DIY Couture: Making home designs fashionable

It will have happened to all of us, at some point in our lives we will come face to face with someone else wearing the same outfit. With every city now boasting the same high street stores and the internet making those stores accessible to everyone, one-off pieces of clothing – unless second hand or vintage – are hard to come by. This may no longer be the case with DIY Couture.

DIY Couture has taken it upon itself to bring back the art of making clothes and made it accessible to those of us who aren’t seamstresses. Rather than buying the garment, you instead buy instructions on how to make it. A unique idea, inspired by the complex original clothes patterns and their confusing make-up.

Since its conception DIY Couture has released two collections of garments, with a mix of simple shapes and wardrobe staples. When shopping on this unique site, after purchasing a garment, instead of getting a parcel of clothes you will instead receive a book of simple instructions to make the item or collection of your choice. The idea is to get rid of complex sewing patterns and instead use diagrams and pictures, taking the maker through the creation process visually. This gives the maker control over the design, making personally fitted clothing accessible to everyone.

Seamstress and designer, Rosie Martin began DIY Couture because she was frustrated with commercial sewing patterns that looked old-fashioned and were difficult to understand. “I wanted to help more people access sewing clothes”, Rosie told The Upcoming. Inspired by thousands of invisible pairs of hands around the world who make the clothes we buy from high street brands, Rosie wanted to encourage people to ‘get up to their elbows in the 3D world of creation.’ Trying to take away the idea of disposable fashion by helping people produce garments that are valued. Rosie describes the brand as ‘the antithesis of fast-fashion.’

DIY Couture offers tips and instruction videos on-line as well as workshops in various locations around London. Look out for the upcoming How to Make a Cloak workshop where you can make your very own cloak while learning techniques and picking up handy tips and tricks. For more details and to book a place visit the Papered Parlour website.

To start making your own DIY Couture piece start shopping here or look out the big DIY Couture book here for a collection of designs. Watch out for the upcoming competition to design fabrics for the SS13 collection!

Hollie Bracciale