Today’s Stellar are a fashion duo that have started a movement, which in our opinion, has a very deep meaning towards a sustainable (and fashionable) future. Proudly presenting Gilles and Laura, founders of The Fashion Method, a company that helps anyone who wants to build their fashion brand by working in every step of the design, development and production process.
With almost 40 years of combined industry experience in different disciplines, this couple (in life and business) have decided to bring together their expertise and pursue their dream by helping others follow theirs.
A team that integrates fashion expertise and entrepreneurial experience; Laura has worked in fabric research and development for Elie Tahari and BCI Brands, she also launched her own leather handbag and accessories brand called KONDOR.
Gilles has extensive experience in fashion design, merchandising and production, making him a true “hands on” brand builder. From Europe to the United States, he has held executive positions as Design and Creative Director for Calvin Klein, Falke, Marithe and Francois GIRBAUD and Elie Tahari. In 2016, he founded THE FACE New York and has been in charge of designing and managing multiple Concept Stores in Manhattan.
Grateful for all the learnings obtained from working in the competitive fashion industry in New York, Laura and Gilles had one of those moments that some of us share, an epiphany, a feeling in your guts that makes you want to take a different direction. Once you shift your mind to sustainability, there is no way back!
It was then, The Fashion Method was born by the marriage between a passion for fashion and a strong commitment to make a social and environmental positive impact to our planet.
This incredible team provides practical solutions for brands with a soul that want to create a fashion line with a bigger purpose and start off with the right foot. They present a pragmatic approach to make a vision or idea come to life in creative and efficient ways, from the creation of a concept, all the way to delivering a high-quality finished product. Brands can rely on the team to hold their hand and support them throughout the design process, material sourcing and development, photoshoots, Ad campaigns as well as finding the perfect space and manage a pop-up sore in New York.
While doing so, they also integrate sustainable practices into the process for brands in producing locally whenever possible, in small batches and with high quality bringing longevity to the final products. Having worked with factories, manufacturers, fabric vendors and mills all over the world has given them extensive experience to consciously choose more sustainable materials and factories where workers are treated fairly, under ethical working conditions.
This love and passion is what makes The Fashion Method a movement to build impactful fashion brands and a unique Stellar.
Hello to our first duo Stellar! Tell us a bit about The Fashion Method, what is your mission, where are you based?
The Fashion Method mission is to help your vision and ideas of creating your own brand, come to life in the most creative and practical way possible.
We are based in New York, this is home for us now.
Laura, what inspired you and Gilles to create to start The Fashion Method?
The Fashion Method was created from our passion for the fashion industry. Gilles has been a designer for over 25 years and I have been mastering fabric sourcing and development for 12 years. Our background complement each other and we felt the desire to share with the world our experience and our journey. Sharing our knowledge doing what we love, helping and guiding them to create a brand with strong concept and foundations.
We both have worked for different brands, build successful careers over the years. We have our own brands as well. Now we want other people with the same dreams to be able to make theirs a reality. We need more passion people in this industry. People working with a bigger purpose than just making a nice piece of clothing. We need brands with heart and soul.
How can a fashion business minimize the impact of their production activity on the environment?
QUANTITY! This is a key factor. Brands have to stop over producing.
Make smaller production runs, if a best seller is sold out, cut again. Let it be sold out, don’t over produce so your product goes to the sale rack in the middle of the season.
We need more QUALITY, LESS QUANTITY. We need more $65 t-shirts that will last longer, not more $9.99 t-shirts that will end up in the garbage after 3 washes, after the garbage it will end up on the landfill because the material is so cheap that you cannot even recycle it to create a new raw material.
Brands changing their way of producing will change the consumer behaviour as well. Offering the consumer less options, better quality.
Tell us a bit about the sustainability practices that you use during your creative and design process? How are you able to keep the balance between sustainability and design?
Big thing is PRODUCE LOCAL. We start by analyzing where is the clients target market. For example if they want to focus on the US market then we look at local production, local factories. This helps a lot with brands footprint.
Competing with the main-stream and large corporates, how do you fight to stand out from the crowd?
They are not our competition. Our purpose with the fashion method is to serve/ help people create and design their clothing brand. We are not trying to create the new GUCCI. We believe in creating brands with “alma” and with a strong story behind.
Finally, what part of being in the Myth community would you look forward most to?
Meet, interact and share with other creative people from all fields that have the same ethical values than us. Create a better more conscious world throw art, fashion, architecture, food…
One Comment