Orlando Yates’s jackets recall pre-COVID wild times at festivals

Orlando didn’t really consider design as a real career option when he was growing up. “I tried out loads of different things – I did graphic design in school and wood tech. As I tried all these different things, they didn’t seem right for me. I decided to do a fashion B-tech and it started from there.” He has since interned for a year at Kenzo and Givenchy, focusing his design on utilitarian design. “This time around my project was based on UK festivals. I looked back through loads of photos that I and my friends had taken and used them as the base point for the idea. From there, I picked out the small details and obsessed over them, breaking everything down into categories and then using that to interpret them in my own way.”

“It was great to be in the studio and bounce ideas off everyone else and see where everyone else is at, because sometimes when you’re on your own, you can feel like you’re way off.”

His inspirations for the festival collection vary from futuristic tents and stretched structures to photographs of his laughing friends in front of a stage. Lockdown has made the divide between group gatherings and solitary design work even more distinctive. “It was great to be in the studio and bounce ideas off everyone else and see where everyone else is at, because sometimes when you’re on your own, you can feel like you’re way off. Knowing there are other people there with you can be reassuring. But really, we just had to get over it and work with what we had. I was going for quite a technical jacket, so in cases where I would usually laser cut something – like a pocket – I’d have to use a scalpel on the fabric and cut through it really neatly to make it look like it.” His jacket focuses on an oversized fit that hides a rucksack underneath, protecting it from the elements. “I wanted to use recycled tents because it’s a big problem at festivals – people just go and camp there, and then just leave their tent. I did it originally in my toiles, I made some trousers of tents. I love all of the detail you see when you cut tents open – there’s loads of toggles and stitch lines.”

 “My advice would be to literally just keep going, try not to let things stop you or bog you down.”

The focus on tactility extends to his portfolio online – initially, he wanted to create a collection of all of the tent scraps, materials and toggles he used for the project, but with COVID-19, he decided against it. “I collated all my sketches and my research into a PDF. I still think there is value in having both the 2D and the 3D. If I wasn’t stuck at home, I would have been printing stuff out, scanning and sticking it down.” Even though his time at university was cut short, he still thinks that future students can look at the restrictions in a positive light. “My advice would be to literally just keep going, try not to let things stop you or bog you down. If you have one thing that’s got you stuck, don’t let that be the whole reason that you can’t continue. Just try and drop that one thing and move on with something else. Because one thing that makes it a lot harder is just letting yourself get bogged down.”

“I thought that I would come out of university and try to find a job. But now with COVID-19, I’ve had time to sit back and reflect.”

The time away from the industry has also made him rethink his direction in the field after his studies at Central Saint Martins. “I thought that I would come out of university and try to find a job. But now with COVID-19, I’ve had time to sit back and reflect. It has made me re-evaluate where exactly I want to go and what I want to do, especially when it comes to sustainability issues. I don’t want to just aimlessly get back in and join the machine that perpetuates such waste. It would still be a dream of mine to start my own brand, but I know that if everyone starts a new brand, then more and more clothes end up being produced. I’m thinking and trying to figure out what is the smartest step to take and how I can do it with the least damage.”