KIBO - DENIM MINOR
KINGS OF INDIGO (KOI)
Program description:
"The programme aims to frame your education in the context of "live" development of specialist skills and knowledge via team and individual working closely linked to expert external partners at points of delivery; it has various "live" and flexible elements that are subject to commercial parameters and input just as you have when working in the industry. This allows you to experience, understand, and implement the commercial disciplines required for success in the Denim World." - AMFI DENIM MINOR
What I liked so much about this minor is that you make a subbrand for an actual existing brand. The brand me and my team of 5 other student had to make a subbrand for is "Kings of Indigo (KOI)". In the end you have to present your subbrand to the motherbrand so you can have real life feedback of the real brand. To get there you also got to work with these big denim company's and people, which gives you already connections for your future life after AMFI. Company's such as: Candiani (who sponsored the fabrics and washed our samples), IMJIT35020 (who made two jeans samples) and The Pirates (who gave their feedback on a branding kind of view).
Concept:
We are KIBO.
1. Kibo: Japanese translation for scale. The scale is a part of the koi fish, as we are a part of Kings Of Indigo.
2. The pattern of this fish scale is imperfect; digital translation for imperfection is error. KIBO embraces this error, redefines what perfection is.
What’s up with this western ideology where we constantly have to chase for perfection? Now is the time for a new lifestyle that brings less pressure and more fun. The numbers of burnouts of Millennials are extreme. The digital revolution has been the most explosive ingredient to this problem. With an extreme fast information sharing it raised a FOMO (fear of missing out factor). We have simply forgotten about an offline world, a world without instant messaging where you can put your boss on hold. Excuse me! Let’s be honest, we still might share our Soy latte’s in our Instagram stories and create our perfect alter online.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Target Group:
INSIGHT:
Meet the contemporary activists. We girls are living in this digital revolution where a day offline is unthinkable. It’s our way of communicating, not an anti social network. Friends are just one click away. But let’s make it clear, we also see that social media is overloaded with fabricated alter ego’s. All those beautiful, athletic, healthy girls traveling to places which most of us cannot even afford, give us a constant feeling of underachievement. We can not longer stand this. We’re up to realness and want to show how cool and ok it is to be this way. We don’t mind under-chin or that pimple on our face. Imperfections make us unique.
THE MILLENNIAL:
The Millennial also called generation Y is born between 1980 and 2000. It’s the largest generation alive and consists out of 92 million people. We will focus on the young women aged 22 till 29. She has an higher education and studies at schools as Uva or HvA, either she is graduated, she works in a creative field. She has an income above the average
starters income.
1. Main Collection Explained:
The KIBO main collection is made out of defected fabrics. This means that the garments aren’t perfect, they contains little slubs or small weft breaks for example. But we feel like these details make each garment unique and this is what KIBO stands for, we embrace imperfections. Those imperfections are what perfection means to us.
Our main collection offers comfort which comes from our oversized fits and the materials we use. In todays fast paced world we all seek for some comfort.
2. Unique Upcycled Collection Explained:
See hippies cared about the planet they introduced the concept of Reduce, Reuse & Recycle and today this very concept is recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency. They were the first sub-culture to have an ecological fashion consciousness and made the recycling of vintage clothes as well as their upcycling
of old fabrics and curtains totally rad. Hippies knew that it is important to make things last and that’s why we dig this sub-culture.
For our unique collection we use post consumer waste, we collect old K.O.I and KIBO jeans. The designs are
one-of-a-kind. Every piece is gonna be unique and different based on the denim we get. This creates an emotional value to the customer, and adds a long-lasting statement piece to their closet.
Line-up:
KIBO’s designs offer both emotional and functional benefits.
EMOTIONAL:
By advocating the perfect imperfections, we advise our consumers to do so as well. Without changing their shopping habits but slowing down with all the judgment they might have towards clothes, or themselves, we believe we are creating a contemporary activist, person who does rebel against the overconsumption in fashion industry, when investing in our clothing.
PHYSICAL:
We believe that raw materials we are using are as strong and as durable as those graded 1st in quality control. Moreover our skilled sewers are treating these garments with respect and work around their imperfections to create functional comfortable clothes.
First samples (Italy Business trip)
Candiani not only sponsored the denim fabrics and gave us a tour in their factories but they also washed our (first) samples. While in Italy we saw our two jeans (koi505 & koi606) for the very first time.
This for me was a very important lesson for the future. You now got to work closely with professionals. We discussed at Candiani the laundry part. So that means in which way we wanted the jeans to be washed, or where to put little destroyments and in which way.
At Imjit we discussed the fit of the jeans, because we saw that after the jeans are made and then washed the fit may shrinked. Also we made comments how things where stitched wrong or may have been stitched in the wrong order, so that for the next sample everything will be fine.
KOI505
The KOI505 from left to right.
Left: Made in Italy by Imjit and washed by Candiani.
Middle: Made in Italy by Imjit (not washed).
Right: Made by ourselves at AMFI.
KOI505 made in Italy by Imjit and washed by Candiani.
KOI606
The KOI606 from left to right.
Left: Made in Italy by Imjit and unwashed.
Right: Made by ourselves at AMFI.
KOI606 made in Italy by Imjit, still unwashed.
Seeing the samples for the first time at Candiani and giving comments on them for the laundry part.
At Imjit, with from each brand one designer and one manager, to give comments on the fit of the samples.
