Helsinki Fashion Week: KoH T creates natural gown dress made with Spinnova

KoH T, a designer in the Helsinki Fashion Week Designer Residency programme, has revealed a unique gown dress he designed with Spinnova, the sustainable Finnish fibre innovation.

As part of the digital Designer Residency of the Helsinki Fashion Week, Spinnova was a mentor for Japanese fashion designer label KoH T and designer Taisuke Kohji. Inspired by the human body, nature and the highly sustainable, natural Spinnova material, Taisuke used the Spinnova materials to create a gown dress that “feels like air”.

The multi-faced gown dress is well aligned with the Spinnova material that is 100% natural and made of wood without harmful chemicals. The design is both contemporary and nostalgic, resembling both Japanese and Nordic styles.

The dress is composed only of undyed fabric that is one of the first blends of Spinnova fibre with wool, and accessory ribbons that are a mixture of Spinnova and lyocell, also a wood-based fibre. Since the Spinnova fibre’s insulation capability is as good as wool’s, the dress is warm, yet breathable.

- The dress is about sustainability, style and high level of comfort. Instead of metal or plastic, only ribbons made of Spinnova are incorporated into the design. Hand made pleats add ventilation functionalilty, and all patterns and structures are designed to fit human movement, KoH T explains.

- KoH T’s idea of creating something very close to nature was a great fit with our sustainable innovation. We firmly believe that wearing natural materials that don’t burden the environment create emotional wellbeing, which is something we all need more of, says Helsinki Fashion Week mentor, Spinnova’s Application Manager Maree Hamilton.

- We were also thrilled to be part of digitalizing innovation and collaboration, as we all face the challenges of this new world. Working with KoH T was a real pleasure and we’re very proud of the outcome, Hamilton adds.

The Designer Residency reached over half a million views during its seven-day streaming sessions prior the 3D fashion week. The co-creation part and most importantly co-learning experiences of the interdiciplinary actors created impactful results, which the collaboration with Spinnova demonstrates well.

-We will not allow digital fashion to inherit the challenges of the IRL fashion industry, instead we will collaborate to improve the traditional fashion industry by using the digital tools and working with innovators creating sustainable materials, says Evelyn Mora, Founder of Helsinki Fashion Week.

Helsinki Fashion Week is an international medium for sustainable designers, brands and companies. It’s the first recognized fully sustainable fashion week in the world, and now also the first fashion week to fully 3D digitize all of its content from 3D digital assets to Residency livestreaming sessions.

Japanese Kohji Taisuke is an award-winning fashion designer, who founded the KoH T fashion brand and design studio in 2018.

KoH T