Deep Dive
For Fabrizio Consoli, “Remade in Italy” is the new “Made in Italy.” Consoli’s denim brand Blue of a Kind combines Italy’s attention to craft and quality with circular design. The brand focuses on upcycling pre-existing denim garments and repurposing scrap fabrics into new elevated items like two-tone jeans and slouchy unisex fits. All production for the brand takes place within a 30-mile radius from its headquarters in Milan.
Consoli began Blue of a Kind in 2014 after having worked as a brand manager for Replay. Since then, Blue of a Kind has been a place where all Consoli’s professional experiences and skills converge, as well as his passions in life: from photography to storytelling, from creativity to love for nature. “Blue of a Kind [is a] dream come true and at the same time a challenge to the traditional apparel business model…It is not just what I do, it is doing what I love the way I love doing things. It has been and still is an incredible journey to give a deeper meaning to my work,” he said.
Consoli added another storytelling platform this year when he opened Blue of a Kind’s first brick-and-mortar store in Milan’s Porta Nuova shopping district. The 800-square-foot space, which previously housed a Christian Louboutin boutique, reflects the brand’s sustainable ethos by almost exclusively using existing elements, such as lighting, shelves, and mirrors, and adding some repurposed elements. The store, Consoli added, offers a way to “learn firsthand what people like, appreciate and expect from our brand.”
What denim buzzword do you think is overused? And what would you replace it with?
The word “sustainable” is clearly overused. However, rather than replacing it with a different word, I believe it should be replaced by a completely new and shared responsible approach to both production and consumption, so that sustainability could soon become a fundamental and granted ingredient of everything we do.
What do you wish more consumers knew about the jeans they buy?
It would be great if people would start questioning the origin of the things they buy, no matter what they buy: how and by whom have they been made and what is the real cost. Deep inside I am an optimistic person, therefore I trust that sooner or later
If you had one request for denim brands, what would that be?
Shall we team up to rework together your unsold stocks?
What can other apparel categories learn from the denim industry?
The tireless quest for less and less harmful processes. It is common knowledge that denim has one of the highest impacts on the environment in the fashion world. However, a great part of the denim industry is working nonstop to find new techniques and processes to reduce such impact. The achievements to date are truly incredible.
What was your most recent denim purchase?
I recently bought an amazing vintage Trucker jacket, which I will use as raw material to create an amazing, one-of-a-kind Blue of a Kind piece. If we are lucky, we will eventually include it in our upcoming upcycled collection. I will probably keep the prototype for myself: believe it or not, this would be the first time.
What is your first denim memory?
I remember as a child I was fascinated by cowboy movies. So, in my attempts to look like one of those heroes on the screen, I would fold my jeans almost up to my knee…Boy, how proud I was!