Collaboration
Swiss Jeans Freak X Candiani Collaboration
Ruedi Karrer, also known as the Swiss Jeans Freak is the founder of the world’s first independent Jeans Museum and a prominent member of the denim community.
Ruedi has partnered with Candiani Denim to realize a lifelong dream of creating a limited-edition collection of 60 pieces. A special collaboration and passion project to commemorate his 60th Birthday, the jeans were unveiled at BLUEZONE during the current MUNICH FABRIC START in September along with a promotional short film celebrating Ruedi’s unwavering passion and devotion to denim.
The limited-edition collection was designed by Ruedi, engineered by Candiani and manufactured 100% in Italy by IMJIT. The revenue from sales will contribute to the development of the Jeans Museum in Zurich.
Watch the short video to learn more about this project:
The ALL RELATED Collab Project
In the ever-changing denim industry, weaving mills, producers and manufacturers are now more than ever in direct contact with consumers and need to develop their marketing and communication skills in a way akin to jeans brands. Until recently, an invisible border separated the players in the jeans industry from end consumers. Today’s open-minded and curious customers now demand transparency not only from brands, but also from producers. At the same time, brands are transferring more and more responsibility. It is precisely in this interactivity that the new connection for interaction with end consumers lies.
Blockchain, transparent distribution concepts and social media together build new standards that the industry itself must set. Weaving mills and manufacturers are part of an ALL RELATED chain of global value shifts in society.
‘With BLUEZONE as one of the largest international denim trade fairs, a platform has been created that brings together experts who are invited to pass on their know-how. This is where networking takes on a new dimension. New communication channels, transparent production chains and changing consumer behaviour present the denim industry with fundamental challenges, but at the same time also offer great opportunities for a future-oriented BLUE Industry’
Sebastian Klinder, Managing Director MUNICH FABRIC START
“With the ALL RELATED COLLAB Project we go one step further. This project is an unprecedented initiative whereby 23 BLUEZONE exhibitors have joined forces with designers to create an innovative vision of denim.”
Lucie Germser, Head of Communication & Design,
Monsieur-T.
The ALL RELATED COLLAB PROJECT at BLUEZONE is a central showcase of how future collaborations can and will look like. This powerful initiative pools creativity, cooperation, transparency and responsibility. International designers, fabric suppliers, additionals manufacturers and producers have split up into 8 teams and realised their vision of a sustainable denim silhouette.
ALL RELATED – DESIGNER LOOKS
Designers, weavers, producers and washers work together to create trend-related outfits in a transparent and eco-friendly manufacturing process. Each designer selects one of the eight trend themes and creates an outfit with their own unique interpretation of fabrics, treatments and trims.
ALL RELATED – TRENDS
LONG LASTING : A highlight for durable and slow denim products that helps to reduce over consumption.
DENIM BORDERLINE : A fashion territory where denim and non-denim shake hands.
URBAN ZULU : Tribal and African accents in an urban environment.
SARTORIAL ANGLE : On a journey to exact, tailor-made denims – where tradition meets the future.
JUVENILE AWKWARD : Generation Z has its own beauty codes, especially when it comes to design & denim, discover the beauty of awkward aesthetics.
ROCKERS DELIGHT : You thought the rock’n’roll taste is only a has-been? Luxury brands prove that it’s not true.
TEXT ME : Denim with a message, a message that is LOUD! Handwritten, printed, painted, woven or embroidered – make your statements!
GENDER FREEDOM : Ladies denim for men, men’s denim for women. The new future for gender freedom.
Get up close and personal with BLUEZONE, one of the world’s largest denim shows featuring over 100 leading international denim & sportswear suppliers for Fabrics and Additionals.
You’re invited to attend MUNICH FABRIC START, where more than 1000 suppliers will present more than 1800 collections for Fabrics and Additionals for Autumn.Winter 20/21.
BLUEZONE: 3-4 of September 2019
MUNICH FABRIC START: 3-5 of September 2019
Nat-2™ and Shahar Livne: Sustainable Blood Sneakers
The kind of collaboration which is everything we could hope for here at Munich Fabric Start. Since its inception, Keyhouse is intended to be a platform which promotes the sharing and exchange of knowledge and innovation. We believe that through collaboration, innovations such as those presented by Shahar Livne and Sebastian Thies can thrive; growing arms and legs or in this case Blood Sneakers!
