ABOUT
HYBRID STYLES
My name is Phil and I’m a lecturer in Art and Design, Fashion and Textiles in Brighton, UK, and much of my work tends to merge with that of my teaching. I have the privilege of developing ideas at home and in the studio, which then feed into my practice as well as student development. I learn, I share.
I studied weave but then progressed into fashion and creative pattern cutting, with a focus on zero-waste and sustainable circular design. An example of my zero-waste pattern cutting features in the 3rd edition of Pattern Cutting: The Architecture of Fashion, by Pat Parish, to be published soon.
This sustainable focus has inspired my current work using existing, ready-made garments to create new fashion items. Homing in on menswear, I wanted to take a classic item of clothing, such as a shirt, and give it a twist - hence hybrid-styles.
My current collection, hybrid patchwork shirts and t-shirts, make use of the plethora of shirts and t-shirts one can buy second-hand. It deconstructs them and restructures them into a “new” shirt. A unique, one-off, circular fashion. More recently I have also been using a denim fabric made from recycled fashion and textiles waste, 85% cotton and 15% polyester. If I do any mail outs, the packaging is 100% plant based materials. I have now added lined tote bags and reversible bucket hats to my collection. Recently I had the opportunity to show case my collection at the Helm Gallery, Brighton, in September. I had both male and female models. The female model asked if she could tie the front of the shirt into a knot, it immediately made me realise that my products could appeal to both genders. So, now I am featuring women in my promotional social posts.
“Circular fashion can be defined as clothes, shoes or accessories that are designed, sourced, produced, and provided with the intention to be used and circulate responsibly and effectively in society for as long as possible in their most valuable form, and hereafter return safely to the biosphere when no longer of human use.”
Too much “fast fashion” is thrown away - either incinerated or dumped into landfill. It is my hope that the designs I create not only give pleasure to the wearer, and prolong the life of a garment, but give them a new life entirely.
Watch my blog for future developments, and let’s move forward, sustainably and stylishly, together.
