Menswear designer Steven Passaro is utilizing Chargeurs’ digitized interlinings for his tailored … [+]
Interlinings aren’t the sexiest part of fashion design, in fact, they’re mostly overlooked, but the form-making inserts are critical to any garment, especially tailored pieces.
Chargeurs-PCC, a Paris-based company, uses highly technical thermobond fabric for inserts between the fabric and lining of a garment, giving it its shape. Chargeurs Fashion Technologies products are developed by engineers and textile experts and designed with increasingly thinner interlinings, to fit the lightest fabrics such as lace or satin.
Chargeurs partnered with CLO, a simulation engine that allows designers to create countless layers and intricate details for a variety of garments, from a simple blouse to outerwear with complicated pattern pieces and construction.
Steven Passaro, a Paris-based designer who in 2018 graduated from the London College of Fashion with an Master of Arts degree in menswear, worked with CLO to digitize his design process. Passaro made his debut in fall/winter 2019 with a collection called “‘Body Of Folds,” which was presented at London Fashion Week with pleats, folds and laters that brought softness and movement to traditional tailoring.
“We digitized our interlinings and partnered with CLO to provide these digital products on their platform so that we could help reduce waste in design,” said Gianluca Tanzi, CEO of Chargeurs-PCC. “Steven Passaro has shown us all what’s possible. His impressive collection, which went from digital images to production with no physical prototypes, shows us that this dream can be a reality.
“By having access to digitized inner components, any designer can get a very realistic digital twin in the finished garment design file, reducing the need for physical samples and reducing waste,” Tanzi said.
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Chargeurs allocates 3% of its sales to innovation and research, and is co-developing, together with its customers, high-tech environmentally friendly solutions. Sustainable development informs its research and development efforts so products meet stringent requirements in terms of their environmental impact.
“We’re a direct-to-consumer company,” Passaro said. “I trained myself when I moved back to Paris to reduce waste as much as possible. I don’t spend as much money on samples.”
Passaro’s designs range in price from 100 euros for ready-to-wear to 3,000 euros for made-to-order pieces. “The customer is more aware of sustainability,” Passaro said. “I’m a really small business. During the Covid-19 pandemic, I put all my efforts together. I did all the patterns on CLO. It was a very intense three months.”
Each collection is an invitation to explore new forms of masculinity. “I play a lot with gender codes,” Passaro said. “I do menswear, outerwear, tailoring and footwear. Everything is self-funded. I’m consulting for different brands and lecturing on CLO 3D.”
