Behind the scenes - Homebody in collaboration with Lenzing
Where it all started
As designers that have been making our own fabrics for the last twenty years, we have always searched for the most sustainable and ethical options - whether it be the factory we choose to work with or the fibres we knit with to create our yarns for our 'Modal Sens' fabric.
We have, over the years, built a relationship with global eco fibre producers Lenzing who have suppled us with our essential ingredients from the beginning and it has resulted this year in this collaborative project.
When I first met Oya Barlas Bingul who liases with luxury brands like ourselves, she wowed us with her dedication and zeal for sustainability and transparency and it was fantastic to learn more everyday about the efforts that go on behind the scenes to spread the word of sustainability. who knew there is such a thing as ‘greenwashing’ i.e. when business say they are ethical but in fact do not have clean practices.
Just to give you an idea, to become an approved supplier of Tencel Modal is a really rigorous road. Every fabric brought to their attention, is subjected to detailed inspection, and once the fabric has been tested and gets the seal of approval and they are happy with where are yarn comes from, there is an extremely warm invitation into the sustainability community.
Developing the film concept was fascinating for Susie and I as we were privileged to work with the super talented Charney Magri and her team at Do Epic Shit who really had a vision from the onset as to how the film should look together with their talented team who genuinely put sustainability and global issues at the top of their priority list, making the work a very easy task!
The hardest part of making the film for Susie and I was being in front of the camera! What a learning curve that was, but Charney and her team soon put us at ease and before long we completely forgot about the cameras.
Selecting our model Matt was a lot of fun and also very easy - we were looking for someone who would fit the clothes well but also had a bit of personality - we certainly got that with Matt! (we didn’t stop laughing all day!) and he proved fun and pleasure to work with and for Susie and I, it was so interesting working with a top stylist like Marianne who on the day pulled the clothes together in fresh and original ways that we hadn’t considered.
The spectacular two bedroom apartment we chose as our location for the shoot took ages to decide - but it was so worth it! Overlooking the Kings Road, it was modern and cool with some amazing art on the walls that we couldn’t stop talking about! The one thing we all agreed that we wanted to keep was that giant vintage Hermes bag! Wish I could have run away with it!!
Seriously, It was so great to see the clothes come to life and for us to be given a platform to talk about why we have been making our collections in a sustainable way since 1999 and why we will continue to do so with care and consideration for the world we live in.
Our model Matt was given a narrative to keep in mind for the storytelling and his acting and I thought it would be fun to put a little competition together!:
Can you guess what our narrative was from watching the film?
a) Matt was a pilot about to go to work flying a plane
b) Matt was a billionaire film producer about to travel to Cannes for the film festival
c) Matt was an auctioneer about to travel for a sotheby’s auction
To enter follow the homebody instagram and send a direct message with your answer. The winner will be drawn from a hat and receive a homebody gift worth £200 !!