Designers who understand factory processes can actually execute their ideas. Knowledge of how fabric gets handled, dyed, and finished—like manual tape application on collars or over-dyeing raw denim—lets you innovate instead of just dreaming up things that can't be made.
There's a lot of young designers out there that are starting their brand. Can you just speak on the importance of designing?
Designing could not happen in my terms anymore without like knowing the factory processes. You have always to keep in mind that what is visually should be produced in real life. When you know the process from one idea, you can develop thousands of ideas. And once you see it, your brain starts thinking, you create something new. I feel lucky sometimes about this. This, especially in denim. I feel like without having the fabric in hand, you cannot really design it.
All that tape that needs to be manually applied needs to follow exactly the line of the collar, exactly the line of the lapel, so that you can get the product just right. And people don't understand that when a customer sees this in store, they have no idea that first it started off as a blue piece of denim, it was over-dyed, and then the processes began.
Really an artisanal work. We always like to welcome new designers to come see us here and give them a little view on how we see these things and how these are made.
