Q&A: ISABEL MANNS

The eponymous founder of the Isabel Manns brand on reversible clothing, timeless colours and the value of customisation

Interview: Clare Finney Images: Charlie Cluff

Q: How did sustainability become a cornerstone of your philosophy?

A: I studied at Parsons School of Design in New York, and they drilled sustainability into us from day one. Anyone who didn’t care was taught to care. That said, I never really liked fast fashion, even as a child. My mum is not someone who throws anything away. She used to make and adapt clothes, and if I ever wanted something, she would encourage me to either make it myself or buy it second hand.

Q: Sustainability has become a catch-all term for all sorts of ideas. What does it mean in fashion today?

A: For us, it means thinking about the entire cycle: where the material is coming from, where it’s going next, what the customer can do with it. If I could source everything from Britain, I would – but it’s impossible. The only thing you can buy here is wool. That means I do have to buy some materials from abroad, but I follow the whole chain. When I first started buying silk from Italy, I was told it was Italian silk – but it turned out it came from China. It was being flown to Italy, where it was dyed and printed, then shipped to the UK. That made zero sense to me, so I had a chat with one of my previous employers and they kindly shared their contact. Now I go straight to the source and cut out unnecessary transportation. Once the material comes to the UK, it goes straight to our ateliers, which are based only a few miles away. We don’t produce much, and once we sell out, we’re out; we only make more to order, so the only stock we carry is fabric. One of the biggest problems with fast fashion is overproduction – but we only do one collection a year, with bits added in here and there, so we never have sales or stock left over that we can’t shift.

Q: Previously, you worked in couture, for the likes of Burberry and Emilia Wickstead in London, and Naeem Khan and Alexandra Vidal in New York. What did you learn from those brands?

A: Couture is a very different market. Sustainability wasn’t really on their conscience. Everything was beaded and embroidered in India, for example, and retailed at $5-10,000. That said, the experience did influence my approach to design because I saw how pieces are made to last. These are pieces that you envisage still wearing in 20 or 30 years, pieces that you might pass down to your children and grandchildren. Couture is anti-fast fashion by definition. They’re all about lasting quality.

Q: Why is sustainability still the preserve of small brands rather than big fashion houses?

A: Because it’s so expensive – from raw materials, right through the supply chain. I hope with rising demand that costs will go down. That’s one of the reasons I developed the idea for reversible clothing – because few people can justify spending that much money on an item unless they can get a lot of wear from it. In a reversible outfit they essentially get two for the price of one.

Q: When did you come up with the idea of reversible clothes?

A: When I was at university and thinking about my graduation collection. I was about 20 years old. In the end I didn’t’ do it for my graduation collection, because I worried that the idea would then be out there. I didn’t tell anyone about it until I could launch my own brand! Of course, the idea isn’t new: people have designed reversible jackets and jerseys for years, for example – but they’ve done so at a lower price point and without the focus on quality and elegance as well as functionality. One reason for this is that once you get to the type of items I design – silk dresses and tops and so on – it’s very difficult to produce in bulk, because it’s so technical and requires real patience and appreciation. You need to be able to control the entire manufacturing process, which is partly why I chose factories based locally. I visit my ateliers once or twice a week and have a very close relationship.

Q: Why is reversible clothing so technically challenging?

A: There are many aspects to this, but one of the main challenges is the fastenings. Reversible buttons and zips are hard to find in the UK, and most of the ones that exist are for jackets, so they aren’t light enough in weight or petite enough in size for silk dresses and tops. Our fastenings are one of the few things we have to have made in Italy, because no one in the UK could do it. Another challenge is the material: silk is a natural fabric, so it can stretch over time – but reversible hems obviously have to be the same length on both sides. In order to protect against one becoming longer than the other, the factory has to let each item hang overnight, which isn’t hard but is time consuming.

Q: How do you ensure designs are emotionally and stylistically durable, as well as physically?

A: I feel that when customers put one of our items on, it becomes part of them and they find their own ways of wearing it. One of our dresses can work 10 different ways. For example, one of our dresses comes with a tie belt, and one customer wore it around her neck as a choker, so the ends hung down the open back –and it looked amazing.

Q: Often colour or pattern is what makes a style seem dated. How do you safeguard against that?

