All the fall-winter collections of 2018 that I have the privilege of watching and keeping track of, are full of animal standards. From the tiger, the snake and even the zebra, there are patterns of everything.

“Animal print” – stamping animal patterns on textiles or leather (see the collection FW 18/19 by Rute Doellinger), is a trend that has been repeated for many years in virtually every collection. This year we have seen a lot of diversity and quantity of these patterns in the creators’ productions.

In addition to textiles and skin, animal printmaking already reaches almost every fashion segment: bags, bags, shoes, accessories, etc.

Patterns of animal patterns have been a part of success for decades and are traditional pieces in women’s wardrobes.

The tendency to wear clothes and accessories with animal patterns comes from the earliest times.

The use in clothing of animal print patterns is much older than modern fashionable times. From the beginning of humanity when they used animal skin to cover the body and according to some studies, the fascination with images of animals has already been in human DNA since our origin.

In ancient civilization, the skin of animals meant power and status very much used by the clergy, nobility and even kings.

To what is known, in the eighteenth century, the textures of the skin of the animals entered in a definitive way for the world of fashion being the African exotic culture very responsible for this tendency being also very related at the time, with the luxury and the daring in dressing .

This type of pattern has fantastic versatility. With stamping on more or less noble fabrics, having one or several pieces is a “must have”.

Animal print has replaced floral as the print du jour this season.

Today we have the animal pattern in stamping for example on the skin and in this case the use of pressing techniques mold and modify the shape and even the stiffness.

The quality of this type of clothing is not restricted to the traditional color of the skin and with the correct and appropriate seam, you get pieces with unusual patterns and very interesting.

Inspiration to the flower of the skin is the motto of the collection Fall Winter 18/19 of the collection by Rute Doellinger.
The “animal print” and the choice in the best skins in the most traditional and best shops in lisbon (made-in-portugal) that commercialize the raw material of quality, the skin present in these retailers allowed to innovate with the standards.

One of the collection’s jackets, for example, has snake-print, thus opening up a new way of combining traditional and quality skin color.

The raw material of great quality was based on unique pieces chosen to the detail and all the creations of the collection FW 18/19 are exclusive in number and quantity.

 

Do you understand designation of “fast fashion”? … And of “slow fashion”?

The designations of “fast fashion” and “slow fashion” can be compared to “fast food” and “slow food”, in the last case, gourmet.

FAST FASHION

In recent years the consumer has reacted there buys much more by impulse than by conscience.

With the increase off supply in the fast fashion market, consumers, especially women, have made many impulse purchases of cheap closes with a reduced quality of life.
They even become pieces that do not fit their style but fashion trends and at a reduced price they end up going to the bottom of the drawer.

Have you ever wondered why these parts are so cheap?
What is the origin of the fabric?
What did it take to get to this final product?
Under what conditions will this piece be made?

Many of the big fast fashion brands produce their parts in factories in poor countries, where employees (if you can call it that) work without enough conditions or pay to live or often to survive.

Many of the articles of these companies are copies of the Tailor Designers trends, which are produced in a high stock of parts and distributed by their stores worldwide, as often this stock does not run out is stored for next year back to stores, and if not exhaust go to destruction, which generates more environmental pollution.

For such low-priced parts, the fabrics are mostly composed of polyester and other plastic components that, to be produced, waste immense water and pollute the environment.

Did you know that every time you wash synthetic clothes, they drop plastic microparticles that later follow in the water from our washing machine to the ocean?

For all this, we must increasingly adapt our minds to environmental sustainability and try to make our contribution to help the planet by being conscious consumers.

SLOW FASHION

“Slow fashion” movement reflects a conscious and sustainable consumption and preference for quality rather than quantity.

Often we have pieces of clothes in the closet that no longer serve us or we simply do not like to see them anymore, we can exchange with a friend for another piece that she does not wear and even participate in a second-hand parts exchange event.

We also have the option of transforming the piece to suit our new style.

All these actions are “slow fashion” thoughts.

In the “slow fashion” market you find pieces with more organic and natural fabrics, more environmentally friendly, a confection with quality in all its details and collections with less quantity of repetition of articles. That is, less waste.

Even in the placement of the labels or the composition of the fabric … how many times have you tried to remove the label from that piece because it “scratched the skin”, and the placement of it was of such poor quality that it made a “little hole” in the fabric?

A brand of “slow fashion” is even concerned with the fabric of the labels, so that the consumer does not need to remove them by “scratching the skin”.

CONSCIOUS CONSUMPTION

Being a conscious consumer goes through buying less clothes and buying quality and timeless pieces, made not by human machines but by dressmakers who like what they are doing and who do it to perfection. It is to analyze the label of the composition of a fabric to verify the environmental wear, both in its production as in the washing and conservation of the piece. It is going to an event, going to work or just walking down the street without running the risk of finding several people with the same piece, bought in the same fast fashion store and made by the same cheap, often child labor.

Fast fashion store have clothes for everyone and clothes for anyone.

We will jointly assist our Designers, our production of eco-fabrics and our national workforce, making us into conscious consumers.

Never forget that Made in Portugal is Made with Love.

Rute Doellinger – Designer Fashion Designer