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From Somewhere

Born of an abiding love of vintage, provincial haberdasheries, beautiful clothes and exquisite artisanship.  From Somewhere began trading in 1997 with a small capsule collection of second hand sweaters and cardigans, rescued from landfill, and individually customized with elaborate crochet detailing. Originally sold exclusively at The Cross boutique in London’s Notting Hill, the designs were noticed within months by buyers, nationally and internationally, and started selling all over the world.

From Somewhere patiently reclaims fabrics collected from cutting room floors and the fashion industry’s trash cans. Designed by Orsola de Castro and Filippo Ricci, all From Somewhere’s collections are made with luxury designer pre-consumer waste, such as swatches, strike offs, sample yardage and production ends.  Up-cycling high-end fashion textile waste into beautiful clothes, From Somewhere re-thinks the fashion industry’s waste, reclaiming textiles as a design solution to an environmental problem. Reclaiming fabrics from Italy’s manufacturers, they particularly love to work with cashmere, menswear fabrications and high tech sportswear textiles.  “We used to have to really convince the manufacturers to give us their leftovers, but now we are approached by companies wanting to achieve a creative waste management as part of their greenification.”

Each piece is individually cut, with an eclectic and original use of color and paneling making From Somewhere pieces instantly recognizable. The beauty of each piece is its uncompromising balance between contemporary design and a poetic and ethical solution to post consumer waste. From Somewhere’s collections embody a sophisticated sense of design with a playful edge. Fitted and floaty dresses, tailored coats, skirts and trousers, quirky little jumpers and tops are made with a devotion to detail combined with visual eclecticism. Taking full advantage of their unusual origins, luxurious cashmeres, end of line vintage silks, jersey knits, herringbone, houndstooth and pinstripe are re-dreamt into modern classic pieces, attentive to their past but bursting to belong to the future. “In an industry which, is increasingly overproducing, very little is being done to highlight how much is discarded at source, and yet what is being thrown is often intact, still beautiful, and still useable if thought of in a different way.”

In 1999, high street giant Jigsaw introduced the labels signature pieces into its London flagship stores and the relationship developed into a collaboration where From Somewhere customized and recuperated Jigsaws unsold and damaged knitwear, effectively re-introducing the company’s discarded garments into the market.  Building on their past success of collaboration, From Somewhere are now going into their third season utilizing waste from Speedo, and their banned LZR racer suit, successfully being sold in a range of brick and mortar and digital resources, including YOOX.com.

Orsola de Castro and Filippo Ricci are also the founders and curators of the British Fashion Council Estethica show during London Fashion Week, one of the pre-eminent eco fashion trade shows on the global fashion calendar.

From Somewhere operated from 1997 until May 2016.