Fashion L'amour

Jiri Kalfar | Feature |

By Gabrielle Riley Mai

Standing outside of Pall Mall with Jiri Kalfar, cigarette in hand, a casual chat, just how we like it, cosy and comfortable at Fashion L’amour Magazine. We definitely didn’t start this interview in the most conventional way, but what is conventional in the fashion world? Spontaneous and fun is the way we like to do things when interviewing our favourite creatives at Fashion Week. After laughing off our interview circumstances we got into the reason we were meeting up.

So i ask Jiri, how he got into fashion? Unlike most, Jiri didn’t graduate in fashion, “Unusually, I didn’t actually study fashion I studied ballet and travelled around the world mainly to the fashion capitals actually: Milan, Paris and New York, however from ballet I had a good knowledge of the human body, I always loved fashion and had interesting ideas so I just put them together” he makes designing a fabulous, innovative collection sound so easy! However, his collection isn’t directly influenced by ballet or dance at all, although he said you can see elements within certain lines of the collection. His inspiration around his new fashion line is actually sustainability. This may be the zeitgeist behind designers creative thinking this year, but it’s for an imperative reason, “I am an environmentalist and animal rights activist. I use no animal products, one of my favourite fabrics used is Buddhist silk which is completely sustain- able. My collection is also inspired by the garden of Eden. Where there is a city there is a garden or forest. Which is a way to reflect on the busy lives of today.” I found the garden of Eden analogy so interesting to link with sustainability, I love a design concept that makes you think. Jiri has always been vegan and bought sustainable clothes, “however I don’t actually spend money on clothes myself. We are a business to business brand and I like to up-cycle past collections to create my new range. Not trend-led.”

With fashion, trends come hand in hand, however, this may be an element of fashion which needs to adapt to a more sustainable fashion industry, while on this topic, I asked Jiri how we would like to see the fashion industry evolve? “Fashion is one of the most polluting industries and need to drastically change. But I think we as customers need to change to, look and think before you buy ‘do I really need this’, this could be damaging to my own brand as a designer but it is true, for example, my washing machine recently broke but I didn’t go out and buy a new cheap one, I just repaired it”,

Jiri’s ethos on sustainability is so true. As a society, we are more materialistic than ever and we are all expected to follow new seasonal trends or have a new outfit for every occasion. Maybe the industry doesn’t need to change, but our need to constantly have something new does.

Jiri’s style differs from his own, I asked him how he describes his personal style which he said he likes to always keep simple with a black and white
wardrobe filled with staples such as jeans, t-shirts and roll necks. That way he knows everything goes together without having to think of what he is wearing because he spends all day putting fashion collections together and thinking of bold colour palettes. It is true, I witnessed his collection after our interview and I was blown away from the elements of design, fabric and colour all rolled into one. Jiri describes his collection in three words as
‘sustainable, funky and rock and roll’, technically he used four words, but I love his concept and his show was one of my favourites I have ever witnessed.

To finish this interview, I asked Jiri what the highs and lows of his career are so far, “my high is every day, I get to do what I love and make my
clothes with my team, also today, to showcase my new collection at London Fashion week is also a high for me. Sadly, a low is the industry, as I still
think it needs to go a long way to change to be more sustainable, but we are getting there.” Fashion needs more designers like Jiri, as he is a cog in the cycle which is slowly helping this fashion industry to evolve for the better and the environment.

If you haven’t already, you must see his collection, we have the most amazing images from our photographer, Kelsey Martin. Then you can fall in love with Jiri’s sustainable collection and ethos as much as I did.

Interview plus more pictures also in the new PRINT edition.

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