Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more
Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more
Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more
Materials such as velvet, cotton and silk are commonly found on the London Fashion Week catwalks.
But design duo VIN + OMI have thought outside of the (milk carton) box this season.
The eco-focused designers have collaborated with King Charles himself to create a fabric made entirely out of recycled milk cartons from His Majesty’s Sandringham estate.
The pair have spoken about the inspirations behind the idea – and working with the King, who is a royal renowned for his sustainability ethos.
“We were sitting with the head gardener in the Sandringham canteen, and the waitress asked ‘do you want milk with that?’ Then it just dawned on us how much milk the average UK person drinks,” explains Omi.
“It’s 1,238 millilitres per person, per week. That’s a lot of milk!”
This sparked an idea that inspired the designers’ new Fashion Week collection.
“This season we focused on chaotic sustainability,” says Vin, ahead of their collection ‘Kaos’ that debuts on February 19.
“Many years ago, [our collections] started off by focusing on one thing – like plastic – but this season every single thing we could think of has been recycled and turned into fabric or added to the garments.”
The designers have been collaborating with the King since 2019, when the duo started using plants and weeds from his former estate, Highgrove, to create and develop sustainable fabrics.
Last season, the pair developed a lightweight fabric made from Sandringham’s waste wood chippings, but this year they turned their attention to waste that occurred within the four walls.
“We took the milk cartons from the Sandringham visitor centre and developed it into this spongey-like material that looks like leather,” says Vin.
Having a spongey material made from milk cartons – it’s unsurprising that the fabric consists almost entirely of Sandringham’s cream tea waste.
And the thicker, malleable material is set to debut at the upcoming autumn/winter London Fashion Week, and has allowed the pair to focus on developing fully recycled outerwear for the first time.
Following London Fashion Week’s ban of exotic skins – such as crocodile and snake – in show collections last November, VIN + OMI has attempted to develop a sustainable alternative for designers.
“We’re looking at alternatives to leather, alternatives to outerwear, because when you can get that sort of texture that’s very similar to exotic skins – why the hell would you use them?” says Vin.
“[Designers] have got to work harder at hunting real exotic materials. It’s still not cheap to convert natural fibres into a fur-like material, so there’s still a cost that makes it a luxury item in many ways.
“But therefore, their customers should treat that plant as a luxury in the same way that they do the skin of a dead leopard.”
The pair were keen to stress that it is not about blaming fellow designers, but finding a solution – collaboratively.
“It’s not about the fact you’re doing something wrong,” says Omi. “Unfortunately, the world doesn’t function that way – everybody has to eat, everybody has to drink milk.
“It’s not about shaming or blaming the industry, it’s about saying how can we improve on what is being wasted?”
The design duo want their innovations with King Charles to be taken and improved upon.
“Our ideas are to be stolen,” declared Omi.
When asked how the King has influenced their creative process, Vin stated that, “[King Charles] is incredibly creative because he’s so open-minded.”
To be open minded in one of the most stringent jobs in the world, “is incredible”, he said.
“Most leading figures around the world are really rigid, really strict on protocol, and they would probably never look to dancing monkeys like us to fix their infrastructure,” laughed Vin.
“It’s like the fact that we’re allowed access to him and we’re allowed to talk to him about ideas and concepts shows how creative he is as a monarch.
“I’ve met quite a few leaders and monarchs – they don’t all have the spirit that [King Charles] does.”
While VIN + OMI is primarily based in Norfolk, the designers’ search for innovative and sustainable fashion solutions sends them all over the world – the pair have just bought an aloe vera farm in the Canary Islands.
“We are the service industry,” says Omi. “When did fashion become so rock and roll? When did designers become rock stars?
“We’re here to dress people in the most guilt-free way possible.”
Source: independent.co.uk