Creating the world’s first sneakers made from REAL BLOOD are nat-2™ Designer Sebastian Thies and Eindhoven based Designer Shahar Livne, both previous exhibitors at Keyhouse 2017 and 2018 respectively. The two designers joined forces in 2018 after meeting each other through Simon Angel who introduced Sebastian to the blood material in a raw state. Fascinated by the material Sebastian then contacted Shahar who was in to the idea. She further developed the material based on the needs for footwear given by nat-2™ and Sebastian designed and constructed the sneaker. Together they also developed the print image which Shahar later printed by silkscreen with real blood pigments. In January 2019 the project was shown to the public for the very first time at Neonyt. Afterwards it went on to exhibitions like Milan and Tortona Design Week, Interzum’s Disruptive Materials and was featured in Dezeen, Sportswear International, Vogue and already many international museums have bought the unique pairs for the collections.
THE PROJECT IDEA
In most slaughterhouses, blood is drained into the sewers and waterways, or re-used as a colourant for meat. Inspired by the construction and de-construction of living subjects in the food industry, Shahar Livne developed a new handmade “bio-leather” by using fat and bones, the subsequent materials from the waste streams of slaughterhouses in the Netherlands, as well as utilizing the wasted blood as a colourant and a plasticizer.
Other materials used in this concept shoe are finest nappa leather, glass, a real cork insole and real rubber outsoles. The shoes are made entirely by hand in Italy and incredibly all according materials are coming from the same region.
“The extraordinary material mix gives the product an absolute new feel and look, never experienced in footwear before”
By realizing these unique sneakers nat-2™ and Shahar Livne want to bring more attention to urgent international matters such as sustainability in different animal-based industries by using naturally occurring resources and upcycling leftovers from those industries. But also making a point for more tolerance, open-minded thinking by raising fascination, curiosity, highlighting the wasteful and disrespectful treatment of animals and natural resources.
Accompanying the sneakers in its 100% recycled paper packaging is a limited edition poster silkscreen printed with a uniquely developed real blood pigment by Shahar Livne, and hand-signed by both designers.
ABOUT THE MATERIAL
The “Meat Factory” project is a series of material experiments with the aim to create dissonance between attractiveness and disgust, natural and industrial attitudes while focusing on the blood as a material and a colourant. The results of the project are visualized in two directions:
1. The use of blood as ink to produce an exciting natural colour range in a silkscreen technique, a repetitive technique that refers to the ancient pigment Oxblood and the industrial revolution relating to food and materials.
2. The Bioleather is made only from meat industry driven waste and low-value materials as a proposal to create new valuable replacements for a polluting and often cruel industry. Shahar investigated the construction and deconstruction of living subjects and the wasteful and cynical treatment of animals and natural resources by human beings, inspired by the philosophy of “Nose to Tail” attitude of using the entire animal.
ABOUT THE DESIGNERS
Shahar Livne (Israeli born, *1989) is an internationally known designer located in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Her lifelong fascinations in nature, biology, science, and philosophy developed into intuitive material experimentation way of work during her bachelor studies at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Shahar’s body of work focuses on conceptual material research in a multi-leveled methodology, bringing to life narratives through objects and installations centered around materials.
Find Shahar on Instagram
Sebastian Thies (Munich born, *1981), 6th generation footwear designer since 1856 has launched the sustainable luxury brand in 2007. Ever since, the award winning nat-2™ is all about innovation, design and sustainability paving the way for the future fashion footwear by using unique, uncommon materials such as milk, fish leather, natural felt, recycled leather and many vegan luxury alternative materials such as stone, wood, corn, cork, glass, fungus, coffee, grass, flowers, natural rubber and more.
Find nat-2™ on Instagram
Remark: No animal has been harmed or will be in the future by creating these pieces of art. All organic ingredients are from leftover materials. The glue is water-based.
Our thanks and congratulations to Sebastian and Shahar for their successful collaboration and their wonderful insights into a more tolerant and inspiring world.