Johanna wanted to rework the leather so that it didn’t just match her nylon looks, but also emulate it, asking herself – can we give leather a nylon feel? With the help of ECCO’s lead designer Rohini Yadav, she experimented with different techniques.
The design duo used perforation to add breathability and movement, then played around with material bonding to ensure strength and durability. The leather was also bonded to technical materials such as Lycra or reflective fabrics. She ended up buffing the material even more to create a hyper-smooth and thin result. “It almost feels like a Lycra,” Johanna says, “and I got a mat finish inspired by the nylons I use.”
“We purposefully never learn the rules, that way we can continue to think outside the box.” – Rohini Yadav
Though the Estonian designer was thrilled with the result, getting there took a mindset shift. “Leather has a mind of its own, it responds in unpredictable ways,” explained Rohini, who has been working with ECCO for the past seven years. “If we tried to control it we would never innovate.” That means you cannot have a fixed strategy for your creative ideas. Experimentation is crucial, as you cannot plan your creative outcome. “We purposefully never learn the rules,” Rohini reveals about the ECCO design team, “that way we can continue to think outside the box.”
A playful and process-oriented approach, and a massive challenge for a designer like Johanna, who usually conceptualises her ideas before starting the process. “I’m very mathematical,” she explains. “I’m a control freak, I need to know how the form works. I can’t do things by chance. If I start draping on a mannequin or a body, it’s always construction, I’m never just playing around.”
Working with a new material, within a different context, challenged the designer to step outside of her habits. “They’re very rough with the leather, which I liked. They’re not so careful and precise like me measuring millimeters with a ruler all the time.”
The ECCO collaboration is a good example of how working closely with manufacturing can expand the creative process and nourish the result. With the help of specialists, whether it’s the ECCO design team or the skilled technicians who know how to execute their ideas, Johanna translated her universe into a new material. This is something that wouldn’t have happened from inside her London studio, if only because the technology wasn’t present.
“It’s not just me making the creations for my pleasure and hoping rich people will like it. It’s a responsibility.” – Johanna Parv
That acknowledgment, the incorporation of manufacturing inside of the creative process, is currently lacking in creative design education. Johanna remembers one particular design from her BA collection – an oversized pair of leather boxing gloves with a huge pair of lips on the tip. Tutors were excited about the idea, but nobody actually explained what it would take to execute it. “I realized I didn’t even have the right machine to stitch leather,” Johanna remembers. “I do think it would be good to have a bit more guidance in the sense of – if you want a design like this, you’ll need professional help. I had to figure that out on my own.”
It relates to what she learned in her years since graduation. Fashion design is a collaborative process. The closer you are to the people you work with, the better the results. “It’s not just me making the creations for my pleasure and hoping rich people will like it. It’s a responsibility. You need to think, who are the people who would be willing to come on board and work with me? I feel like I’m finally at the point where I work closely with the manufacturers, and find a middle ground with their facility, collaborating and learning techniques we don’t have in the studio.”
