Looks from Liam’s new Everything collection. Images supplied.
Liam has launched the brand’s first full collection in over a year called Everything and it signals an innovative and considered path forward for the RUBY and Liam brands. RUBY General Manager and Liam designer Emily Miller-Sharma and her team have continued to offer up smart solutions to fashion industry problems with recycling initiatives, offering patterns of the brand’s popular styles and investigating sustainable techniques and fabrications, and this new range from Liam sees more clever steps towards the brand’s goal to minimise their environmental impact.
“My design process has always been an investigative one, and since launching Liam Patterns I have been mulling over the brand’s values and how its next steps can continue to push for meaningful change in the clothing industry,” says Emily Miller-Sharma. “Liam is important because it is where we explore new ideas, rolling out the successful ones at a greater scale into RUBY. If you are in the business of analysing wtf clothing designers are up to, Liam signals what we might do across the wider business in the future.”
“I have used everything to investigate two areas where I think we can have influence, and need to be urgently addressed: production waste and sizing. standard practise in the industry is to have 25% of fabric discarded as waste during the cutting of a garment. You know the curve of the neckline on your t-shirt? The inverse of that is a weirdly shaped scrap of fabric that is very difficult to find a commercial use for.”
It was earlier in the year during a production training workshop utilising the business’ offcuts that Emily began to ponder other uses for what is otherwise waste fabric. Upon discovering Geo Gregory of Geo Knits Slow, who knits garments out of found fabric, Emily realised she had found another use for them and has collaborated with Geo on a collection of hand made knit pieces that use the fabric offcuts from the collection. The resulting limited edition knits means Everything is a zero waste range.
Another first for the collection and the business is an extended sizing range with Everything offering sizes 4 – 24 with custom sizing on offer for anyone who is outside of that range. To get that extended sizing right, Emily and her team have worked closely with different people of various shapes and sizes to understand how to get the right fit and have tweaked designs to work well across the range.
The collection itself has a sensual, languid feel with lots of soft draping and flowing shapes in elegant separates and beautiful dresses. Lemon, powder blue, bubblegum pink, khaki, navy and tiramisu form the basis of Everything’s colour palette which feels suitably luscious and fresh. Bias-cut slips, cowl neck dresses and draped blouses are perfectly complemented by tailored trousers, soft shirting and chunky knits. This is a cohesive range of graceful looks that offer accessible style.
When Liam first launched a collection of patterns last year the response was overwhelmingly positive and the Everything collection will be available to purchase as patterns in November. Each piece will be available as both a paper print out as well as a downloadable .pdf. Inspired by the new knitwear range, Liam will also be selling knitting needles, custom made from waste dowl, and repurposed at the Remaker Space in Tauranga.
Liam’s Everything collection is available at RUBY stores and online from today.
Images supplied.