Junky Styling: Salvage, Sustainability, and Fashion

Written by Timo Rissanen | Apr 05, 2010.

Junky Styling: Salvage, Sustainability, and Fashion

Annika Sanders and Kerry Seager, Junky Styling, London,
with Hazel Clark, Dean, School of Art and Design History and Theory, Parsons

This lecture, part of the Global Issues lecture series from the School of Art and Design History and Theory, was in fact a rich discussion introduced by Assistant Professor Susan Yelavich and moderated by the Dean, Hazel Clark. In introducing Yelavich noted how Junky Styling is about much more than simply an image or a look: Annika Sanders and Kerry Seager also consider the afterlife of their work.

Annika Sanders and Kerry Seager established Junky Styling on Brick Lane in London 13 years ago, with the studio behind the shop. Their work consists of one-off ‘wardrobe surgeries’ for customers as well as an internationally stocked ready-to-wear collection. The business idea developed from their experimentation with recycling second-hand clothes into clubwear; being part of the same generation this sounded warmly familiar. Travels through the US and Asia allowed Sanders and Seager to think the business further; San Francisco 15 years ago was particularly inspiring. The customer base is 18-70ish in age, men and women in equal parts.

As Sanders and Seager pointed out, 15 years of deconstructing clothing has taught them a lot about constructing clothing; neither has a formal fashion design education. This reminds me of Vivienne Westwood who learned to make Teddy Boy suits in the early 1970s buy unpicking them. It may be said about both businesses that there is a distinct (and fun!) lack of bowing to conventions in the product, perhaps coming from the designers being self-taught. Not that it’s necessarily the easy way; the designers noted how in the early years they were perhaps better at persevering than making clothes, although that balance has since been readdressed. I took a close look; the clothes are beautifully made. In terms of design they arouse an instant curiosity; you want to try things on to see what happens, something missing from much of fashion today.

The primary source material for Junky Styling is men’s tailoring: suits. The fabrics are usually of a high quality (Annika and Kerry steer clear of anything susceptible to a naked flame), and every scrap is accounted for one way or another. For example, scraps get donated to Lama’s Pyjamas. This has parallels to the zero-waste philosophy of Alabama Chanin, an American fashion business (more on Alabama in a minute). Annika and Kerry concurred that recycling/upcycling is becoming common in fashion – “which is brilliant” – but the two need to be acknowledged as pioneers in the field. They’ve developed their own design techniques to accommodate the unusual source material (garments rather than fabric), something worthy of a study in itself. They always try to keep the best parts of the original garment; this was very much in evidence in the garments shown. Things that don’t sell in the shop get re-recycled – a stark contrast to that story.

Annika and Kerry raised an interesting point about second-hand clothes carrying stories and memories; this becomes particularly apparent when people bring in a garment that used to belong to a family member for a wardrobe surgery. The point was that these stories and memories add value to the garment – a second-hand garment. This was one point that Kate Fletcher investigated in her project Local Wisdom. Business at Junky Styling would suggest that at this point in time, people are increasingly wanting to invest in clothing – “buy less, buy more discerningly” as the designers put it. People are increasingly beginning to make the connection between price and labor, too. All of Junky Styling’s clothes are made within a five-mile radius of the store, and local labor costs more than manufacturing offshore. This doesn’t mean, however, that you cannot have a profitable business by manufacturing locally. With Junky Styling the price comes primarily from the time taken by deconstruction and reconstruction (in conventional fashion fabric is usually the primary source of cost) yet $300 for a completely original men’s jacket is very reasonable, given the individual attention it has received. Annika and Kerry noted how many of the conventional industry set-ups were too inflexible for them so they’ve created their own to be able to manufacture in a way that suits them best. This is not an uncommon notion with sustainability-focused fashion businesses. The designers noted their initial long struggle with adapting to wholesale but with careful strategizing this has been a viable aspect of the business for some time now. Doing seasonal collections also allows Junky Styling to participate in Estethica, the ‘sustainable’ section of London fashion week.

Junky Styling have published a book and I think I am spotting a trend emerging here. A few weeks ago I went to the Alabama Chanin book launch and there are definite similarities in the two books. For one, both give away what would have once been considered business secrets, but not only do they give them away, they actively encourage people to give the ‘secrets’ a go. The Alabama Chanin book even has garment patterns in it – the very same that are used to cut their garments. I touched on this new culture of sharing following the IFFTI conference. Kerry and Annika noted that they’d like to see a sewing machine in every home and it’s easy to agree. DIY maybe trendy now, but just as vintage has become integrated into the fashion sphere, maybe DIY will, too. The designers referred to Otto Von Busch and his idea that one day Chanel might do a collection, and the following season publish a book on how to customize and update that collection. Karl, we’re watching. On the whole, customers will likely play an increasing role in design processes across disciplines in the future, and for businesses like Junky Styling they already do. The ethos of sharing comes through in the many educational initiatives by Junky Styling, too.

A larger theme that I’ve encountered a few times in recent months also emerged during this discussion. Originality and ‘good’ design were discussed – “we’re a design company” – just as they were during Donna Karan’s Workwear talk at Parsons, and with Maria Cornejo, Yeohlee Teng and Francisco Costa at the Cooper-Hewitt last week. And as Hazel noted, what began as a discussion about local very much became about global issues by the end. There was talk of Junky coming to NY and clearly Annika and Kerry had thought about this in a profound way: rather than ship garments from the UK, they would want to see a studio set up here, with the wardrobe surgery very much part of the business just as it is in London. I’m putting my hand up in offering to help set this up; judging by the response last night, I’m not the only one. To finish off, enjoy Lady Sovereign performing live in the Junky Styling shop window.