A lot has happened in the past year for Michael and Nicole Colovos. They moved, switched their business over to a pre-season model, and won the International Woolmark Prize with a capsule collection made of chemical-free fabrics from factories that used solar energy.
That capsule served as the catalyst to get back into designing ready-to-wear. Prior to that, they were focused on smaller denim batches that spoke to their early backgrounds at Habitual. It’s just an added benefit that the sustainability component came along, too.
Denim, for instance, was the foundation of the collection and made of either post-consumer waste or recycled scraps. They cut some great jeans in a slight paperbag waist or with curved seams in front and behind the legs to make the wearer look more narrow. Other cool denim items included skirts: a tan one with box pleats in an asymmetric construction, another woven with a triacetate hem for a touch of lightness.
The concept was just as much about what to wear to elevate one’s day look in an easy way. Here they cut a chic jumpsuit and trench in organic cupro and a coat in Japanese wool with topstitching details that contoured the body. “Every fabric we work with is naturally renewable — organic cotton, merino wool, silk, organic cupro,” Michael noted, with Nicole adding: “We’re eliminating fabrics wherever we can just as they become available. Even just in terms of your buttons or zippers or labels. Our trim is made of plastic bottles or recycled paper.”
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Yet some pieces were purely stylish. Case in point: elegant minimal suiting with a single button and a more playful wool suit jacket with detachable cupro sleeves. “We want to give people a reason to buy us,” Michael ended. “It comes down to the look and the aesthetic, but also really well-made clothes.”