London Fashion Week estethica highlights: From Somewhere

From Somewhere’s tagline ‘Recycling since 1997’ has something of an old world slogan about it, despite the fact that it began a mere 13 years ago. It is one of eco fashion’s earliest and leading brands to drum up inspiration for other eco designers. Straight talking designer and co-founder of Estethica, Orsola de Castro tells Mandy Barder about the simple yet extraordinary theme that From Somewhere embodies.

Knitwear, tweed and inventive patch work still remain firm fixtures of From Somewhere’s design motif. It seems that the engineering of putting off-cuts and end of roll bits and pieces together is getting more and more advanced for the brand each season. For the AW10 collection Orsola and her design partner Filippo made quite a substantial find, well certainly in length and weight terms. As well as discovering their usual array of shreds and samples of wasted materials they were given 3500metres of black and white wool from one of the high end Italian manufacturers, which is where the garments are made.

The end result can be seen in the sumptuous AW10 collection. Monochrome and black sweater dresses with exaggerated swirls of clumped black knit twirling across the chest and a dress with triangular panels of black and white stripes, knitted lines and beautiful angora are a couple of my favourites. It epitomises From Somewhere’s smart and artistic use of luxurious fabric.

Orsola and Filippo continue to design using these reclaimed fabrics, which include cashmere, silks and woven materials. “We work in a very classic way with classic designs that accommodate very small pieces of fabric. We try to create collections that are wearable” Orsola says.

The brilliance of From Somewhere is in the simple blend of classic materials with an added twist of surrealism. Sassy and fitted tops feature with bouquets of tweed sachets puffing out from the shoulders and beautiful autumnal coats that could be likened to Withnail’s edgy tweed coat from 1980s British cult film Withnail and I, but with a splash of colour and an all over dose of femininity.

The brand’s ingenious balance of well tailoured classic cuts and quirky shapes is still very much a strong focus with no plans of slowing down.

All the collections are reproduced in a Cooperative in Italy that helps disadvantaged and disabled individuals. For more info visit the From Somewhere website.