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Bij Kuyichi, denken wij dat het belangrijker is om iedereen om ons heen te inspireren en de kennis die we hebben te delen dan alles voor onszelf te houden. Wij maken deel uit van een groter plan en delen kennis met elkaar. Dit zal bijdragen aan het ‘grotere goed’ en onze ideeën. Kuyichi gelooft in de inspirerende ‘kijk’ van de volgende generatie denim professionals, dat is waarom wij samenwerken met het tweede jaar van de Jean Schoon in Amsterdam!

Moodboards with design principles and inspiration for the salvage collaboration

At Kuyichi, we think it’s important to inspire the ones around us and share the knowledge we have rather than keeping it to ourselves. We are part of a bigger plan and sharing knowledge with each other will only contribute to the greater good and our ideals. Kuyichi believes in the inspiring vision of the next generation of denim professionals, that’s why we collaborated with the second year class of the Jean School in Amsterdam!

The collaboration
The Salvage Collaboration assigned the students to create a whole new denim collection in only six weeks. Piece by piece these denim enthusiasts will create an inspiring collection based on an innovative and minimalistic design. Throughout this collaboration Kuyichi takes care of the materials needed while the Jean School students will work their magic and make our blue hearts beat faster with a beautiful end-collection. Each product will be a mix of left over Kuyichi garments and an innovative fabric called CRAiLAR Flax, sponsored by Çal?k Denim. Besides this, and some design inspiration from Kuyichi, the group of young talents will have complete creative freedom to give the beautiful fabrics a new inspiring purpose.

Modern utility
At the 7th of September the Jean School was ready for Kuyichi to pay a visit. The students were only one-and-a-half week into the challenge and presented their innovative concept to our team.

After diving deep into current trends and doing extensive research on WGSN they’ve chosen to translate the utilitarian trend, which is currently hitting the streets. Within their concept ‘Modern Utility’, the utilitarian style will fuse into a modern context. Goal is to design a collection for young adolescents with a sense of style and awareness of sustainable living. Garments will be designed with the aim that they will add comfort and functionality to an outfit. The students will achieve functionality by creating for example extra pockets, meant for devices and other everyday items, innovatively designed with a minimalistic look. Besides using this concept as a base each student will add own creativity to create a beautiful garment.

What impressed Kuyichi is that the talented denim students recognized the importance of designing for what is functional and pleasant to wear instead of only focussing on style. We were impressed by their level of design thinking and very curious about what will come more during the next few weeks!

Interview
After enjoying all their creative starting points we loved to hear about their first experiences, so we’ve interviewed some of the students.

K: What do you experience as the most challenging of the salvage collaboration?
Isabelle Claassen: After first creating an overall concept, each of us has to design one piece. Our ways of designing differentiate from each other and we want to deliver an inspiring, cohesive collection. This way of working to an end collection makes the project more complex than others.

K: Whit which goals in mind are you working towards an end piece?
Isabelle Claassen: First of all, to of course deliver a product I can be proud of. But also to look back at a process in which I’ve learned more about my way of working and my way of approaching the industry.

K: How did Kuyichi inspire you till now at the salvage collaboration?
Stef Reijnierse: Kuyichi has of course a specific way of working and approaching the fashion industry. Also the aesthetics of Kuyichi are very approachable. The organic and sustainable core of Kuyichi is strong and clear throughout the whole brand, what makes Kuyichi interesting and workable. Kuyichi for us is a brand that stands for the same values as Jean School. We are educated with a focus on working towards a brighter blue, no brand relates to this better than Kuyichi.

Kuyichi is looking forward to the coming few weeks in which the Jean School talents will inspire and surprise us even more. Next: designing and creating the actual garments. Thanks to the team for all their great effort so far!

www.kuyichi.com
www.houseofdenim.org

Meer over Kuyichi:
> Kyichi koploper in vernieuwde ranglijst ‘jeans’ Rank-a-Brand