The sister brand of RUBY, Liam has just released a collection of patterns so you can sew their coveted creations yourself at home!
Liam designer, Emily Miller-Sharma (who is also the General Manager for RUBY and Liam) has developed a full collection of patterns for the new season, so instead of buying a finished piece, customers can buy the pattern for the garment and make it themselves. It’s another exciting step forward in circularity and sustainability for the company, who have committed to continuously improving the environmental and waste footprint of their business.
Miller-Sharma says: “making things gives so much to people. There is a slowness in the very internal process that goes on when you make things with your hands that can be a powerful tool for wellness. it also shows us, quite viscerally, just how talented the people who make our clothes are, empowering and humanising these highly- skilled machinists in a way that words on a page can’t.”
During the first lockdown the designer discovered a strong community of sewers through hosting online sewing and patternmaking classes. “It was the first time in ages that I got to spend time getting jazzed about different ways to do dart manipulations,” she says, “or my view on how to (and how absolutely not to) add fullness to a skirt. What I loved about it was that the people who joined me seemed just as interested in the minutiae of patternmaking as me, and it made me fall in love with my job again.”
Circular considerations also underpin all decisions made throughout the collection’s design and production process, and all fibre used to make the pattern paper, and the card for the envelopes they come in, is waste from (or the by-product of) sawn timber production from local radiata pine forests. The finished product is FSC certified and 100 per cent recyclable, and the intention is that these patterns get used over and over again.
There are 16 patterns across three different groups - modular, sets and offcuts - and cover beginner, intermediate and advanced skill levels. (HELENE RAVLICH)
The first collection from Liam Patterns called “What have I got?” is in store and online at www.rubynz.com
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