We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Heli Miikkulainen-Gilbert about their original and creative Convertible Coat design work. Heli Miikkulainen-Gilbert is an award-winning fashion designer, that makes our world a better place with their original convertible coat works.
Heli Miikkulainen-Gilbert ("HM") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Eco Furs Convertible Coat. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
HM : I wanted to create animal friendly furs i.e. faux furs that are also environment friendly. I also wanted to prove that intelligent i.e. functional and everyday wearable clothing can feel and look fabulous!
HM : To create garments for busy ladies, like myself, who travel lots especially with airlines and don't have any interest in paying high baggage fees or spending time for queuing at the airports. Also my pieces are to serve working mothers who don't have time and money to shop different coat for every hour of a cooler day. In addition to creating intelligent and ecological furs I wanted, by creating tufted garments, to add versatility to the use of a hundreds of years old crafts technique that still today is mainly used to create flat wall decors and floor rugs only.
HM : I'm working on finding a few suitable retailers for this coat and the whole collection, I am also looking to expand my clientele for bespoke pieces.
HM : I started creating the collection in autumn 2009 in Roundwood, Ireland and launched in full at the Showcase 2013 trade show in Dublin, Ireland in January 2013. It takes 6 full weeks to put together this particular coat, at my most efficient.
HM : I created my very first convertible tufted coat - different from this - for curated Elsku Helsinki Fashion Exhibition in Reykjavik, Iceland in spring 2000. It received warm feedback from the organizers, press and visitors and was invited to another Icelandic Fashion Exhibition called Ur og I, in Akureyri Art Museum in autumn 2001 of which organizers told it had again received lots of admiration among other things from the editor of British Dazed and Confused magazine. The coat came back to Finland from its almost 1-year-long Icelandic tour and I started wearing it myself, everywhere and daily, it became my favorite garment simply because it was so functional, comfortable, warm and simply different why it grabbed people’s positive attention everywhere I went in it. At the time I was working for someone else and had no time to do anything except test my creation. In autumn 2009, when I had lived in Ireland for a couple of years already and done loads of coat testing in both countries - and been happy for a while of how good the product is and how much it was liked everywhere it was seen I was encouraged to start developing a full collection of the Ecological Furs for women – who are like me i.e. who appreciate a super functional, good quality, minimal size and beautiful wardrobe and easy, money and time saving but fabulous traveling. This coat is my very last and the very best piece.
HM : At the moment I'm producing all orders myself, however I'm open to new business ventures.
HM : My love for traditional Scandinavian Rugs and creating something different for women in a need for functional clothing.
HM : I've always admired the work of Alexander McQueen and the other grand Couturists. My collection wasn't inspired by any particular design or designer though; it is more of their everything-is-possible attitude that inspired and encouraged me to create my pieces.
HM : Strong women, stylish working Moms.
HM : The every-day-wearability and its environment friendliness.
HM : I wanted it to be the most descriptive. It means that the production of my pieces does not harm animals - shearing the lambs, of which produce the wool is, actually prevents deceases in their skin, so it's necessary. Nor the disposal of the coat harms the environment like the disposal of the regular 100 percent synthetic faux furs do. The timeless design and carefully tested high quality materials ensure the pieces are lifetime companions.
HM : I sketch by hand and use old fashioned water color pencils for testing color combinations and shapes of the patterns. I also design as I go - I try the pattern by tufting it. If it doesn't look as I want, I pull the tuft out and re-do it as many times as needed for it to look the way I want.
HM : Its convertibility and the unique production technique.
HM : No, all is done by myself.
HM : The zips, fabrics, tuft yarns and the other trimmings I use in my work are factory made, the end result is purely hand crafted with those listed.
HM : Testing on humans only.
HM : To find a material combo that would make the garments last hard wear day after day - like the Vikings' tufted capes would have done at the time. After testing my very first coat for 5 winters in daily basis and deliberately putting the coat under lots of pressure, some wear-and-tear appeared in the original silk lining. I replaced it with synthetic lining which after 5 more winters still looks like new, like the tightly spun tuft and the dense jute canvas base cloth do, too.
HM : I got some very good feed back for my coat design from Irish Fashion Community at the Showcase 2013 trade show in Dublin where I launched my very first tufted fashion collection in January 2013. Also one piece of it, the Crowned Crane inspired 2 in 1 vest was selected among 23 projects in designboom's ITO JAKUCHU INSPIRED design competition and exhibited at Tokyo Designers Week 2012 in autumn 2012. These 2 events encouraged me to submit my piece.
HM : It certainly improved my patience and also encouraged me to be braver and nothing but 'myself' in my design work.
