Fruit Salad officially launched in January this year.
This independent Bristol based streetwear brand oozes cuteness and street style vibes with an aim to support slow fashion.
It's super close to No Debutante's heart and it would be, as it's my fashion brand and I'm super proud of it!
The seeds for the now ripe and blooming Fruit Salad were first sown back in 2017, after I had spent a year as a fashion journalist.
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| Pastel Perfection with Fruit Salad photography(and main image)by Jolanta Valeniece |
Meeting so many inspiring independent designers from Bristol and beyond, I really wanted to get back to my designer roots (I had previously worked as a designer for high street brands - I know the irony - and for my own fashion label) and I got the bug to start creating again!
The back story is a whole different blog post but I would like to say, the pressure to keep my new fashion baby as sustainable as possible has nearly broken me on several occasions, battling creativity over sustainability has been hard but I like a challenge!
After attending The Festival of Female Entrepreneurs event here in Bristol last autumn I was encouraged to continue on with my creative business idea, whilst holding myself accountable by being as transparent as possible on my fashion journey.
I felt released and inspired to launch my business and four months later I launched the Fruit Salad website on Big Cartel (who, I can honestly say, are the most helpful online platform that I have ever worked with) which is now linked to an Instagram shop (not quite so helpful on the admin front) and have a capsule fashion range of T-shirts, fleeces and beanies, all produced on very small runs.
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| Super fresh in Fruit Salad pink beanie and t-shirt |
What's in a name?
Fruit Salad is fun, colourful, sassy and super cute. The name came from my husband Phil who said my hair looked like Fruit Salad sweets when the pink colour was washing out of my bleached blonde crop, the name stuck and it's super sweet and playful too!
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| Candy coloured cuteness at Fruit Salad photography by Jolanta Valeniece |
The Graphics
The graphics came from pavement chalk drawings I had created with my daughter, I was looking for print ideas and these weird, sea creatures I had randomly drawn caught my imagination.
The Fruit Salad logo came from a hand drawn idea of how I wanted the Fruit Salad logo to look, with the intention to recreate it digitally using an existing font, instead, I kept things DIY and went with the quick sketch. I really like hand drawn graphic art and fanzines and it fitted with the playful Fruit Salad style that was slowly developing.
The prints were all initially created using stencil printing techniques at home and then neatened up for print production.
Time, as you probably know, is not on my side and since I have met so many independent designers who have help manufacturing their brands AND lucky for me, there are some amazing local tailors, makers and independent printers here in Bristol.
With this in mind, I decided I would be beneficial to get some help to put my ideas into production. I had always felt this was a bit of a cop out, probably comparing myself to others rather than just getting on with it BUT I got over myself and got in touch with some Bristol based indies.
Keeping things as local as possible is a first priority to me.
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| The last day of summer Fruit Salad photo shoot by Jolanta Valeniece |
The T-shirts
First stop was Hidden Temple, a local screen printers who I had originally met at The Fashion Front fashion shows here in Bristol. As well as being super friendly and helpful they also take small print orders. This was a must for me as I only wanted to print up an initial small run of t-shirts to reduce possible waste from over-producing.
The Fruit Salad t-shirts are currently made from super soft organic cottons. Always striving to become more sustainable, we are researching possibilities of using recycled fabrics (ideally produced locally) and alternative sustainable ideas for future runs, which is very exciting!
Another priority for the Fruit Salad prints was to use water based inks (not plastic based) on our t-shirts. Using the water based inks we were able to create a light effect in the graphics (that was true to my original samples), which Hidden Temple screen print individually by hand and it's much better for the environment too!
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| Super cute and cuddly limited edition Fruit Salad fleeces are now available at our online shop |
The Fleeces
The fleeces took a year to launch from initial fashion illustration to final product - now that's slow fashion!
As with my prints, I design my own garms and make my patterns and samples. I collaborated with the super talented team from Jokoto Tailoring to adapt my samples; with their amazing ideas and super sewing skills Jokoto helped create my vision. Working with local businesses has been so rewarding and kinda convenient, as they are just up the road!
The sad thing about the super sweet fleeces is that we didn't get to capture them on our amazing models before the lockdown. It's certainly on the to do list when we are all let out to play again!
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| Matching my collection in pastel pinks |
Reducing waste
As well as working on very small runs, I also use up as much of the fabric scraps leftover from the larger cut pattern pieces to use on the fleeces cuffs, neck and waistbands.
Using this technique has resulted in there being no more than two fleeces the same, I love to experiment and mixing up different colourways using just one pattern, it's a way to create new style variations without using extra fabric.
Going forward, I hope to use as many upcycled fabrics and/or panels as possible in the next collection and look into incorporating this idea into the beanies design too.
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| Fresh embroideries by The Live Ink Co - right photo courtesy of The Live Ink Co. |
The beanies and embroideries
The final part of production for the fleeces was to add the Fruit Salad logo embroidery.
The Live Ink Co were recommended to me by Sam Witts from Hidden Temple and are also based in Bristol!
I really wanted to add a beanie to the collection that fitted in with the current Fruit Salad colours of pastel pink & lilacs, purple and sapphire blue. Live Ink Co kitted us out and the amazing embroideries, of both the logo on the fleeces and the Octo graphic on the beanies were so slick.
All of these independent businesses run from small shop outlets in Bristol, its impressive what and who you can find to help just on your doorstep! Support independent, support local!
I am so excited to share my lil' slow fashion baby with you but realise I have along way to go to become more sustainable. The fun will be figuring out how I can do this and learning more from the following sustainable & ethical fashion activists.
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| The lovely Eloise and Hannah from Jokoto Tailoring with the fleeces they made for Fruit Salad clothing They made your clothes! |
Fashion Revolution
In the light of Fashion Revolution Week (20-26 April), I am sharing #whomademyclothes
in remembrance of the shocking Rana Plaza disaster that killed 1134 fashion workers in Bangladesh in 2013.
Fashion Revolution Week encourages the fashion industry no matter how big or small the business to show transparency in their supply chain with their #whomademyclothes campaign. Read this digital activism guide to find out how you too can get involved in Fashion Rev week and beyond.
Labour Behind the label
Founders of the #sixitemschallenge Label Behind the label have launched a new campaign this week encouraging all brands to be responsible for every single person from their supply chain, not just their direct employees, focusing on those who are shockingly still working, often in terrible conditions, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Labour Behind the Label need your help to make this change. Please sign their petition and join them in supporting garment workers. The big brands must put their workers before their profits!
Sustainable Fashion week
I have to mention this inspiring event that was supposed to be taking place right now in Bristol before covid-19 put a stop to everything. I was looking forward to attending and speaking at the very first event which will now take place in Bristol this Autumn. Find out more in my Bristol24/7 article Sustainable fashion week slows down fast fashion
Covid-19 may have put a stop to many things but it cannot put a stop to all of us supporting sustainable and slow fashion ethics.
Support independent, support local, support slow fashion, support garment workers. Stay safe and stay sustainable!
Super fresh Fruit Salad threads now available on the Fruit Salad online shop
