Education focuses on rules. Does this kill experimentation?

Charlie Constantinou was reminded of this unpredictability as he stood on the ECCO factory floor, considering the many directions he could take to translate his design universe to leather. Though the London-based designer has been experimenting with natural dye since his BA collection at Central Saint Martins, making colour development a central part of his practice, he had never worked with leather before. The material hadn’t seemed innovative enough to the tech-influenced designer. That would soon change.

Together with womenswear designer Johanna Parv, Constantinou would spend three days in the ECCO Leather R&D factory to develop new samples, as part of a new joined 1 Granary and ECCO Leather programme that bridges design and production. In general, creative design education tends to focus on the conceptual imaginary stage, neglecting the reality of manufacturing. To highlight the exciting creative opportunities hidden in production, designers were invited to workshop their ideas directly inside the ECCO facilities, with the support of their design team and technicians.

Constantinou was eager to discover how his creative universe could expand within these expert facilities. His world is one of contrast. Not interested in flatness or purity, the Cypriot-British designer always looks for depth, fluidity and adaptability. In his designs, this translates to survival-gear-inspired modular garments with unexpected volumes. His dye and textile work is textured and faded.

“The fastest way to innovation, is in experimentation, combining the unexpected. Bring two things together that shouldn’t be.” – Panos Mytaros, CEO of ECCO Group

This fascination with friction, finding creative energy in contrast, also drives the design team at ECCO. “Education tends to focus on the rules, which kills experimentation,” explains Panos Mytaros, CEO of ECCO Group. “The fastest way to innovation, is in experimentation, combining the unexpected. Bring two things together that shouldn’t be.” For this project, he asked Charlie to work with the theme of “burned”, combining destruction and creation.

This immediately sparked something for the young London designer, whose upcoming spring-summer collection explores survival in extreme heat conditions, researching hostile, dry environments and solidified, rock-like materials.

“Leather is a material that can go into any direction without having this specific look. You can turn it into so many things, it’s impossible to say you can’t have any ideas, it’s open to any designer or brand who can interpret it in any way.” – Charlie Constantinou, Designer

Usually, the development of a new collection starts with the colour selection. The designer would experiment with different dyes, until the hues feel just right. What he wants to achieve through colour is the feeling of the clothes having been owned and loved before. “It’s as if you’re buying a garment, and then going into the future and getting it off yourself in 10 years. You don’t want the new version, you want the aged version,” he explains, highlighting the importance of colour choice in his creative process.

“With leather it’s a completely different world,” Constantinou says. “It goes beyond the colour and the dye, it’s also about the texture of the leather itself, the way it ages, how it begins to crack, for example.” The menswear designer was amazed at the variety of options available at the ECCO facilities. “Leather is a material that can go into any direction without having this specific look. You can turn it into so many things, it’s impossible to say you can’t have any ideas, it’s open to any designer or brand who can interpret it in any way.”

Constantinou was keen on taking his textile experimentation into the world of leather. When it came to colour, though, he wanted to make sure not to fall back onto his comfort zone of dyeing, opting instead for airbrushing and foiling – focusing on techniques that allowed for imperfections and adding shadow.

Not having worked with the material before, Constantinou associated leather with its historical archetypes, such as the motorcycle or varsity jacket. Garments which are usually presented in plain, unified materials.

“Because of these strong archetypes, you won’t consider leather outside of these boxes. What leather is known for is so strong and overwhelmingly present in fashion, people don’t consider it as high-performance or functional. But leather is probably one of the most durable things, the fact that it can protect someone riding a motorcycle… there is definitely a space for it to go into the technical outerwear world.”

How do you break with tradition while respecting it? A question the design team at ECCO asks themselves regularly. “We try to approach material innovation like cooking,” explains Julian Lim, Lead Designer at ECCO Leather. “There are multiple technical machines on the premises, like embossing, buffing, bonding, spray painting, etc. These are our ingredients. Our work is about throwing these elements together in ways that might feel surprising but still make sense.”

“Because we’re so involved in the creative process, especially with production, we don’t have to worry whether it’s going to come out right.” – Charlie Constantinou

It’s an approach designed for experimentation. In an environment where the outcome cannot be predicted, it doesn’t make sense to go in with a fixed plan. To fully benefit from the cutting-edge facilities at ECCO (or on any innovative textile- or garment production site for that matter), it pays to work closely with the team and let go of control.

The approach came naturally to Constantinou, who does all his production in London, in a factory just around the corner from his studio. The designer has made it a habit to drop by the facilities and check in on the process. This meant he felt perfectly at ease in the manufacturing environment, and even enjoyed the ECCO “cooking” classes with his chef Julian.

The creative process changes when you collaborate directly with makers and technicians. “Because we’re so involved in it, especially with production, we don’t have to worry whether it’s going to come out right,” Constantinou explained. “That is something with doing production out of the country, you don’t see it until the very end, so if you don’t like the result, there is no time to change it.”

Unfortunately, it’s not common yet. Too often, design students are taught to create in isolation, developing imaginary worlds with colourful precision, to be executed by others afterward. The ECCO x 1 Granary collaboration proves how exciting it is to do things differently and create a bit of friction.