Uncommonly Creative: The Designers Behind Pamoyo

Born and Raised: West Coast of The Netherlands/Härnösand, Sweden
Founded Line: 2008
Studio Location: Berlin, Germany (Kreuzberg)
Number of Staff: 2-4
Favorite Designers: Junky Styling, From Somewhere, Howies, Kuyichi, Slowmo/Skunk Funk, French Ciel, British-Italian From Somewhere and Swedish Denim Wear

Cecilia Palmer and Frans Prins are two pioneers of eco fashion. Based in the thriving artist enclave of Berlin, the designers behind Pamoyo, the first fashion brand to hold a Creative Commons license, are poised to make quite a splash. Their first collection, Styled With Heart, uses organic and recycled materials in a super funky and fresh way. Through the creation of the Fair Fashion Affair in 2007 and the formation of their non-profit ethical design consultancy Grass Routes, Cecilia and Frans are paving the way for Germany’s inevitable eco fashion invasion.

What is Grass Routes all about?

F: Grass Routes is a visionary project agency and foundation. We set up small projects where creativity and sustainability are core values. Last year we organized the Berlin Fair Fashion Affair, this year we set up the green fashion label Pamoyo and we have a lot of plans ahead…

Describe your vision for the Pamoyo line.

F: Pamoyo is not only a green fashion label, it is our creative laboratory. On a small scale we try out new concepts and ideas. We aim to involve more and more other designers to give their artistic input in the clothing. In that way we can inspire other designers to go green.

What is Styled With Heart?

C: Styled with Heart is Pamoyo’s first collection; original cuts, love for the work we do, sustainable materials combined with upcycling of vintage shirts and dresses. The outcome is a series of 9 styles, spoken out, one-of-a-kind garments for ladies and gents.

F: Cecilia worked most on it. I really like the Shirt Deluxe, it’s a casual men’s shirt but quite outspoken.

Apparently Pamoyo is the first fashion label to participate in the
Creative Commons. Could you please explain how Creative Commons works?

F: Creative Commons is a license that permits a free ‘open source’ use of creative property. The idea is that creativity works best in sharing. Instead of giving your money to a large corporation, you can give a free donation. For music, videos or even science it’s used a lot already. But for fashion we seem to be the first.

What was your inspiration to participate in Creative Commons?

F: We thought it is fun to share our stuff. If more designers would do this, you can easily pick elements from each other and build on each others ideas. We also like to support it when people make their own stuff instead of just buying the same cheap crap. From an ecological perspective it is much better to re-sew an old dress than to get a new one.

C: We make designs to spread them, not to protect them! By giving this freedom, our creative work can be shared, put into new context, evolve it and use it. We want to make it possible to build upon each other’s work in such a thing as fashion design.

Today, many large fashion design corporations are desperately searching for ways to prosecute people who copy their designs. By joining Creative Commons, Pamoyo is headed in the exact opposite direction. What is your greatest hope for the results of this bold decision?

F: In fashion I see two movements: one of big fishes trying to protect their profit and power whatever it costs, and one of smaller labels and designers making fashion creative and fresh. The same counts for music and other creative industries. We choose to be part of the latter one, for open source creativity. I hope many designers will share their patterns, designs, and ideas, in that way one can even build on trends together, or cooperate in other forms.

C: Almost every creative person gets inspired by the works of others. In practise, artists already build upon each other. I hope the copyright issue cools off a bit. The person buying a cheap rip-off designer outfit wouldn’t have been able to buy the original anyhow.

Is eco fashion a mainstream concept in Western Europe these days? If so, for how long has it been prevalent in the media and in stores?

C: Eco fashion has been influencing the mainstream in western Europe for the past few years, starting with England and France, which nowadays have serious yearly fairs for eco-fashion. In Germany it took a while, but since a year it’s a hot topic here too.

Describe your vision of a 100% sustainable fashion future.

F: Large brands should give controllable guarantees for a strongly sustainable production. There should be a very strict regulation of chemicals and pesticides used, and the norm will be based on organic and sustainable methods. The future lies in a more local production. In the future, we simply can’t afford the costs of sending textiles three times around the globe before selling it in a shop. For industrial production this means high tech, vertically integrated, cradle to cradle, powering on own renewable energy, using locally grown materials and recycling. And I hope small labels and individual designers will get a stronger position on the market. Well, that’s up to the consumers!

C: In a 100% sustainable fashion future, I want to see the fashion business acknowleding it’s responsibility for the whole chain, and illegal practices banned. It’s driven from the one side of the consumer power, getting the chain stores to rethink their business. On the other side I believe it’s a long way on the political side, before we globally went through the process of implementing workers rights and environmental protection. And a lively global scene of designer labels of all kinds of course, for the sustainability of style and creativity.

Frans and Cecilia have accomplished so much in such a short amount of time, these trailblazers are definitely ones to watch in the rapidly emerging worlds of ethical design and progressive business.