Ethical range of women's jeans to be launched at Hustle&Scout

A limited edition of new Canberra designed and made women’s jeans will be seen for the first time at the Hustle&Scout Twilight Fashion Market. Created by Louisa de Smet, of independent label Corr Blimey, the super cool, comfy jeans will be released in black with a gasoline coloured interior (adding a bit of pizazz when they’re folded up to form a cuff at the bottom).

The Strasse jeans (German for ‘street’) are made of Australian sourced denim. Although heavier in weight the fabric sculpts to the body, becoming the wearer’s best friend. ‘The more they’re worn, the more character they develop,’ says Louisa.

And these are no ordinary jeans, but then that’s no surprise given they’re made with tender loving care by Corr Blimey which has built a reputation for designing sculptural streetwear that stands out among the crowd—garments that truly stand out among the ‘oh-so-boring’, mass-produced garments flooding the market.

True to form, Louisa has created the jeans with Corr Blimey’s signature style on the waistband at the back—a notch in the band that is a heritage symbol from the label’s original jean design. They feature a new style of slim split pocket and special stitching. It all adds up to style without bulk. An added bonus is that buyers are supporting local design, which is why Corr Blimey suits the Hustle&Scout philosophy so well. Every garment is cut, sewn, pressed and delivered by the designer, staying true to the label’s ethical production approach.

The jeans are the first Corr Blimey has designed specifically for women in nearly 10 years. Louisa says women had started to experiment by wearing the label’s men’s jeans, including the Lymber Up style that were a hit on the runway at Fashfest, pulling the waist band up high on the body or folding it down for a different look. The response to the men’s jeans was so positive that Louisa decided to produce a super comfortable design just for the female form.

The design remains true to the inspiration behind Corr Blimey’s collection launched at Fashfest and entitled Berlin. The inspiration came from the trip Louisa took with her partner in life and business partner, Steven Wright—they both teach fashion at the Canberra Institute of Technology.  ‘The city has a pallet of rich contrasts, and we used this to inspire both the men’s and women’s wear in the Berlin collection,’ says Louisa. ‘The silhouettes incorporate texture and drape as well as our signature geometric shapes and the colour reflected what we saw in the city during our trip.’

The Strasse jeans will become a staple in Corr Blimey’s fashion offering and at one stage Louisa intends to trial ‘fly-free’ style of women’s jeans. ‘During the trial of the prototype we were pleased to see that the jeans fitting nicely around the “bum, which women love … for a smooth look,’ says Louisa.

Once the limited black quantities are snapped up, Louisa will produce the new design in the gasoline blue and sulphur gold fabric so popular with the men’s jeans. Corr Blimey is the only local designer to make jeans out of such denim. ‘The blue and sulphur is the last denim milled in Melbourne from Australian cotton,’ says Louisa. ‘We have about 60 metres of it so it’s worth its weight in gold to Corr Blimey and to those who buy a pair.’

At the 5 July Hustle&Scout Twilight Fashion Market, Louisa will be on hand to talk about the jeans and advise on how to wear them, as well as take orders.

 

Louisa de Smet

 

StageLabel - doing it for the designers...

Tell us a bit about StageLabel, how it works, and its philosophy.

StageLabel is a unique “crowd-funding platform” that helps emerging fashion designers connect with a community of fashion forward individuals looking for unique and exclusive garments.

Designers come to our site and upload a “Concept” which is an early stage sketch or photo of their sample. Our community can then go on and vote for designs they like. Once a Concept gets enough support from our community, we then work with our designer to turn it into a “Project” where you can pre-order the garments. If you voted for that particular garment, you receive 24 hours of early access to order that garment. With limited runs for all garments, it’s crucial to get in early!

Our philosophy is to bring democracy back to fashion. We think it is important for fashion designers to succeed based on their talent and we also believe that people should be able to support local design/ manufacture and have the power to find and support the next big thing in fashion.

 

 

How did you get the idea for StageLabel and how did it start?

I came up with the idea of StageLabel while reading a book called “The Lean Startup” by Eric Reis. The book talked about testing and validating ideas, before spending too much time, energy or money on it. Essentially - to build things that people actually want. The book talked about how to apply it for a particular business or project, but I thought there was a bigger use for this where you can apply the concept to a whole industry instead.

Around that time, I had a few close friends who had been running a fashion label for a few months. They had started to get some great coverage around their pieces but made some poor business decisions upon reflection and stretched themselves too far before running out of money and having to shut down. I knew this was a fairly common experience for a lot of fashion designers and wanted to do something to help.

I met 2 of the other co-founders at a competition called StartUp Weekend where we originally launched and introduced the idea publicly. Our 3rd co-founder is a good friend of mine that I grew up with in Canberra.

 

 

 

 

What was it about Hustle&Scout that made you want to get involved?

It is amazing to see some of the fantastic opportunities coming through in Canberra over the last few years and Hustle&Scout has become an integral part of the movement to provide further exposure and help grow the industry here. I love the concept behind Hustle&Scout and how it has become another vehicle for local talent to showcase their goods to the local community.

For StageLabel it’s another great opportunity for us to reach out to some people in the Canberra area who are interested in finding out more about who we are and what we do.

What exciting Projects do you have for 2014?

 

The biggest Projects coming up for us in the immediate future is our launch event in Melbourne on July 26th. We were also accepted and approved to run our own events at Melbourne Spring Fashion Week 2014 and hopefully we will get to showcase some talented Canberra designers from the Hustle&Scout market at these shows!