The iconic English print house, Liberty collaborates with LuisaViaRoma for a sustainable collection of face masks in exclusive prints for women, men, and kids at LVRSustainable section. There’s no reason to fret or lack style while being safe. With a strong focus on avoiding harm to our planet, the fabric masks will be made of Organic Tana Lawn which is both water-repellent and breathable. The masks will have 3 layers to keep you and your loved ones safe. Worried about misplacing your new-essential? Each face mask comes with it’s own pouch to make storing it a breeze. The capsule collection is available in an array of uplifting prints and the gorgeous coverings exemplify our commitment to bring good design to the new everyday.
What makes Liberty Fabrics sustainable? Can you explain to us a little about your practices and production?
Liberty Fabrics recognises that the production of fabric has significant environmental and social impact on the world around us – the company takes its duty towards responsible production seriously, making every endeavour to continuously improve progress in this area. Our fabrics are created using traditional techniques along with cutting-edge technological advancements and fibre innovations, to help mitigate the impact on the world’s resources.
What does Sustainability mean to Liberty? Why is it interesting for Liberty to be part of the LVRSustainable section?
Liberty Fabrics is committed to supporting our customers and partners in creating beautiful, long-lasting pieces that can be passed down through the generations. Our fabrics are created to the highest quality, using responsible production practices. With its focus on upcycling, recycling and ethical trade, LVRSustainable shares a lot of Liberty Fabrics’ key concerns and focuses for the future.
Liberty Fabrics joined the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) in January 2017 to be part of a collective movement to promote better cotton farming practices, and secured the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), enabling it to retail select bases as “Organic” (classified as containing a minimum of 95% certified organic fibres). For several finished cotton and linen Liberty Fabrics bases, the company holds the Standard 100 Oeko-Tex certification, and additionally facilitates the verification of recycled materials through the Global Recycled Standard (GRS).
What was the inspiration behind the prints for the sustainable collaboration featuring face masks with LVRSustainable?
Each design has its own story – we have chosen classic Liberty prints including paisleys, florals and conversational designs, all drawn from Liberty’s world-famous archive. All the prints selected are fresh and positive, chosen to coordinate with what people enjoy wearing. The designs are sophisticated but joyful, adding the perfect lively complement to accessorise any outfit.
The masks designed for LuisaViaRoma have three internal layers and are made from organic Tana. Can you tell us more about this material?
Our Tana Lawn™ cotton is a fabric built by obsession, perfected into a modern masterpiece of production through a bespoke process that has evolved over a century, and printed in our very own Liberty Printing Mill in northern Italy. For this organic version, it is prepared in a slightly different process to ensure GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certification, along with our usual Oeko-Tex® Standard 100 rating.
Liberty recently became a member of the ETI (Ethical Trade Initiative). What does ethical trade mean to Liberty and why social responsibility is so important to the company?
The business is hugely invested in doing business the right way. Anyone who supports our business growth, from our head office staff to makers in our supply chains, deserves to be treated with the utmost respect and dignity. This is something that all responsible businesses have to champion, and continue to work on. Joining the Ethical Trading Initiative was one of the first things we felt was important, as it allows us to understand better the systemic issues within our supply chains relating to workers rights, whilst also working collaboratively with brands, NGOs and trade unions to overcome these.
Liberty is known for its timeless appeal and not following trends, what current prints are you working on and where do you get your inspiration from for this season?
The Private View collection for Autumn/Winter 2020 is split into four ‘gallery’ stories, reflecting Liberty’s long-standing commitment to art and design in all its forms. Each room of this imagined art gallery represents a different facet of the Liberty Fabrics story – from the Arts and Crafts heritage of the ‘Permanent Collection’ to the lushly detailed floral studies of the ‘Botanical Gallery’, the witty conversational pieces of ‘Curated Curiosities’ and the archival Asian and Middle Eastern-inspired textile designs of ‘Eastern Treasures’.
Liberty houses an impressive archive that stores pieces dating back to the 1800s. What are some of your favorite prints from the in-house archive?
There’s ‘Prospect Road’ from our Classic Silk Collection, which was originally designed by Liberty Design Director Bernard Neville in 1968. It depicts a landscape that I would love to get lost in… I also have a top in our new design ‘Amherst’, from an archive piece originally created in 1967. People always comment on it when I wear it – it features the most beautiful drawings of feathers, which almost look like photographs.
Liberty has been designing prints for major fashion brands for decades. Which iconic fashion houses has Liberty worked with?
From Yves Saint Laurent and Cacharel in the ‘60s and ‘70s, to Louis Vuitton and Supreme in the 2000s, to most recently being celebrated by Gucci at Milan fashion week, Liberty has always been proud to work with the most prestigious fashion houses, as well as supporting up-and-coming young designers.
How does the historic archive influence the future of Liberty?
We always reference and take inspiration from our past – but our archive is a living, breathing thing. Each season over 70% of our collections are new designs created by the artists in our London design studio. These new prints are all added into the archive, to enrich the future of Liberty.
Liberty prints begin as hand-drawn artworks. How long does it take an idea to arrive to print and what processes occur during the journey?
It can take anything from a day to a week to draw, paint or illustrate the artwork for a design. During the creative process, we encourage openness and conversation within the design team to inspire and develop exciting creations.
There are two 60- print collections a year: Do the patterns come first, or do you choose a theme to go off of?
We start with a concept which sets the inspirational mood. As our customers are so diverse in their tastes, this needs to encapsulate different eras, styles and offer scope for the design team to springboard in lots of different directions. Having an eclectic muse is quintessentially Liberty.
How many people are on your design team? Does everyone come together to contribute to ideas for prints?
We have a team of twenty designers contributing to the collections, including archivists, colour experts, specialist illustrators and technical artworkers. Communicating, inspiring each other and working collaboratively is incredibly important to the design process, and the studio is always buzzing with energy. The team have an incredible focus on creating and the pursuit of excellence.
When you think of Liberty, what or who comes to mind?
A treasure chest bursting with eclectic and artistic designs – the spirit of Liberty encapsulates charm, desire and discovery.
How has designing prints changed with the digital world? Does your team also use digital art to create new prints?
I think computers are a tool just as vital to us as a pencil or paintbrush – it in no way replaces them, but rather allows us to manipulate and create with even more diversity and energy. The famous Liberty archive is an incredible digital library which, with the skills of our in-house experts, allows us to access creations of the past, share them and make them relevant to fashions of today.
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A special thank you to Liberty.
Editorial images of collection:
Photographer: Julia Morozova
LVR Senior Stylist: Klio Kosuth
LVR Junior Stylist: George Wood-Webber
Make-up: Giulia Gabbana
Models: Aurora, Diarra, Rachele And Lorenzo
