The collaborative collection by Tserkovnij and m0d44 includes 11 clothing and accessory items featuring sashiko embroidery, patchwork techniques, and pieces made from car airbags. Embroidering the entire collection took several hundred hours and over 15,000 meters of heavy cotton thread. DTF Magazine takes a closer look at the items that blend m0d44’s workwear aesthetic with Tserkovnij’s upcycling vision
A brief look at the concept behind the collection
The collection includes three bucket hats, two variations of bags, two types of jackets and pants, along with a T-shirt and a hoodie. The central design element is sashiko — a Japanese ‘running stitch’ hand embroidery technique. It appears on the jackets and jeans, as well as the bucket hat, hoodie, and T-shirt.
‘The amount of embroidery we wanted to achieve for our collection was impossible to do by hand, — the collection’s press release states. — So we bought a Japanese machine that imitates sashiko. It’s an amazing tool — but not a magic wand. Even with it, quilting all the fabric for the collection took several hundred hours’.
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LABOR SASHIKO UPCYCLED JACKET and LABOR SASHIKO UPCYCLED PANTS
To create these two items, they first disassembled several dozens of used clothing pieces, cut them into rectangles, then chaotically reassembled them into large patchwork canvases, and then cut them into new pieces again, sewing on patches and decorating them with a zigzag stitch.
CHUNKS UPCYCLED BAG and CHUNKS UPCYCLED BUCKET HAT
The orange bag and bucket hat were made using patchwork techniques. The material for the orange versions came from vintage hiking backpacks made in 1991–1993 by the Kharkiv Leather and Sports Goods Factory. ‘Notably, we got absolutely deadstock items — new, unused, and carefully preserved for thirty years’.
‘The way they were made gives some insight into the material shortages of the early 1990s, — the brands explain. — The first thing you notice is that they were sewn with a mix of colorful thread and fishing line’.
‘But their fabric is a treasure — coarse woven cotton in a citrus color, with a water-repellent finish, — they add. — The fabric has characteristic fiber thickness variations, irregularities, and uneven weaving, typical of vintage fabrics and rare in new ones. Each backpack’s shade differs slightly, which resulted in a monochrome patchwork’.
RAGGED BUCKET HAT and RAGGED PANTS
The creation of the denim bucket hat is described as a ‘process of controlled destruction’. Instead of using a grinding machine — which proved ineffective during testing — the team chose to rhythmically slice the denim with a scalpel and wash it to fluff the fibers. A lining was then fused to the denim fabric, and the two layers were sewn together using a sashiko machine.
A similar method was used for the jeans with ripped halves, but in this case, the ‘upper blue warp thread of the fabric was jewelry-precisely cut out’. Then, along the scalpel-marked areas, cuts were made between the white lower fibers, and the excess lint was removed by hand. Finally, a patch was sewn underneath and deliberately visibly darned on a straight stitch machine.
PATCHES HOODIE and PATCHES T-SHIRT OVERSIZE
Their distinctive features include handwork with deliberately ragged cuts along the seams, as well as classic darning.
AIRBAGS UPCYCLED BAG and AIRBAGS UPCYCLED JACKET
The bag and jacket, featuring a front placket and patch pockets with magnetic closures, are made from car airbags.
You can buy the collection on the m0d44 website or on the -1 floor of TSUM.
During the Fall/Winter 2023 season, Tserkovnij released several one-of-a-kind jackets, each in a single size, moving away from the concept of traditionally mass-produced collections.
Кейс: замість колекцій український бренд Tserkovnij випускатиме по одній куртці в єдиному розмірі
In March 2024, m0d44 released a collaboration with the jewelry brand Broq. The m0d44 x Broq collection featured a silver pendant, bracelet, and ring. Through this collaboration, the brands aimed to combine design with the functional aspect of accessories. You can read more about it here.
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