A: These are the two areas I am constantly thinking about. It’s hard to predict the future, but I try to design prints that will be timeless: to not create something too floral, for example, that will soon go out of fashion. When it comes to colour, I think about colours that look good with all skin and hair colours – which is why cobalt blue is our signature. It’s a timeless colour, which you can wear at any age, and looks good on absolutely everybody. Same with dark reds and dark greens – emerald green in particular. It’s not a colour

Style Philosophy Allbirds

Sandeep Verma of Allbirds on sustainable manufacturing, carbon offsetting and modern retailing

The big idea behind Allbirds is to be a driving force in a sustainable manufacturing revolution. Put simply, we try to help people tread more lightly on the planet.

It all starts with premium natural materials. Our signature shoes use ZQ merino wool from New Zealand in 17.5 microns, which is super, super fine – 20 per cent the diameter of a human hair. It’s the same quality wool that you’d typically find in a $5,000 Tom Ford suit. Nobody had really thought to use wool in footwear before, but it creates an upper that’s cosy and comfortable. Our Tree designs have uppers made from FSC-certified eucalyptus, which has a light, breezy property. Our soles are made from renewable sugarcane instead of petrol.

We like to take away unnecessary details and make the materials the hero. It’s a simple, neutral design that people can style however they like.

People have got enough going on in their lives; they just want to feel good in whatever they wear.

The challenge of running a sustainable company is making sure that, at the heart of it, you’re creating a better product – one that consumers want to buy because it’s more desirable, it’s more durable, it’s a good price. People shouldn’t buy Allbirds just because they’re sustainable. They should buy them because they’re great shoes.

Carbon emissions are the central issue of sustainability. We think of it as almost an economic problem: there is a carbon impact, which we can work to measure and reduce through innovation, and whatever pollution is left we need to pay for through carbon offsetting. That’s our philosophy: measure, reduce and offset. We produce about 10kg of carbon per pair of Allbirds, while other shoes can

I particularly liked to begin with, but after designing with it I realised how versatile it is.

Q: Why is customisation such an important part of durable design?

A: Our customisation service is key. We offer everything: from totally bespoke, where it’s specially made for you, to creating a dress that is slightly shorter or longer, or with a different sleeve or colour. We have 120 different colour options, so you can very easily say: “I love it but can I have it in navy blue on the inside rather than cobalt?” It’s more expensive than buying straight off the rail, because it’s made to order, be as high as 30kg of carbon, but we tax ourselves on that 10kg, so we’re incentivised to treat it as a cost item, and say: “How can we find a different way?”

We don’t think bricks-andmortar retail is dead. Only bad retail is dead. And we’re insightobsessed, so there’s nothing better for us than listening to consumers and understanding what they like, what they don’t like and what’s working for them. It’s about people getting to physically touch the materials, understand why we make shoes from them, and of course trying them on and experiencing that comfort.

Normally in a shoe shop, you ask staff for your size then wait for 10 minutes while they disappear. It’s a weird, outdated experience. Instead, we have a service bar that’s in sight of the front door, and shoe racks directly behind that. We like to get shoes onto feet in 40 seconds flat.

In Marylebone, there’s a nocompromise attitude; people have high standards, and they understand that if they buy sustainable brands they’re making a better choice. We love the high street, we think it’s powerful and we want to be a good example of how if you get it right, it can work.

Allbirds

46 Marylebone High Street, W1U 5HQ allbirds.co.uk but it means you’ll wear it more. We’ve had customers come in with a long gown they’ve worn to an event and ask if we can shorten it, to make it more versatile. We’ve had brides who’ve wanted their dresses coloured or shortened, so they can wear them again. One bride wore a trouser suit, and now wears the shortened trousers with trainers to work. Whenever customers buy anything, I remind them that we can continue to customise and mend it.

Q: What made Marylebone the best place for you to launch your first Isabel Manns store?

A: It’s long been my favourite area in London. I love the independent brands and the village feel. People look out for each other here, and it strikes me that the people who live here are very loyal to Marylebone; they aren’t inclined to shop for everything online. The Howard de Walden Estate have been hugely supportive landlords; they seem to really be thinking about the future of fashion and interested in brands that are unique and sustainable, and that’s exciting to be part of.

ISABEL MANNS

103 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4RP isabelmanns.com