Where is Starkweather Made?

It's a question that we ask ourselves about many things these days: Where does it come from? Who actually makes this? Where is it really made? 

The label inside of Starkweather's garments, reading "Made in Romania" speak the truth, but can't show you the whole picture. So we wanted to give you an inside look behind the scenes at our amazing manufacturer's facility in Bucharest.

In the garment manufacturing business since the 70s, and working with some of the great design houses across France, the UK and the rest of Europe, they have a tactile savoir-faire from the pre-digital era. 

The lovely head of Studio

One of the most painstaking points of the production process: matching plaid at the seams

And they've continuously adapted to the new technologies available to make efficient use of their resources and time, and to streamline the prototyping, sampling and production processes. 

A quick click through the gallery above and you'll see the digitization process plus the cutting optimization process. We aim to produce as little waste as possible!

And finally, some shots of the lovely seamstresses sewing away and pressing the garments to perfection. 

Let's Talk About Sweat, Baby!

On a hot day in the city, those who know the hot weather and its exhaustive dehydrating effects behave differently than on other days. They walk more slowly, they hug the sides of buildings to receive their shade, they eat juicy fruits and they carry fans. They dress differently, too. A quick study of the attire of non-western populations in desert or tropical climates, except for where western sartorial codes have been adopted, will show people almost entirely covered in cotton or other plant fibers, either fitted and brightly printed, or soft light colors hanging away from the body.

In the west we tend to go by the philosophy the less fabric the better, which directly contradicts the methods of the more savvy communities who cover up for protection from the sun while assuring ventilation and breathability through silhouette and textile selection.

While the cotton tunic and loose pant combo is not suitable for most western men or women because our sartorial sensibility is so different, they serve to suggest how irrational our thinking is when it comes to dressing for hot weather. The less fabric the better philosophy can only get us so far. While the billowy tunic is not a global solution, we have the resources and high-tech capabilities so that we don’t need to fall back on low-tech solutions that aren’t right for us. What we need are innovators in textile and fashion design who will think like active wear designers in that our bodies have functions that we need to work with not fight against or try to hide and contain.  

In cities where we see all four seasons, the mentality is also very different because we don’t think of our environment as a hot or cold climate, it just happens to get very hot sometimes and very cold other times. So we have tiny little clothes for summer, and big puffy things for winter, and in between things that we try to adapt by looking at the weather and inferring, “maybe I should bring a sweater.” But just as down coats are better left on the ski slopes, mini short & crop top combos are better left on the beach, and if we thought more scientifically about our bodies, designing clothes thoughtfully for the weather, we could offer a much more balanced year round wardrobe.

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I am not immune to miscalculated dressing, either. Today as I write this I am wearing a silk blouse with just a hint of a sleeve that puffs over my shoulders. It is a warm day, warmer than it’s been, and the sun is out. I was walking from one meeting to another, between 11 and 11:25. In that time, the sun is almost at the top of the sky, so neither side of the sidewalk offers refuge in the shade of the buildings. There was only the option of slowing down a bit so as not to break a sweat. That lasted all of a couple of blocks before I realized my pace had picked up, just out of habit, like your foot slowly pressing down on the gas pedal, and that I could feel the dampness of my back where the blouse was sticking between my shoulder blades.

I have sympathy for men everywhere who are required by society and corporate dress codes, to wear a suit all year round. I love the way men look in suits, and would never want that look to go away, but I understand the issue about finding the perfect undershirt, for example, to make it possible to maintain dryness and crispness all day, all year. And while the search for the perfect undershirt has a lot to do with the fit, so that it is snug and not sloppy, it is also about the temperature regulation and how it deals with sweat.

From: The Art of Manliness

Men and women alike, we’ve all been in the situation where we get warm only to take off our jacket and reveal some awesome pit stains or spinal stripe of sweat down our back. Sweat is good, natural, healthy, but also socially taboo. Either we all learn to let it all hang out and embrace our moistness, or we accept that there is an issue with the way we cover our bodies. Other animals, on a hot day, must find us ridiculous. And think about all the clothes we’ve ruined by sweat stains that eventually become more and more difficult to erase from the memory of the fabric.

