Naim Josefi
The Steel Philosophy of Fashion
The term responsible consumption was a term coined in the 1970s by George Frisk, he was referring to the rational and efficient use of resources with respect to the human population. He suggested that, “responsible consumption may take the form of imposing a tax for luxury goods consumption, the organisation of post-consumption brigades to collect and recycle trash, the abolition of the flushing toilet, and the development of consumer advertising programs designed to discourage extravagant consumption”. He suggested two things that are needed — a new attitude towards the meaning of consumption and a social organisation to implement it. Keeping this good tradition alive, Sweden has become an international source of fashion inspiration for a new generation of fashion designers. They immerse themselves into the cultural, historical, and social context of the industry to realise their interpretation of the zeitgeist. Naim Josefi, an alumni of Beckmans College of Fashion, and 2012 winner of Sweden’s Project Runway, is undeniably a forward-thinker in the game. Merging the uniqueness of couture, flamboyance of theatre and a note of Harajuku’s unpredictable style, he also includes the sustained canons of the steel industry, creating a unique interpretation of sustainable fashion. Josefi takes jeans as a garment to experiment with illustrating how sustainability can be a part of our consumption philosophy, teaching us how to create big changes with small steps.
How did fashion design became a part of your life?
I actually came to Sweden to become a medical doctor. I grew up in a family where textile was an important part of daily life. My father had a few small knitting factories and apparel production companies in Iran. When I came to Sweden 2004, I spent a lot of time at the club in Stockholm called Tech Noir—a great platform for experiencing the city’s subculture. It made me realise that clothes actually were a strong self-expression instrument for every individual. I started designing my own party looks and the inspiration grew from there. Later on, I was looking for extra work and found a job at an atelier where I tailored constructed patterns and even some blazers. This led me to the Stockholm City Theatre (Stadsteatern), where I worked as a tailor and pattern-maker. At that time, I was interested in the connection between music and fashion, and was inspired by Jay Rock and even Harajuku style. This widened my horizons. I assisted at
Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair’s fashion shows, which actually became my ticket into Sweden’s fashion world. After a while, I started my design education at Beckmans College of Design, where I could experiment and ponder what role a fashion designer could play in the society. In 2017 you won the Copenhagen Fashion Summit – Sustainable
Denim prize for laser-printed jeans, which actually saved 80 litres of water per pair during the production process. Have you developed your previous achievements within the denim field ever since? It is definitely a step forward where I also choose to focus on an entire product—jeans—which is a very urban apparel. It took approximately two years to find a novel way of working with them, to create a new character in the garment and adapt it to the contemporary consumer. Today’s consumer considers sustainability, statement and responsibility as highly important aspects. After the laser-printing technology, I also established a product-developing collaboration with the Swedish steel company, Munkfors Steel. Using Kanthal (iron-chromium-aluminium alloys), we developed fabrics made out of steel. Since the steel industry pays a lot of attention to the aspect of sustainability, it became a perfect element in our creative partnership. Steel could be one of the most uncommon materials to be directly associated with fashion. Nevertheless, we have developed a steel thread, which is sufficiently flexible for being used in textiles. Steel as such is actually a natural material as much as cotton is, but the latter one is not as sustainable. Steel can be melted into anything you prefer, almost endlessly and it is also a circular material, which is hundred percent reusable. It lives up to consumers’
renewable expectations. In order to change the world, you have to start somewhere and successively, step-by-step. In the future, we may be able to find a new material, which we will be able to combine with steel. Although we cannot produce an entire garment of steel, we can improve the quality and longevity by adding twenty percent of steel to a garment. In other words, a twenty percent overall improvement.
How is sustainability reflected in your design and production process in particular?
The aim of most of the garments are to be timeless and universal. During my time at Beckman’s, fast fashion was really prevailing and I was completely against it and struggled to create a garment which would last. So, I designed a 3D printed shoe in steel—the Melonia shoe, feeling that this piece would never go out of fashion. In my view, a form has to be functional and flexible and this is what we prioritise in our design approach. For example, we have a bomber jacket that comes in two sizes, small and large, the small contains three sizes, and the large has only two. Our first steel collection is produced in Sweden in collaboration with Kanthal, Jernkontoret, and The Swedish School of Textiles. But, we are working on relocating to Portugal where there is a clear infrastructure for producing. Bigger volumes and a good ethical climate to set and establish production activity.
Please, tell me the story about abandoning tags with care instructions.
We had a silk collection previously where we decided to print care instruction directly on the shawls instead of attaching a polyester tag. Often it’s about small changes to create bigger ones. Now we use plexiglass waste to create an encasement for our art piece – the Melonia shoe, it attaches a rare and exclusive feeling to the art piece itself. Sustainability is a part of our work.