Giles Deacon tells us how to keep our clothes looking new, even after washing

The future of fashion?

Giles Deacon

by Ruby Norris |
Published on

Here at heat a significantly large portion of our day is spent moaning about having literally NOTHING to wear.

The rest of the day is then mostly spent between trawling social media for the latest celeb Twitter feud (See: J.K. Rowling and Piers Morgan's EPIC showdown) and ranking a collection of our fave TV stars in some kind of totally, 100% objective definitive list (See: our definitive ranking of Skins generation one cast).

Anyway, while we're moaning about our lack of fabulous outfit choices, there's often a never-ending mountain of unwashed clothes waiting to be tackled at home. If we're honest though, we kinda get a bit freaked out by the whole washing thing.

What if we ruin our favourite dress in the machine? The colours will totally fade if we wash that top, wont' they? We'll just HAVE to buy a whole new, fresh outfit instead.

Fashion designer Giles Deacon has teamed with the guys and gals over at Ariel to work on the Ariel Redefine Clean campaign, challenging the meaning of clean and proving we can wash our clothes and still keep that 'just bought' look.

Giles Deacon
Ariel and Giles Deacon Eek! Collection

We caught up with him to discuss the Ariel Redefine Clean Eek! Collection and find out more about his partnership with Ariel - to conduct a social experiment to redefine the meaning of clean and prove that the Ariel 3 in 1 pods can clean like new

"We began looking at the relationship between fashion and design, and science and new technologies,” Giles told heatworld. “From a designer's perspective I thought it was really fascinating to hear what work they've been doing in terms of fabric technologies, so it was a great opportunity to get involved and see what I could design."

Giles Deacon
Ariel and Giles Deacon Eek! Collection

He continued: "You know we've all had that first wash problem, where you've bought something gorgeous and you're really looking forward to wearing it, you wear it once, you put it in the washing machine and it comes out and looks like something different all-together."

YUUUP.

"Ariel worked with great mills to create unique fabric that can look as good as it did when you first bought it, after multiple washes – your colours won't fade and your whites stay whiter."

Sounds pretty ideal, eh?

Giles also revealed that shoppers visiting the Ariel and Giles Deacon Eek! Collection pop-up shop were shocked to learn that the clothes were not new, but had been previously stained and washed with Ariel 3 in 1 PODS to become ‘clean like new.’

"We made a pop-up shop and put the intentionally stained pieces in there, that had been through the washing process, and the customers came in and were under the illusion that they were buying something new. Then when they got to the till they were being told these have actually been stained and washed. They were very surprised."

Giles Deacon
Ariel and Giles Deacon Eek! Collection

So, all this talk to creating that 'just like new' look seems like it's a step in the right direction for sustainability in fashion, right?

Giles explained: "So you're buying pieces that you know you're going to get a lot more wear out of – it doesn’t necessarily mean you're going to be buying less, but it just means you're going to get value for money as a consumer. Making a more considered choice, instead of buying something for a tenner and wearing it once."

Find out more about Ariel's Redefine Clean campaign here.

AND register your details below to be in with a chance of winning a Giles Deacon Eek! dress.

Giles Deacon and Ariel partnered to conduct a social experiment to redefine the meaning of clean

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