There’s no doubt sustainability is at front of mind for any designer worth their weight. So it only makes sense that having an ethical and environmental mindset is paying off. For Nicole and Michael Colovos, the husband and wife duo behind their namesake label Colovos, the reward appeared in the form of winning the 2019 Woolmark Prize, the prestigious fashion award which aims to get designers thinking about the sustainable material of, well, wool.
Taking out the award during London fashion week in February, the duo were lauded — by judges including Tim Blanks, Laura Brown and Gwendoline Christie, nonetheless — for their clever work with wool, dyes and texture, all thanks to some smart engineering which saw the designers make denim-inspired pieces from wool instead of cotton.
“We had been developing the idea of our final collection for the many months, we really focused on the sustainability side of the materials we chose and to recognised in this way we hope will create more awareness around our brand and that message,” the New York City based designers told marie claire just following their win.
“We have three children and it was important to us to do something that started to make a difference,” the pair continue. “We wanted to make an ethically sourced collection with a modern sophisticated point of view and smaller collections that are crafted to last and we wanted to look at our environmental impact.”
For the design duo, having big names wear their pieces is exciting, but it’s the everyday woman wearing one of their items that really gets them going. “We believe that all like-minded women who wear our clothes are cool — we’ve had amazing celebrities like Gigi Hadid wear our clothes but I love walking on the street and seeing people in our clothes,” they say.
As for what’s next for the designers, the Colovos are taking cues from their recent Woolmark Prize win when looking to their future collections.
“We are going straight into our next season and already discussing expanding our collections to include more fabric offerings including adding more wool. We are also planning to expand our e-commerce platform and Michael would love to add menswear in the near future.
Until then, we’ll be stocking up on Colovos-approved separates, pretty printed dresses and perfect denims — just in time for winter.
