How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
Considering What Slow Fashion Means For A Brand’s Present and Future with Arianna Levesque of Triplicity
If you run a slow fashion brand, you’ve probably experienced this. You saw how wasteful the fashion industry can be and vowed to run your brand differently. You want to pursue quality over quantity, sustainable materials and practices, fair labor, and avoid over-production. But how does this slow fashion intent meet the reality of factory MOQs, wash tests, and production costs for a new brand? Plus, as the brand grows, is there a scale where a slow fashion brand is no longer slow fashion? These are all questions Arianna Levesque considers for her brand Triplicity. Arianna and her triplet sisters create versatile, chic pieces meant for a long-lasting capsule wardrobe. In episode 137, hear what slow fashion values Arianna prioritized as Triplicity started out, how she’s planning for the brand’s future growth, and how these goals impacted decisions for the Adelaide Adjustable Drawstring Pant. Triplicity was founded by Arianna Levesque, a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology. Arianna began her career designing for a fast fashion company and eventually realized she wanted to do things differently. She saw hundreds of styles produced each month in poor fabrics and likely unethical conditions, in trendy designs that would not carry over to the next year. It felt wasteful, and she wanted to offer styles that were higher quality, and could help people build a capsule wardrobe that they could wear for years to come, which would reduce waste, save people money in the long run, and make deciding what to wear easier. Inspired by growing up as an identical triplet and sharing clothes with her two sisters, Arianna developed a passion for designing basics with extra functional details that make her designs versatile, with flexible sizing on many of the styles. These features turn timeless basics into unique, adaptable pieces. What we learn about fit in this episode: Fitting the people How sharing clothes with her sisters growing up helps Arianna design capsule wardrobe pieces How Arianna incorporates adjustable features in each piece without cluttering the simplicity of the designs Fitting the performance The debate between natural and synthetic fibers and where Triplicity landed on their materials How the flexible designs are made for the lifestyle of the Triplicity customer Fitting the purpose How Triplicity follows a slow fashion approach Why sustainability probably isn’t the biggest selling point for your product Fitting the production Why Triplicity doesn’t follow a traditional fashion production calendar What Arianna envisions for Triplicity’s production model to scale the brand without giving up slow fashion values People and resources mentioned in this episode: Triplicity website Triplicity Instagram Triplicity TikTok Do you want daily advice and explorations on creating clothes that fit your customers and your business sent straight to your inbox? Sign up for the How Fitting newsletter to receive new podcast episodes and more.
