Attention Attire is a Dublin-based initiative that creates limited edition clothing and accessories from campsite camping equipment, materials and textiles, abandoned at Irish music festivals. Founded in 2017, the Attention Attire team consists of founder and director Megan and designer and maker, Debbs.
Inspiration
Megan, who is also CEO of Native Events, felt frustrated about the waste left behind at festivals and was searching for a more sustainable approach to help combat the mountains of abandoned tents and equipment but Attention Attire was founded because of a more sentimental reason.
“I had a tent that came with me to every festival I attended in my 20s and I was very attached to it. When it came to the end of it's usefulness, I couldn't bear to throw it away. I approached a friend of mine - Debbs - a talented clothing designer, to see if she could turn the tent into something new. The design for our first dress, The Anna, came to me in a dream. She was delighted by the project and Attention Attire was born.”, explains Megan.
Research & Overcoming Hurdles
With a changing world view of fast fashion and non-ethically made clothing, the duo believe that people caring more about where their clothing comes from and what effect it has on our planet has helped them overcome the initial hurdles they faced.
“We overcome hurdles on a daily basis! Originally, we were advised to market as a cool, urban clothing brand and not to lead with the 'upcycled waste' story as this might put people off.... however now we're constantly complimented on being a sustainable brand, and how forward-thinking that is. People are really starting to embrace the sustainable message, but at the start that was a struggle.”
Making the Decision to become Self Employed
“As two creatives, we've both been working freelance for years.”
(Megan and Debbs have both been working within creative fields for many years.) With Attention Attire, they already had the drive and knowledge of what it means to be self-employed so it made sense for them to collaborate on what has turned out to be a highly successful passion project.
Challenges & Opportunities
“The biggest challenge was convincing people around price-points. There's a perception around getting the source material for 'free' means the clothes should be cheap. In fact, the salvaging, deconstruction, cleaning and sorting, storage and reimagining things into something new is an expensive process! As is paying rent in Dublin.... so getting people to understand that was probably the biggest challenge, although there is definitely a feeling of people's perceptions around this is changing.”
Although Covid has created obstacles for Attention Attire due to festivals not being permitted under previous guidelines, the team have managed to turn this into a positive by networking and creating an awareness campaign through the Community Reuse Network. “Probably the biggest opportunity is being a member of the Community Reuse Network Ireland. As there were no festivals for us to source materials at over the past few years, we've been able to reach out to others in this network and widen what we do to tackle textile waste through our brand, which is at it's core an awareness campaign.”
LEO Supports
We were one of the first SMEs to take part in the MODOS Circular Economy training programme, which really opened our eyes. We thought we were circular already! So we learned loads more about design thinking and zero waste design from this course, as well as making some great and lasting connections.
Adapting to Covid-19
“As a result of COVID-19, we expanded our network and joined forces with Recreate - Ireland's centre for creative reuse - to come up with a zero waste design training programme for transition year students, which we're delivering at the moment.”
Winning the MODOS Award
With its MODOS Innovation Award project, Attention Attire will partner with social enterprise ReCreate to run a programme of hands-on circular economy training for transition year to make clothes they will actually wear, from materials that would have otherwise been seen as waste.
“We've also been lucky enough to win an innovation grant through MODOS, which we're putting to use to create a circular economy/ design thinking toolkit of our own, which we hope will help our brand and message have even greater reach and impact!”
2022 & Beyond
Creativity is bubbling for the dynamic duo and they are busy coming up with new ideas for projects and breaking into the education sphere. They are also working on providing opportunities to design students to gain experience with them in sustainable fashion.
“We're working on some new creations and designs for 2022 which we hope to launch as a special range of one-off pieces. We're also tying in with the National College of Art and Design, to facilitate one of their interns and to co-create fresh new ideas for sustainable fashion. In addition, we plan to develop the training and upskilling arm of our offerings so as to get more people - young and old - engaged in the potential and opportunity of the circular economy. Watch this space Dublin!”
Contact
Website:https://attentionattire.ie/
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/attentionattire/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/attention_attire
