Make It Here: Rafael Kouto

The DESIGNER

Rafael Kouto (1990) is a Swiss fashion designer based in Zurich. In 2014 he graduated with a BA at the Institute of Fashion Design Academy and Arts FHNW, Basel and in 2017 he graduated with a MA in Fashion Matters at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam.

In 2019 he took part in the prestigious ITS International Talents Support winning two prizes: the Diesel Award and the Lotto Sport Award. He also won the Swiss Design Award for two years in a row, in 2018 and 2019.

During his studies and professional experiences in prestigious fashion houses, Kouto developed a strong interest in environmental and sustainable production methodologies, focusing on open source innovative design, craftsmanship and high-quality materials.

In 2017 he founded the homonymous brand Rafael Kouto, characterized by a unique sustainable approach to fashion design and products, focused on the customisation and up-cycling of mass-produced discarded garments. Giving a new value to the discarded materials as the main resource, the brand creates high quality and unique items refined with traditional, artisanal couture techniques and crafts, exclusively remade in Switzerland by using local manufacturing.

The practice of up-cycling, which is very common in Africa, is representative of Kouto’s own cultural origins. This cultural background reflects a strong, distinctive and visionary aesthetic that merges the African and Western culture.

THE RESIDENCY

In 2019 Lottozero launched an open call for a creative residency in the textile district of Prato to independent designers/brands working within sustainable fashion.

The project was organised within the Fashion Revolution initiative and offered the winning designer the chance to discover the textile district and go deep into the production cycle, getting to know its processes, materials and professionals.

The aim of the residency was to facilitate the designer to access and acquire knowledge about the production processes, that are often ignored and rarely considered in the design development, in order to elaborate innovative design solutions and high quality, sustainable products.

Together with textile company Beste, the technical partner of the project, Lottozero selected swiss designer Rafael Kouto, among around 30 applicants. In October 2019, Kouto spent 2 weeks at Lottozero, working on a new project on textile and fashion waste, in close collaboration with our expert team and Beste.

DISCOVERING PRATO TEXTILE DISTRICT

The first part of the residency was focused on the discovery of Prato textile district and some of its most representative companies and processes.

In this phase the designer collected information about the production chain, going deep into all the different steps that characterize it, with a special focus on regeneration of the fibers, obtained from the recycling of used clothing and the scraps from production, the so-called "rags".

Kouto visited several local companies dedicated to supplying rags, sorted by color and weight, cleaning, raveling, spinning, weaving. This recycling process, which reuses textile waste and old clothing destined to become waste, has been active in Prato for decades, a true example of ante litteram circular economy, which denotes a culture of attention and sensitivity to the environment.

In addition, Kouto did an immersive tour of Beste and its entire production chain from the raw material to the finished garment. Going through the different departments and machinery, he learnt about textile preparation and cleaning, dying, a variety of different finishing processes, quality control, product analysis and innovative sewing techniques, ending with the consultation of the TESSUTEKA, the archive that collects over 25 years of textiles of the company.

worKING WITH LEFTOVERS FROM THE INDUSTRY

During the visit at Beste’s production site, the designer realized how much waste is produced in the fashion and textile industry. Kouto saw the creative potential of this material and decided to work with it to create a capsule collection of garments.

The designer collected a variety of waste materials from different steps of production: finishing errors, scraps, dying trials, defective garments etc. Errors and waste became design resources and the found object a stimulus for the design process: the casuality and the restrictions imposed by them gave new creative value to the project and fundamentally contributed to the final result, both visually and structurally.

Around his discoveries, Kouto created an imaginative scenario mixing these found materials with other suggestions and references coming from the haute couture world, building a brand new narrative that tells the process behind it with visible traces of it.

Working in the Lottozero textile laboratory, Kouto experimented with different techniques, disassembling the found garments, inventing a range of original “motifs” through the patchwork of textile scraps and innovative stitches, shaping three completely new and unique looks.

In collaboration with