As a slow fashion brand, I’m not going to be throwing new designs at you every five minutes (hello, overconsumption), but I also know that a lot of my orders come from repeat customers, and they may not want to buy the same thing time and again. Of course, the exact opposite can also be true: when you find a dress you love, why not buy it in seven different fabrics? You know you’ll love it, you know you’ll wear it for years to come, and most importantly, you already know it fits!
This is the crux of my design process too - I want you to know it will fit. So when I design, I tend to adapt a pattern that has already been tried and tested. That way, even if a new design has a different sleeve or pocket placement, you know it will fit perfectly, just like your favourite House of Flint already does.
So how does this affect the overall design process?
Sometimes I find it is ‘fabric first’. I always have a mood board for the season, made up of colours and patterns that I find in the countryside that surrounds me here in the Lincolnshire Wolds. Then, I try to work with as many deadstock fabrics as possible that fit this theme, to save them from landfill (and create something unique!), and at times the fabric is just screaming to be made into a certain style. This can often lead to tweaking a previous design - a new sleeve or feature that works better with that material, for instance. I’ll play around with this via sketches first, and then make a sample in the actual fabric.
Occasionally you will see I create something entirely new, but even these can be connected to past designs. When it comes to making a pattern (a template I then use to cut and sew fabric into a garment), I think about which patterns I have already made that could be combined to create a new silhouette.And of course, a lot of the decisions I make along the way are based on customer feedback, and my own experiences wearing the clothes. I want to create the best collection of clothing for you at any time, and I believe reworking pieces to create something near perfect is the best way to do that - essentially, this way you are designing a garment too!
Looking for more behind-the-scenes of this slow, sustainable fashion brand? Make sure you're signed up to our newsletter here.
This is the crux of my design process too - I want you to know it will fit. So when I design, I tend to adapt a pattern that has already been tried and tested. That way, even if a new design has a different sleeve or pocket placement, you know it will fit perfectly, just like your favourite House of Flint already does.
So how does this affect the overall design process?
Sometimes I find it is ‘fabric first’. I always have a mood board for the season, made up of colours and patterns that I find in the countryside that surrounds me here in the Lincolnshire Wolds. Then, I try to work with as many deadstock fabrics as possible that fit this theme, to save them from landfill (and create something unique!), and at times the fabric is just screaming to be made into a certain style. This can often lead to tweaking a previous design - a new sleeve or feature that works better with that material, for instance. I’ll play around with this via sketches first, and then make a sample in the actual fabric.
Occasionally you will see I create something entirely new, but even these can be connected to past designs. When it comes to making a pattern (a template I then use to cut and sew fabric into a garment), I think about which patterns I have already made that could be combined to create a new silhouette.And of course, a lot of the decisions I make along the way are based on customer feedback, and my own experiences wearing the clothes. I want to create the best collection of clothing for you at any time, and I believe reworking pieces to create something near perfect is the best way to do that - essentially, this way you are designing a garment too!
Looking for more behind-the-scenes of this slow, sustainable fashion brand? Make sure you're signed up to our newsletter here.