Brush Camo

One of the most exciting parts of the design process each season for me is the location specific camo patterns.  For AW20, I took leaves from Angeles National Forest and made our take on real-tree camo as well as something I called Forest Floor camo.  The show had images of this location we pulled the foliage from printed on large panels as backdrops for the models.

For the SS21 runway show, I wanted to play with a similar concept.  We found our location about 2 weeks before the show took place.  Photos below are taken along Piru Creek in Ventura, CA while we were picking the exact spot to host the show.  

While on site, I took about a bag's worth of random foliage I picked up throughout the day and brought it back to the studio.  The bundle was mostly made up of things like Saltgrass, Buckwheat, things that most don't consider "pretty."  Because these grow almost everywhere here in California, we overlook them.  The next step was to photograph arrangements of these pickings and turn it into a fabric for the season.  Mind you, we only had about 2 weeks until the show.  Ignore the shoe change in the photos... the waterproof shoes were for walking in the creek all day & I strayed a little far from the shallows.  Shoes held up great and were super waterproof (shoutout ACG) the socks however did not.

Once the photos were finished and edited, I turned it into a repeating print and switched out the background colour for a more wearable forest green.  The final result was printed on a nylon ripstop, mesh & leather.  We made purses & cardholders from the leather, hooded jackets & shorts from the nylon & a layered skirt using the nylon and the mesh.  Long story short... the camo patterns found in the collections are usually site specific to the shows.  Below you'll see some of the pieces this pattern was used for as well the runway shot where the camo is worn 50 yards from where the components of it were found.  

Side note for anyone who made it this far... same camo file is used for the Canyon Camo - Just silhouetted.
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