INTERVIEW & PHOTOGRAPHY David K Shields
Claire O’Connell bucks a few trends. In the fashion world it is hard to find someone so passionate about sustainability and – in an industry where youth is often seen as the holy grail – to be forging ahead with a new career and business so late in their career. We caught up with her in Wanaka hot on the heels of a successful auction for her new fashion initiative: Precious Collaborative.
Claire wears coat by Precious Collaborative: Prestige
I BELIEVE there’s a fundamental difference between ‘clothing’ and ‘fashion’. This has become more important to me as I’ve grown older and my awareness of environmental and social issues has increased. There are plenty of people out there who want to do better, not just for themselves but for the planet and for everyone else on it. I just had to come up with a plan which would help them do that! I thought that if I could sell one item for more than it cost to get it to market – with the idea attached to that one item, that you were helping other, less monied consumers afford a high quality garment. Then I could sell expensive, tailored, sustainable clothing to people who otherwise couldn’t afford them.
Claire wears coat by Precious Collaborative: Prestige
I grew up with sustainable clothing. When I was a child, a garment lasted until it literally fell apart. And they didn’t fall apart easily: they were well-made from beautiful, mostly natural fibres, lined and tailored, and they fitted you properly. Garments were treasured and cared for. They went with a variety of other items, so you could work a small wardrobe into something much bigger as you mixed and matched, both with your other wardrobe items or with a range of accessories. I know the value of sustainable clothing – not everyone these days is able to say that.
Claire wears coat by Precious Collaborative: Prestige
I was watching the fast fashion industry evolve and it was upsetting. You see, I firmly believe that there are plenty of people out there who want to do better, not just for themselves but for the planet and for everyone else on it. I just had to come up with a plan which would help them do that. Just telling these consumers to buy better wasn’t working, we needed to help them experience it and afford it. Making it more cheaply – part of the fast fashion problem – wasn’t an option for me, so I needed to find a way to subsidise the range of clothing I had designed.
MCLEAN & CO: We share a passion for the slow fashion revolution, focusing on sustainable supply chains, durability of product, and use of natural materials. We believe that one person or company can’t effect a sustainable change – it takes a united industry – just as it takes a community to raise a child, and to effect social change. We believe that collaboration between NZ designers, wool growers, manufacturers, creatives, weavers, and makers, is the way to change current fast fashion models into equitable eco-design and ethical business models.
I decided to ask famous New Zealand designers to create an item of clothing and to donate
the pattern to me, so that I could subsidise my every-day, sustainable Collection.
LIZ MITCHELL: The collaboration with Precious Collaborative gave us the opportunity to create luxury coats showcasing the beauty of NZ wool, woven in Oamaru by McLean and Co, on their foot pedalled looms. The Fashion Design Industry is overwhelmed by the fast fashion industry, cutting local manufacturing capacity. There is no transparency from these companies as to where the raw materials are produced, the impact on the environment, the people creating the fabrics, the garment makers, what conditions they are working in, what they are paid, and absolutely no end of lifecycle responsibility. The Luxury Coats are Hero garments to raise awareness that we can have a fashion industry within our own country, local manufacturing, employing people in New Zealand. These bespoke, luxury garments are sold to compensate Precious Collaborative’s affordable, sustainable clothes for every-day. I love Claire O’Connell’s vision for creating a slow fashion revolution.
Claire wears coat by Precious Collaborative: Prestige
So why “Precious’? I have a list, I’m pretty good at lists; Precious Culture; Precious Body; Precious Environment; Precious Materials; Precious Workforce; Precious Community; Precious Economy. That seemed to cover it… A ‘Collaborative’ is a group of groups – or people – from different spaces, working towards a common goal. What I’m trying to do with Precious is to help connect a whole pile of areas; growers, manufacturers and consumers, with the common goal of supplanting a measure of fast fashion items and raising awareness of the toxicity of that industry.
We have sold our first Coat and our first production run of the Everyday Collection garments will happen in late March 2025.
We need to raise the value placed on clothing as art – a form of self-expression. And allow us to enjoy it, not simply see our desire to clothe ourselves ‘fashionably’ as a waste. In regard to accessibility, people are not buying fast fashion because they want to or because they love it. They’re buying it because they don’t have a choice, or because they’re not fully aware of the environmental issues associated with it. I hope that by presenting Precious to the market place, we will help raise awareness of these issues. How great it would be if we could see the value in these types of actions – a form of gratitude – using our own good fortune to leverage for positive effect?!
Precious is about focusing the endgame of the project, away from which side of the economic divide you are on and squarely onto the desired outcome: effecting a reduction in the amount of fast fashion garments going into the market place.
Claire wears coat by Precious Collaborative: Prestige
Perhaps, in relation to defining this connection, Precious is bringing heightened awareness to the value of using our clothing – fashion – to express ourselves. And since we actually need to clothe ourselves, covering all the bases – art; fashion; utility – whilst doing so, it is actually a good idea! That would be an interesting conversation for some people I think…
Storytelling is a significant objective of art, therefore in order to transform a garment into an art piece, the story needs to be inherent.
Ultimately, at Precious Collaborative, we are working to make sustainable fashion accessible, with the support of people for whom choice is easy; people who are engaged and who want to contribute to the greater societal good.
For the entire interview with Claire to get a more thorough understanding of ALL that drives her in this most noble of ambitions, click on the link below – it’s a great read!
Featured in It’s Interval RESOLVE – view full story and more from this issue!