Sustainability at Pitti: Myar

Sustainability at Pitti:
Myar

Editorial

Edition 100

15.07.2021

Myar Is At Your Service

Sustainability at Pitti is a series of interviews that celebrate fashion’s climate-conscious innovators. By providing a platform for the designers that put sustainability at the core of their brand, we hope to inspire and lead a wave of change within our industry, helping us all to push for a better future together.

For Myar founder Andrea Rosso, upcycling vintage army gear isn’t just an aesthetic, it’s a way of life. Or, as he puts it, it’s “a process of historical knowledge,” a way of honoring a garment’s past and reworking it for the present, giving each piece a new story and doing so in an environmentally responsible way.

"I love to get pulled in by vintage junk,” he says. “I always find something that attracts me and stays in my mind. All of these military garments have been worn by different lives, in different parts of the world, for different reasons.”

Rosso’s commitment to bringing used military garments back to life lies at the heart of the Myar brand — the name of the label itself is an anagram of the word “Army” and of his initials. Each collection he creates is divided into two parts: one is crafted from vintage garments (a combination of military uniforms and civilian pieces) and the other is made from scratch using only deadstock fabrics, from the results of overproduction and waste. These halves are brought together with a singular and environmentally astute point of view: use what we already have.

Can you tell us how your obsession with military uniforms started and how this informs your brand?

I’ve been obsessed with used/vintage clothing since I was in my teens (30 years ago!!). On Sundays, I visited many flea markets, buying used items of all kinds, but military garments always attracted me the most. I grew up in the ’90s with skaters and writers and we used to wear our cargo pants with pride. Military garments are durable, comfortable, have many disruptive patterns; they were part of the “X generation” style of dressing, so it was easy to implement this militaria ingredient in Myar.

Tell us about the collection you’re showing at Pitti this year. What’s the story behind it?

The story is that there is no story! For the first time, there is no seasonal theme or mood. [We are showing] various products; used military garments and deadstock fabrics that have [been customized using different methods, incorporating] innovative techniques like lasers, thermo-bonding, and natural dying. All of these customizations are part of a platform that we named “At Your Service,” where we put the clients in touch with our expertise of military garments; educating them on their “sartorial upcycled transformation” in order to make unique collections with a responsible approach.

Where do you go to source your vintage military gear? Do you have your favorite places?

Japan and the US are the best countries to scout in and there is a good culture of military collectors in England, but Italy has great resources. Before the pandemic, I used to go to a lot of military markets, Militaria in Milano for example, and buy a lot of products.

What do you look for when you’re sourcing? What does the “perfect piece” look like to you?

There are pieces that attract you; you feel you have to have them. The camouflage, the silhouette, the weight of the fabric, construction of the fabric, the colors, accessories, militaria insignia — these are all the elements that attract me the most. Having seen a lot of garments, I can now recognize the different tones of greens and select the most unique one.

The perfect piece doesn’t exist even though I wear my British desert camouflage shirt a lot!

Can you talk us through your upcycling process?

[With] used military garments the first thing is that you need to do is wash them! Then, after you try a piece on and you feel its contemporaneity, if its fit doesn’t [match] the idea you have in your head, you give it a new shape with a sartorial cut and sew approach.

There are a lot of innovative techniques that you can apply to garments today; I’m finding natural dyes and laser prints very interesting to apply. Every garment is unique, every garment has a past, by customizing it you just are giving it a present, a future use.

At the same time, we take deadstock fabrics and trims from different suppliers and create new silhouettes [while] respecting past military shapes and details. We don’t produce any raw materials, we source what already exists and this is the most creative part of the upcycling process.

What happens to the scrap materials you don’t use?

We keep scrap to reuse it. We love to use creativity in design [in order] to use as many of the scraps as we can. We are not accumulators but we don’t throw anything away — whatever we find, we produce. With our new platform AT YOUR SERVICE, the aim is to produce exactly what is requested, so that the leftovers will be less and less.

How do you pair your awareness about the fashion industry’s climate impact with designing and creating new products?

Starting from the angle that no raw materials are produced [for our products]. We upcycle existing, used products rather than ordering different fabrics and trims with their long processing of dying, weaving, knitting, washing, etc. and causing a tremendous effect on the environment. Since we started, we’ve aimed to be as precise as possible in [regards to] all production numbers.

How do you feel about the industry’s current sustainability efforts? What change do you hope to see?

There are a lot of improvements in technical innovations, social regulations, and consumer awareness. The consumer today is demanding a lot in [regards to a] brand’s sustainability efforts. For me, I think it is always a matter of education and knowledge. A country’s politics and regulations play a big role, so my hope is that we’ll see more and more ethical and environmental classes starting from kindergarten.