This might open a Pandora’s box of people jumping up with excitement that they have been granted the acceptance to spend their lives in athletic wear. In no way am I making that argument. I am suggesting not that we dress in clothes that exist for sweating in the form in which they exist today, but to problem solve as designers and find a way to make our clothes work more harmoniously with our bodies.

Next time you’re out in work or civilian clothes and your sweat glands start to go berserk, think about what you’re wearing, what’s working and what’s not, whether behavioral changes would help, or if it’s all about the apparel. Clothes that are made for the functions of the body, including sweat, not simply the movements of the body, will last longer and keep us more energized and more comfortable.

With problems like this to solve, and the technological capabilities to do so, the role of the designer has the potential to evolve past aesthetics without compromising those aesthetic values. This is our mission, should we choose to accept it.

3D Printing and Fashion

In the same way that wearables have been buzzing around the headlines at various levels of expertise, depths of analysis and niche-ness, 3D printing has been developing in parallel, gaining ground in the media and advancing technologically. Although still experimental, limited in capabilities (super slow, and high density), the process is constantly improving, and in many industries it is already an obviously integral part of the future. In fashion, the relevance of the technology is clear, so the outlying issues become questions of commercialization and copyright laws.

As we learned from Napster in the music industry, once a commodity is digitized, it's easy to copy and share (i.e. pirate) and the same could be easily applied to any kind of product sold in code format for download. 

Personal musing: What if you can plant a bug in the code, where if it's copied, it will print out with "I am a pirater" printed across it? Or the Lulu Guinness lips handbag (which I reported here she would love to start with, experimenting with distribution through 3D printing) doesn't open? Brands could come up with any number of tongue-in-cheek–or more serious–ways to use code in deterring consumers from stealing code.

Soft materials cannot yet be printed, so for fashion 3D printing is only for explorative, structural products. This means that accessory designers will continue to lead the adoption of the technology, while Iris Van Herpen, who creates entire garments for great Wow factor at her runway shows, remains a singular pioneer of 3D printing garments (a couple of other lesser known names share the space). And besides the celebs who will brave the red carpet in one of the sculptural designs, the salability of the pieces, and thus the scalability, waits for us in the future.

From The Guardian

Aside from the not-there-yet commercialization of the end product, there is also a question of the commercialization of the printers themselves. Will we all have one in our homes? Or will there be print shops, like Kinkos, where you can send your code and get a notification when it's ready for you to pick up?

The possibility of personalization is also an exciting aspect. While I believe in the authority of the designer, so modifications in style are not something I encourage, fit is a place where customization is transformational. In garments as well as in shoes, imagine if we weren't limited to standardized sizes, but instead we were all just the size that we are, with our unique bodies and unique the foot shape. 3D printing could enable this kind of production, and that is a beautiful thing. 

Finally, it demands an understanding of the technology in the design team to be able to explore the posibilities. Is this something that fashion designers will exploit? Will design teams soon be hiring programmers? Will styles be developed, like chez Herpen, solely for the 3D printing format? Or will the printers only be used as an alternate means of distribution for an article that is prototyped and manufactured through more traditional methods?

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You can find a lot about the future of fashion and technology (see here, here and here) on the blog, but I've largely neglected the subject of 3D printing until now. It's a space I'll be watching more closely, so keep checking back for more analysis and updates on the amazing & innovative (or not so successful) applications and developments.

In the meantime, here's a brief digest of reading on 3D printing if you're behind on the game:

"The Future of Fashion is Code, Not Couture" Mashable

"Will 3D Printing Upend Fashion Like Napster Crippled the Music Industry?" Mashable

"3D Printing Hits the Fashion World" Forbes

"Royal Ascot: 3D printed hat from poetry and plastic" The Telegraph

Of Brands and Distributors

We are witnessing a shift at this time in the fashion industry, a rapprochement to the tech industry, opening up opportunities in distribution and marketing models that were not possible before the internet. From the fashion industry side, we've barely tapped into the potential of this alignment. The challenge is finding a way to introduce the concept of endless possibilities to the fashion community in terms of technological tools and innovations, and the endless possibilities of branding through design (back and front end) to the tech community getting their toes wet with fashion companies. 

