To change the future, we need to start now. At Ventile we are committed to supporting designers of the future to make sustainable fabric choices throughout their careers. For this year’s London Fashion Week, we are working with emerging British design talent Finlay Vincent Roberts on his final project, ‘Jacket’, for his MA Fashion course at Central Saint Martins.

Finlay's collection represents a departure from conventional fashion norms, with a focus on creating a single, meticulously crafted jacket that invites consumers to construct, deconstruct and reconstruct their own system of clothing, supporting the message or re-wearing and re-using items again and again.

We caught up with Finlay before the event to find out more about his work and what modular design means for him.

The inspiration behind ‘Jacket’

The whole intention for my collection was to create a single, well-made product that could be transformed to allow for multiple ways of wearing it, so it lasts the longest time possible.

Modularity is something that I have long had an interest in. For my collection, I have designed twenty modular components that can be reassembled to form over 200 variants. So, for example, if you didn't want sleeves, or if you wanted a hood, or to change the length of the jacket you can simply do it.

Ultimately, it's really about not dictating what people wear but rather giving them the freedom to decide how they wear their own jackets. A lot of the time, designers make things without thinking about who’s going to be wearing them, or how they are going to be worn, meaning that at some point, a few years later, those garments get thrown away. I didn't want that to happen.

Working with Ventile

I decided to craft my collection with Ventile as I was fascinated by the durability of the fabric. For me, it’s important that garments last as long as possible, making sure they not only feel timeless in design but also are timeless in construction – and that is Ventile! It lasts many incredible years and actually looks better the more it ages. So, it was the perfect alignment for me, a no-brainer.

From the beginning, I was conscious of the durability of the fabric because when a product doesn't stand the test of time it gets thrown away years later.

On the future

I would love to keep working with brands like Ventile that align 100% with what I do, meaning I don’t have to compromise on quality, durability, sustainability, or interactivity at any point.

I would also like to set up a store where consumers can come in and put together their own clothing – a builder-wear store to bring that kind of tactility back in some way.

Finlay Vincent Roberts has developed his collection with Ventile L19 ORG and Ventile Dry 130 ORG. You can learn more about ‘Jacket’ here: https://www.finlayvincent.com/