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Make Do and Mend

The craft revival that has been much touted as a new niche trend in all areas of product design and seen as a resurrection of forgotten pastimes of a bygone era was a surprising new addition to the Bread & Butter fair, Berlin for AW13-14. Standing out amongst the mega denim, casual and sports brands and offering something a little different to the authentic smaller labels, I noticed something was in the air with these unique designers who were using traditional methods of handcraft techniques with a fresh take on crocheting, knitting, hand sewing and embroidering, hand-dying and finishing techniques. Reminiscent of secondary school Domestic Science classes where your granny or mums favourite pastimes were learnt in order to become the perfect domestic goddess, this reaction against mass produced clothing and accessories has spawned a new generation of designers looking to re-invent the word ‘craft’ with some interesting and original collections and products. SCOUT particularly enjoyed learning about traditional dying and finishing methods at Pure Denim’s Kuyichi with real people installed into ‘real’ workshops as part of the brands VM presentation. Or the designer behind WE ARE KNITTERS hand-knitting on the stand with his mega needles using yummy coloured heavy gauge yarns, all part of the designers concept which includes fully finished garments and knitted accessories or DIY yarn and needle packs. So simple and yet so right for the times. The Blutsgeshwister label which was inspired by all things patch-worked, sewed, embroidered and hand-kitted had girls on the stand sewing garments on traditional sewing machines whilst on the Made In Germany stand traditional craftsmen were working their hands with pattern cutting, hand stitching of leather goods, traditional book binding, all part of putting the ‘hand made’ back into authentic German products which was a refreshing inclusion into a tradeshow which is as much about re-discovering the old as it is re-inventing the new.