I will be going back to KOBA in March (after we have recovered from fashion week) with my partner in crime Bex to see what wonders have been dreamt up since this visit.. and to make custom jumpsuits for Hannah and Mika.

Anyone familiar with my clothing obsessions will know: jumpsuits are the way of the future. This allusory jumpsuit pattern (and the whole collection) will be open sourced and uploaded as soon as we have: made the different style samples, rubbed our beards thoughtfully, hated them, decided we love them, shot them beautifully, presented them officially and finally, refined the patterns and uploaded the content. No biggie. You can have the patterns for free and will also be able to order them from us. The future will be sexy and utilitarian and have options. We have one month to complete this mission. Watch this space.

AGxRF: ALEXANDRA GROOVER x RACHEL FREIRE AW16 USING PIÑATEX

February 29, 2016 in fashion, collaboration, leather, accessories, gloves, sustainability

Rachel Freire and Alexandra Groover launch their new accessories collaboration at Paris Fashion Week AW16. AGxRF is designed to compliment Alexandra's timeless flowing robes which are 100% zero waste as well as sustainably and locally sourced and manufactured.
The collection uses the innovative and sustainable new material Piñatex alongside remade leather items with nearly all styles offered in a leather or vegan option.

AGxRF will be available for buyers and press alongside Alexandra Groover black label ANCESTRAL collection in Paris 3-9th March. More information after the cut

leather fingerwaves for a Rebel Heart

September 25, 2015 in leather, music, fashion, performance, accessories

Last month we received an exciting request for leather headpieces for the flapper finale of Madonna's Rebel Heart Tour. Commissioned by the brilliant Arianne Philips (costume designer of Hedwig and The Angry Inch and Tank Girl <3), we made an exclusive piece from the Concrete Roses collection. A fingerwave hairstyle which can be styled in under a minute is ideal for the military precision of dancers' quickchange. The particular design Arianne chose was not in the lookbook.. for some mysterious reason. It was clearly destined to be exclusive to the tour and will now be known as the Rebel Heart headband.

This original design sketch was featured in a 'first look' article on WWD alongside her formidable roster of designers. Big love to Arianne for including us in her epic design!

Rachel and Rebecca were joined by the talented Christian Warren Landon and made twelve pieces by hand in East London: 6 in polished black and 6 in pearl white. The carved and moulded leather fingerwaves are made using only European veg tan leather, water, traditional swivel knives and bone folding tools - and infused with a lack of sleep, an excess of swearing and a noble quantity of vodka.

These sculptural pieces were never intended to be made en masse. Instead the collection was designed around super minimal use of materials and tools, with all the emphasis on craftsmanship and human touch. How viable this is in the modern world is questionable. It is fascinating how we as consumers perceive the value of ornate craftsmanship, and how this in turn influences design practice. The collection was originally presented with this in mind. It was offered bespoke from the atelier and no wholesale orders were taken. So making a dozen in quick succession to a tight deadline was a baptism by fire as the process is tiring and intense, even for us maniacal leatherworkers.

However, you don't say no to Arianne and Madge! ;) So thank you ladies. The result was a perfect commission: pushing the material - and ourselves - to the limit.

BISHI feat. TONY BENN - Look The Other Way

May 05, 2015 in music, leather, fashion, collaboration, performance

It was wonderful to work with singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Bishi and her amazing creative team, styling this future-pop visual feast video. Bishi wears a whole Rachel Freire look in the first scene of the video, including a bespoke moulded leather corset, made the night before the shoot.

Released for the 2015 UK general election, Look The Other Way features socialist legend Tony Benn in a cautionary tale of harnessing anger and hope for a better world:

Nirvana: Les Etranges Formes du Plaisir

December 04, 2014 in fashion

Two jumpsuits from AW10 collection 'future noir' are currently on display at MUDAC design museum in Lausanne, Switzerland in the exhibition Nirvana: Les Etranges Formes du Plaisir. Displayed alongside a host of amazing artists, photographers and designers, the jumpsuits will tour with the exhibition for the next 12 months.

Nirvana is the first comprehensive exploration of the influence of erotica in design, fashion and contemporary art. By turns cheeky, luxurious and mysterious, the exhibition presents the work of around one hundred contemporary creators who make use of an iconography connected with sensual pleasure, drawing inspiration from erotic and fetishist literature, and from the images, objects and garments to which they frequently refer. Visitors will discover objects of superior workmanship, many of them rare and inaccessible, made from materials associated with the world of luxury goods and craftsmanship.

The exhibition forces us to re-examine our own ideas and perceptions of pleasure, and shows how forms can be transmuted from the private to the public sphere. MUDAC