Fashion companies are accustomed to the idea of "anything is possible" in terms of realizing a creative vision, but when it comes to compromise concerning industry pain points, there is a consensus that generally accepts things to remain the same. Why can't we imagine our businesses with the view that anything is possible– design our businesses with the same precision and care with which we design our garments? 

Emerging product based technology doesn't need fashion designers for the time being because the most important and relevant innovations are in the health and fitness realms where tech-y looking things are ok. The innovation in online platforms is mostly coming from the tech and business side and acting as distribution models or branding 'basics' by adopting an existing aesthetic identity and ameliorating the experience through technology/online. There is an available space here for brands with unique and distinctive creative identities to step in, answer to a lifestyle and also define the direction of that lifestyle by carrying it into the future. That being said, there has to be a point of entry, a place for the consumer to connect with the product from where they stand, but for the brand to take the consumer away from the predicted trajectory–the rote of the fashion cycle, for example–and into a better and more highly designed, curated, and cared for experience.

What is the difference between a brand and a distributor? 

A brand has to have a creative ethos & a specific customer they create products for a lifestyle. It's about the aesthetic and the narrative.

A distributor speaks to a specific lifestyle through its curated selection of products from a variety of wholesalers. It's about range and customer experience.

Naturally, a bridge of similarities exists between the two and the obstacle is the status quo of how products reach the end consumer. Technology offers the chance to create a model  the benefits of both: reinforcing the brand identity through the methods of lifestyle curation pioneered by distributors.

What can the brand do beyond the creative ethos to add value?

A distributor focuses on experience, and hierarchy amongst distributors is determined by the quality of service and the level of personalization. Distributors take on characteristics of a brand when they capitalize on consistency. The narrative power of the distributor is in the brands they use to help tell their story. Again, rather than existing as two separate entities, the benefits of each to the other can be realized in one hybrid business model.

If the brand could provide a service that became a powerful acquisition tool, the product can tell a narrative that strengthens the ethos of the distribution model. It's something like a perfect storm of design, experience, online, offline, service, and communication. Empowering the business to prioritize all of these things through the use of technology. In places where digital can be more effective than brick and mortar, for example, the online experience will differentiate itself from the offline experience and already create two different demographic appeals. 

That bridge between brand and distributor is as real as the bridge between fashion and technology, but we're still swinging across the divide one by one, and even then it's only a brave few. In many cases I believe the fashion brands of the future don't exist yet and what we know of the industry today will get stuck in it's own vicious cycle. We adventure and explore more easily with lighter loads, so if brands start experimenting while small and agile rather than follow the predetermined business model of fashion brands which seems more certain at the time, we'll see some exciting changes in the way consumers engage directly with brands to get their hands on beautiful things while sharing a beautiful experience.

On Starting Somewhere : now available on Amazon

On starting Somewhere is now available on amazon for download. http://amzn.to/1j9v7DC

Entrepreneurship is not only a career choice, it's a way of life and a state of mind. The early stages of any venture will bring us face to face with issues that can help us and our businesses evolve in unexpected ways. 
On Starting Somewhere is an account of entrepreneurship during the tumultuous time before success. Author Lee Anderson came into entrepreneurship with a non-traditional background, and shares her experience on how to navigate the first steps of this arduous but life changing adventure.

If you don't have a kindle, you can read kindle books on kindle cloud reader, or on several apps available through your web browser. 

