DIY Couture
Fresh on the scene, London-based label DIYcouture (or DIYC) – the vision of Rosie Martin - aim to make fashion affordable and non-exploitative. DIYC is a collection like no other. These clothes do not exist on any shelf, on any clothes rail – they are possibilities. They live in your imagination, on paper, in potential. They exist in your hands, in your mind, in your latent ability to create, in fabrics woven by fingers from around the planet.
Rather than purchasing a garment, the DIYcouture customer purchases a set of simple instructions providing them with the means to make a garment themselves. Simple language, diagrams and pictures take the maker through the creation process. The pieces in the collection are merely templates, ghosts that come into being as each customer begins to build them with their own interpretations. The outcome: personally tailored, one-off garments.
DIYcouture hopes to inspire people to turn off their screens and get up to their elbows in the 3-dimensional world of creation. It supports the slow revolution: Helping people to produce garments that are precious, rather than disposable, this is the antithesis of fast-fashion. Each book will also feature work by a guest artist and will be printed on recycled paper.
Future aims of the DIY Couture label include the online publication of a directory of fabric shops in London, to simplify the time consuming search for fabric shops that comes often through word of mouth and might not be easily accessible to those that have not studied textiles or fashion.
For information on the full range of booklets see www.diy-couture.co.uk
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