My team and I came up with a list of helpful things for me to talk about for this week's blog post.
First up is the best clothing cleaning practices for longevity. To be honest the best thing to keep your clothes for a very long time is to not wash them. We as a society have got this ass backwards look at washing clothing, somewhere along the way we got it in our heads that we could only wear something once and then had to clean it. My motto is if it doesn't smell and it's not visibly dirty then why wash it?!? If something is smelling but not visibly dirty then put it in a plastic bag and throw it in the freezer for a day or so. This will kill the smell and allow you to wear the garment again. If it is dirty then a spot clean or full clean is needed. In that case put inside out and wash on a gentle cycle and hang or lay flat to dry.
Washing a hand painted shirt, this is pretty much the same as the above paragraph, the only extra thing I can add is that hand painted shirts slowly fade away over time. In my opinion they look best after a few washes because you can really see the brush strokes I use when creating them. As I mentioned over time they slowly break down, when it breaks down too much simply send it to me and I can refresh them.
I am often asked about how I choose fabrics and to be honest a lot of it comes down to sustainability, breathability and functionality. I order fabrics from all over the world using the internet, not going to lie a lot of it is guess and hope for the best but some of it comes down to skill and gut feelings on fabrics. When I design I typically sketch out what I am thinking I’d like to make and then think of what fabrics would give it the body I want.
The next topic we thought might be helpful is talking about my fit. A lot of my fit comes down to the shoulders, if it fits the shoulders it usually fits everywhere else because I love that A line look on women (and men).
If over time your body changes we can always modify the garment in some way or another. I’ve added panels and taken in garments. I’ve shortened the bottom hem or sleeves or even added patches to rips. No matter what you do
to your garments I have a fix for them. This leads me to my refresh program.
If you haven’t heard of my refresh program then I have a treat for you. If you no longer want to wear one of my garments then do not be shy and return it to the store. Maybe it needs mending, or needs some repair. That's not a problem. I will fix, modify and refresh the garment so that we can sell it at a low price point to someone else that will love it. Eventually the garment is thread bare and we can’t mend it anymore. This is when I turn it into art for the walls, my favourite!
Well my friends that's quite a bit of information for one post, I look forward to hearing your questions or comments about it.
Xoxo
Lennard