I want to share my positive experience as a womenswear and menswear consultant designer for Izmee, a brand with an eco-friendly philosophy that partnered with Istituto Marangoni.
The project’s primary purpose was to draw an essential collection of comfortable, modern and sustainable clothing.
Izmee is an Italian brand based in the Veneto region that makes stainless steel bottles to help cut people’s environmental footprint by reducing the massive use of plastic bottles. The brand’s goal was to create its first collection of simple luxury clothing, sustainable and appealing, made in Italy. Moreover, they wanted to build a social community that could communicate via a QR Code printed on each bottle and garment.
As a former student and member of the Alumni community, I had the opportunity to join the project as one of the creatives selected by Istituto Marangoni. Advised and led by the school’s team, consultants and professors, every student had to draw their own collection, keeping in mind the company’s requests and today’s global fashion industry. Apart from drawing, each designer had to present some textile and sustainable ideas, pulling together future trends and wearability.
The challenge, I think, was to be able to strike the right balance between my academic knowledge and the practical requests of an actual, unique client. A good designer should always strive to achieve this balance, which implies compromise with market laws. The collection had to reflect my taste and design vision, but I also needed to meet the client’s taste.
My approach was to try and make a no-gender collection, then focus on extensive research on details. A detail can completely disrupt and change a piece. I drew some normcore, essential clothing, with classical shapes, changed by different details, to adapt them to men and/or women.
I had to present my analysis of current trends to the client; this included fashion and colour trends and social, ethical, and sustainable ones. The essential requirement was to use natural fabrics and dyes and to make comfortable shapes inspired by post-pandemic life. My analysis helped me search for references, which I did on Instagram. We are exposed to so many images every day, and I specifically chose a social network like IG to access the incredible amount of images it collects.
I loved that the collection included elements designed by me and by others. All these features and inspirations came together in a single project: it was one of the most exciting aspects of this work.
