Patchwork is one of our favorite collections to piece together for many reasons, not only is each piece unique and beautiful - each piece is a labor of love and tells the story of handcrafted quality that seems to get lost in translation with most brands.
We’re lucky to have a team of folks with not only great creative vision, but great skills! Esme pieced this collection together in a way we’ve never done before. Let’s pull up a chair, grab a coffee, and chat with her about the process and what inspired her along the way.
In the past you’ve been a huge help in piecing our Patchwork Collections together! What felt different about this one?
"With the first patchwork collection I was a brand new studio member being trusted to create the textiles, I mostly got to influence the colorways. This time around I felt extra trusted by the team and felt like I had so much influence over not just the colorways, but how the scraps were going to be pieced together, what products we were going to offer, and I got to dream up what felt like mini collections within all the patchwork. Like the beautiful Stripe Sunset Pants and the Tie-Dye Blocked Painter Tops!"
Take us through your process, from creating the patchwork panels to sewing it into its final form as a garment.
"I was lucky enough that a previous member of the team, Olivia, had been working on pieces of some panels together this winter. So I had a large collection of more intricately pieced together patchwork (think quilting) to work with and add texture and detail to the larger color-blocked style of patchwork I wanted to create.
I really wanted each piece to have striking details that draw your attention from every angle of the garment, so when I was selecting the pattern pieces I would try to place small prints and color blocking throughout the piece."
We love the resourcefulness of patchwork, given each piece is made with scraps. Tell us why it’s so important to you and how it influenced the process, did you run into any obstacles along the way?
"As a textile artist and designer who is inspired to create because of, not just with, the waste that exists on our planet, creating with patchwork textiles is just obvious to me. It’s resourceful and a good way to take responsibility for our own byproducts as brands. Using every part of what you’ve sourced makes sense in cooking, why not in fashion. When we’re one of the industries that creates the most waste byproducts. I don’t feel like I ran into any obstacles other than time!!! Even in the most efficient sewing studios there’s a constant flow of scraps being made and NOT an endless amount of time and free hands to keep creating patchwork! In my perfect world every brand would have a Waste Diversion Department developing amazing things like Conscious Clothing’s Patchwork collection!"
Patchwork goes beyond just a unique one of a kind garment, tell us about what it represents to you.
"I come from Mexico where textiles are not just what you decorate your body & home with. Creating textiles is a cultural tradition, a meditative practice, textiles carry and tell our creation stories, they adorn gods, altars, and were the tools for the first methods of individual self expression for humans.
Textiles SHOULD be viewed and valued this way in modern fashion as well. The intentionality with which we create the canvas for fashion, textile, informs the customer of the value the product their taking home has. It informs how they’ll value and care for it to give the product a long life. The process of creating patchwork for Conscious Clothing was so detailed and intentional and it was my way to share the Conscious Clothing story throughout the years with all our customers. For them to see the care and value we place on every little piece of these textiles we’ve sourced for you for decades. I hope you love your patchwork piece, just as much as I loved creating them, for decades to come."
Follow Esme on Instagram @esmeraldista or contact her at esmerluna@gmail.com
