'Forever' shaking up fashion

There are so many different approaches to sustainable fashion. Here at DHL, one of our favorite takes is the Forever Piece – the garment with a permanent place in your closet, the one you’d like to wear every day, that makes you feel confident and comfortable on any occasion. We feel there are too few of these pieces in the world. So we took action.

We teamed up with Jelena Hofmann, founder, and lead designer of the Munich-based fashion label Mykke Hofmann, who shares our vision of sustainable fashion. We put out a call to young fashionistas to design and submit their own version of the Forever Piece. We were overwhelmed by the response. More than 850 designers took part, entering 2,375 design sketches for review. We were moved and inspired – not only by the quality of the designs, but by the people behind them.

So instead of just presenting the winning pieces, we wanted to introduce you to the five young women behind these pieces – for a taste of the passion and vision that is sure to shake things up in fashion for a few years to come.

There are so many different approaches to sustainable fashion. Here at DHL, one of our favorite takes is the Forever Piece – the garment with a permanent place in your closet, the one you’d like to wear every day, that makes you feel confident and comfortable on any occasion. We feel there are too few of these pieces in the world. So we took action.

We teamed up with Jelena Hofmann, founder, and lead designer of the Munich-based fashion label Mykke Hofmann, who shares our vision of sustainable fashion. We put out a call to young fashionistas to design and submit their own version of the Forever Piece. We were overwhelmed by the response. More than 850 designers took part, entering 2,375 design sketches for review. We were moved and inspired – not only by the quality of the designs, but by the people behind them.

So instead of just presenting the winning pieces, we wanted to introduce you to the five young women behind these pieces – for a taste of the passion and vision that is sure to shake things up in fashion for a few years to come.

MEET THE DESIGNER

Marta Soloducha

My Forever Piece is a two-piece trenchcoat that can be worn in different ways, making it timeless and practical. It can be a skirt, a blazer jacket or a long coat.

Value
Positive fashion is about sustainability, but also about transparency, honesty, and true value. Slow fashion manufactures provide fair work for their employees and focus on the entire production process. Ultimately, it’s quality and workmanship that determine the value of a garment, not just its appearance.

Marta is a fashion student at MSKPU in Warsaw, Poland.

Heroes
Stella McCartney is my role model in sustainable fashion. She proves that fashion can be ethical, that we don’t have to use furs and leather, and that we designers can have a positive impact on the environment.

Surprises
I was speechless when I saw the email telling me I was one of the winners. I’m a beginner in fashion design and I’m still learning, so it means a lot that someone noticed my project. It’s a big boost of strength and motivation to continue in this direction.

The challenge of simple
My criteria for the Forever Piece were practicality, elegance, and timelessness. And the trench coat really fits that profile. The most challenging for me was being creative with the coat while keeping it simple at the same time – especially since I’m not a minimalist when it comes to design!

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Gaia Stollo

My Forever Piece are pants that are designed to be extremely versatile and adaptable to every occasion, while still being fashionable. They can be styled either in a more formal way, or for an urban setting.

Standard shapes
Fashion should provide consumers with a way to express themselves and their diversity, not make us all standard human beings with standard body shapes and standard interests.

Gaia studied fashion design at the Politecnico di Milano in Milan.

Less
I chose pants because they’re an indispensable element in the wardrobe of every woman, extremely versatile and adaptable to every occasion. I tried to make my design extremely versatile so it can be mixed and matched with a more formal or more urban style. As Ludwig Mies van der Rohe once said: “Less is more.”

Keeping sustainability fresh
Today, almost everyone produces with an eye towards sustainability (other than fast-fashion, of course), so I always try to be inspired by those who can reinterpret this theme in a unique and personal way.

What the fashion sector needs
I'm very interested in the relationship between body and dress. This is an extremely important aspect that should not be limited to current trends or what society wants now. I think the fashion sector needs to open up and broaden its views – to embrace all ages, all forms and all sexes.

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Camilla Pane

My Forever Piece is a dress that is designed to emphasize every woman, and every body type so that everyone feels comfortable and beautiful wearing it.

Every woman, every day
I take inspiration from everyday life. I want to create something you’ll want to wear daily, not just for a special occasion. My dress is designed for every woman and every different body type so that everyone feels comfortable and beautiful wearing it. It's one of those garments that makes you feel powerful and dynamic at the same time.

Camilla studied fashion design in Florence, Italy and lives now in Naples where she works in graphic design and social media.

Defects
For the competition, I thought about what I would want to wear every day. I also thought about all the physical defects (real or not) that we all notice about our body every day and tried to answer the question: What characteristics should a garment have to give a boost of self-esteem to the wearer?

Thrift shop treasures
When I think about a sustainable design I think about care, researching raw materials, and upcycling. I think about someone who can buy resources from a thrift shop and still produce contemporary pieces.

