When K-Swiss, the California-based footwear brand, approached Matthew Miller wanting to work on a collaboration, he had one condition: The resulting ready-to-wear had to be made using the technology he’d recently discovered that could turn garments destined for the landfill into new fabric.
“I discovered this (recycling) tech, but as a small designer, I wasn’t big enough to utilize it because it’s hydro-powered and we had to do a certain amount of (volume) to make it environmentally viable,” said Miller. Around the same time, he came upon a cache of about 10,000 band T-shirts that were destined for the landfill.
They were funneled into the K-Swiss collaboration, a streetwear collection of mostly tracksuits and Ts that appeared on the catwalk along with the designer’s signature line.
For the main collection, Miller mined his background as a frequent flier at some of Britain’s most renowned late-Nineties clubs. “I wanted it to feel like an underground movement, almost like what a club scene would have been like 20 years ago, where you get all these different characters. But they’re all into one thing — the music or the scene,” he said.
Those ideas translated into a confident collection that felt more upbeat than previous seasons, with pops of neon or sunflower yellow and silver foil which, though cracklingly bright, made for some fun ensembles. Miller’s penchant for military detail came through in backless bulletproof-like vests, and in the many pockets on the front of a gray sweatshirt.