Designed for life with Miele: Layplan co-founder Lavinia Ilolahia on slow design

28 November 2022
By Fashion Quarterly

Fashion Quarterly has teamed up with Miele and our favourite home-grown designers to discover how to curate a sustainably minded wardrobe and care for it in the comfort of your own home. Here, we talk to Lavinia Ilolahia, co-founder of Layplan.

Tia wears Layplan.

Slow design has always been at the heart of everything that Layplan does. Friends Lavinia Ilolahia and Talia Betham founded the fashion label while at university as a way to document garments they had made themselves. Soon, they discovered that people were keen to purchase their one-off pieces.

“Fast forward a few years and we still make and design things for ourselves and people are still interested in purchasing. We feel really lucky,” says Ilolahia.

To ensure the garments Layplan creates last a lifetime, Ilolahia and Betham eschew trend-driven designs, and embrace timeless silhouettes. “The way Layplan supports sustainability is through longevity, through design and good-quality fabric. We offer styles that are classic and will outlive trends. We believe if something is made well from fabrics that feel nice on the skin, people will reach for it more often and feel the need to care for it.”

The designers are conscious that not everyone has access to sustainable garments, but Ilohlahia believes we can have a notable impact on the planet with the way we care for our clothes. Extending the life of your garments at home doesn’t have to be hard. “I believe the best approach to being sustainable is being responsible for the garments you own; make your garments last longer, learn to mend your clothes, purchase towards cost per wear if it’s within your means.”

With Miele, choosing a delicate cycle that cares for Layplan’s rich colour palette and natural fibres has never been easier. Garments can now be laundered on dedicated cycles for wool, silk, shirts, and the innovative TwinDos detergent system automatically doses for the selected load. Customising your wash cycle for an endless array of fabrics is as simple as the push of a button. Choose between a wash tailored for colours or whites and select either low, medium or high level of soiling and before you know it, Miele will have created a wash cycle that caters to your precise needs.

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