Moments of freedom
We live in a world that’s constantly sending us negative vibes, so every relief valve is a moment of freedom, a breath of fresh air – and fashion is one of those relief valves. I think positive and sustainable fashion can be a great way to give free rein to who we are.

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Micaela Clubourg

My Forever Pieces are a blouse and pants set that can be adjusted in many ways, while highlighting comfort and style, making it a fashion set that accompanies you throughout life.

Openness
To make sustainable designs we need to be open to change. Technology is constantly moving forward, and new methods and materials emerge all the time. We need to stay up to date and always ask ourselves: “Which is the most suitable process for this project?” There is no single way to be sustainable.

Micaela is a fashion designer from Argentina with a Master’s degree in Fashion Wearables and Technology from IED Barcelona.

Fashion for change
During my fashion design studies, I asked myself: what if I could use fashion to help other people? I wasn’t thinking about what I wanted to design, but how I wanted to do it. I see fashion as a tool for social change.

Co-creating
I believe design today is collaborative. For me, it’s very important to be in constant contact with other creatives. My goal is to team up with different designers, communities of artisans and engineers – to enhance our knowledge, to pool our ideas and launch new projects together.

Longevity
Garments come to life once they are worn, but can they accommodate the body as it changes over time? Clothes often get discarded because they no longer fit. So, if the garment itself has the capacity to transform, we could reduce waste. That’s why all my sketches propose different adjusting systems.

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Shop the pants

Yolanda Patricia Cabarcas

My Forever Piece is a blouse with a beautiful shape and collar scarf that will stay fashionable throughout the years, as it can be knotted as desired.

Honoring women
I felt a connection right away to the idea of “Forever Pieces” because this describes my approach when creating fashion. I was also attracted by DHL’s partnership with Mykke Hoffmann, which is a company that clearly respects the environment and honors women – both as customers and as workers.

Yolanda grew up in Colombia and moved Milan pursue a Master’s degree in fashion design. She currently lives and works in Milan as a freelance fashion designer.

Next steps
I am excited to see my garment produced and, most of all, I can’t wait to see if someone connects to the emotional meaning, I was looking for with the dip dye blouse. At a professional level, participating in this competition opened my mind to learn more about what’s next in fashion and how we, fashion designers, can contribute to positive change.

Influencers
Two of my heroes are Caravaggio, the painter, and Emilie Flöge, the fin-de-siècle fashion designer and businesswoman. Both were so innovative for their time. Flöge’s designs changed the clothing standards for the women of her era, and she influenced art because her fashion creations were depicted by Gustav Klimt in his paintings.

Fashion is My Canvas
I lived and worked in China for a few years and have lived in several countries like Japan, Canada, Qatar, and Surinam – in addition to my native Colombia and my current home in Italy. It’s been a colorful mix. And speaking of colors, I am currently working on a personal project called “Fashion is My Canvas” which combines my two great passions: painting and fashion.

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From design, to finished product, to big picture

Interview with Jelena Hofmann

What were you looking for in a winning Forever Piece?
More than just a beautiful sketch, I wanted to see a proper concept behind the design, a good mood board, a clear explanation of what made the design unique, and some fresh ideas on what it means to be sustainable. And since we want to produce and market an actual capsule collection, it was important to select designs that were feasible from a technical/production standpoint.

What is your advice to young designers?
Do everything you can to learn about the production process! Having production experience will help you immeasurably in all aspects of the process – from design through to finished piece. For me, it’s the key to being a really good designer. Even if you’re super creative, your design probably won’t succeed if you’ve never had to work anything out technically before.

What have you learned from the Forever Pieces project?
When we started this project, we had our own understanding of the sustainability ethos but working with DHL has introduced us to different aspects of sustainability beyond just fabric or fair production. DHL also opens the door to different scaling possibilities in terms of output, sharing knowledge and getting feedback from as many people as possible about our work.

Lifetime designs with extended wearability

Our Forever Pieces collection is designed to be timeless fashion capsule that you can wear a lifetime. In support of this, upon purchase, you will have the possibility to receive a climate-neutral non-fungible token (NFT), which will include a digital warranty certificate to extend the wearability of your garment.

The NFT will be stored in a digital wallet on the blockchain, which also means the warranty certificate cannot get lost or deleted. Further, each NFT will be presented as a collectable 3D animation of your collection piece.

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Forever Pieces proceeds go to SOS Children’s Villages

In line with DHL’s commitment to support the future of younger generations, all proceeds from the sale of our DHL and Mykke Hoffmann Forever Pieces collection will be donated to our partner since 2011, the SOS Children’s Villages.

SOS Children’s Villages are the world’s largest non-profit organization focused on supporting children without parental care and families at risk. Together we have been effecting change for young people aged 15-25 across the world, BY supporting them with building their job skills and getting them ready for employment or entrepreneurship.