#slubs

Yanfei x Hu Tao

Adeptus! Hu Tao AU, largely canon adjacent.

Ch 7/15

~2.5k

In all honesty, her report to Zhongli could have gone a bit better. Hu Tao had been jittery the entire exchange, and although she doesn’t claim to be someone prone to sitting still, the chunks she’d accidentally taken out of Zhongli’s desk with her bare hands simply from nervously scratching at the wood speak for a completely different level of nervous energy.

Zhongli, despite the incredibly concerning news, only sighs and nods when Hu Tao finally finishes up her report.

“It’s poor timing.” He says. “I’ll pass a message along to Ganyu, but as of right now, there’s nothing we as adepti can do. I'll need all the adepti on standby in the near future.

(sound on) [yes they were in tonics the whole time]

Indigo People AW17 - Pitti Uomo 91 Preview

Unlike what may be portrayed by the press coverage taking place at Pitti, part of the magic still happens inside the pavilions. Yes, there’s no denying that rendezvousing with long time friends at the Plaza and catching up over cigars is hard to beat, but when you’re faced with refreshing brands and unique designers, things tend to balance. Even though my time is scarcer from one edition to the next, namely due to streetstyle and meetings, I always leave at least a few hours to visit my favourite stands and discover new ones.

As you know, I tend to favor upcoming labels with strong vision and concepts and during recent editions, I have been pleasantly surprised. Besides Spingle Move and Haversack, I came across Indigo People: a beautifully put together brand concept with none other than superb results. As the name states, the brand revolves around the rawest nature of blue, the much coveted Indigo, but it goes way beyond that - it is actually one of the most interesting examples of sustainability and social responsibility I’ve seen in a fashion brand. 

Bounded by their love of Indigo, founders Kiat and Johan set out to discover its purest form and most ancient uses. They travelled to remote communities to find unique craftsmanship techniques, passed on through generations, and teamed up with the most authentic artisans. The result is an array of superb garments and accessories that embody true craftsmanship and the beauty of unevenness that comes from handmade, traditional methods. This approach not only allows them to support “dying” techniques and know-how, but actually give something back to those communities by sharing the revenue from sales. 

What’s a Slub, Anyway?

Perfection has never been cool. Classical sculpture used contrapposto poses to imply a casualness (a coolness?) that rigid symmetry cannot capture. In modern dress, some of us embrace imperfection with a little wear and tear--a frayed collar or cuff, some whiskers on our denim, some repair work. But a slubby fabric has its imperfection baked right in. 

Slubby fabric’s imperfection--it looks and feels uneven, with raised lumps or bumps on the surface--comes from faults in the thread used to weave the fabric. A perfectly smooth woven will have an even texture, whether the weave is textured or complex, like a royal oxford, so long as it’s made from technically near-perfect thread of even thickness. A thread in a slubby fabric, on the other hand, will vary in thickness along its length just enough so that when a loom slips it over and under the other threads in the fabric, it stands out a little bit. Woven fabrics have warp (vertical) and weft (horizontal) threads, and slubs can appear in either or both--a denim like the one shown above uses slubby thread for the warp but not the weft. Other fabrics will look less “striped” and more nubby.

Almost any woven fabric can be slubby, but the primary places you see it nowadays in clothing are in denim or in silk items, like ties. (There’s a lot in home textiles, like curtains or upholstery, for the same reasons--it adds a nice texture to otherwise somewhat plain, monochromatic fabrics. Also, linen traditionally has some slubbiness and is used in home applications a lot. Lastly, slubs can hide wear and tear.) That said, a good slub can add a nice textural dimension to heavier fabrics and even tailoring or outerwear.