Fashion=SustainableFashion=Fashion Tech=Fashion

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”

Fashion is a polarized industry. Subsectors that alienate parts of the community through stigmatizing language or seemingly foreign concepts have stagnated change. Sustainable advocates are out at one end, and high-tech engineers at the other end. In the middle are the companies that were established without leaning towards one or the other of these poles, but should consider both as they move forward. Although there is a disparity between the discussion of Fashion and Tech and the discussion of Sustainable Fashion, two separate communities, two separate vocabularies, two separate futures, from where I stand, the two are actually very much in line.

Both fashion tech and responsible fashion are complete with early adopters, skeptics, and campaigns for change. In both cases, the supply is out of sync with the demand. Eco fashion carries a stigma that alienates a large portion of the audience, and fashion houses hesitate to implement what can be high investment change in that direction. High-tech fashion in the product category hasn’t proved useful to the general public, and the fashion industry has adopted tech into their brand experience largely as novelty rather than internalizing it.

The concepts being discussed across all factions of the industry are in sync, it is the distinctive vocabularies that maintain the divide between them. Once we are able to change the narrative from subjective beliefs to measurable behavior, it will become clear that we all want the same thing: a thriving industry that can access new channels for growth, and then sustain itself. Responsible choices and technology can help on both counts.

Some brands have chosen to experiment with one or the other, but might find they are doing both:

It seems to me that there are many ways in which the two are mutually supportive and can build an audience based on combining their values. Fashion of the future is fashion with a conscience. Technology can answer so many questions in the ethics of the manufacturing and distribution, and both ethically conscious transformations and technological disruption offer opportunity for great change through which values can be rewritten and rebuilt upon.

Technology can help through commerce platforms – Bonobos, for example, can sell lower price and better quality and create amazing customer experience by eliminating the middleman between wholesaler and consumer– mechanical innovation – Recycling, for example, is becoming more advanced in the textile industry – and transparency – the Sustainable Apparel Coalition is proposing a QR bar code system that will detail the provenance of garments.

As a larger community, we are already in line with both of these two movements:

Without thinking about it, we all use technology everyday in ways that are unintimidating, and enhance our experiences. Fashion brands are being outpaced by companies coming from the tech world, which are disrupting the industry particularly through distribution channels and eventually in wearable tech. Consumers are growing accustomed to keeping up with these innovations, which are all conceived in answer to perceived consumer demand. Fashion design houses are finding they are limited in growth, unable to achieve the big brand scale of Ralph Lauren/Louis Vuitton. Fashion brands should be aware that technology offers new possibilities for business growth and scalability not limited to product but inclusive of service and experience.

Escaping the stigma of ethical fashion is also a question of changing the narrative. The mentality that the ethical fashion movement is trying to espouse is actually how just about half of the population shops without considering it responsible shopping: Men. If we use different narratives to bring understanding of what is means to shop responsibly, you might be surprised to realize you do this already. In this recent sustainable fashion discussion, we discussed that men already approach fashion as an investment, spending more and buying less. It might because they don’t like shopping and want to go as little as possible, but that in itself is a win against waste.

There are also many women who, like myself, begin adopting standard looks that require less inventory and more focus. Before I was aware of the dimensionality of sustainable fashion, I never considered myself an advocate. My choices were made based on my own desire to pare down, and settling into my own sense style. It’s a level of maturity that could be encouraged in shoppers that is completely outside of the lexicon of the sustainable fashion movement, but in which we find many of the same values.

As Coco Chanel states: “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” Fashion is “of the moment,” and just as cultural shifts happen over time, adaptation in the most complete sense, that is from both supplier and consumer, won’t happen right away, but these movements are fashion nonetheless. Eventually conscious consumption will be a no-brainer, and fashion companies will adapt to agility in technology or be replaced. Everyone will do it, it will be the norm, and we won’t need to classify it with imperfect words. 

The best way to demonstrate that a movement is happening is to show individuals that they have already adopted the movement without realizing it, without overthinking it, and without identifying with a group because of that choice. This is happening right now in fashion technology and sustainable fashion. No one needs to be singled out for their choices, because both poles are joining together to create one common definition of fashion. That is the fashion of the future.