Meet the designers – Named!

Hey there everyone! I hope you enjoyed following along with me as I sewed the Dakota dress by Named Clothing. I had a lot of fun making it! It was my first time making anything from Named (although I’ve been eyeing up their designs for some time, and I bought a copy of the Wenona shirt dress as soon as it came out) – I always have a lot of fun expoloring a new-to-me designer for the first time.

And now, we can get to know the two lovely ladies behind Named a bit better! I’d like to introduce you to Finnish sisters Saara and Laura Huhta….

Hi Saara and Laura! First up, tell us all a bit about your label. How did it all start?

The story of Named started a bit suddenly, actually. We were sitting on a bus travelling to our parents’ place (we are sisters), and got to talking about our future and what kind of a job we would love to do. We both are very passionate about sewing, and love to design and do crafts. It kind of runs in our family. So we started to discuss this passion for DIY, and as we talked more and more about it, it seemed obvious that we have to start a pattern line of our own. As soon as we got to our parents’ place, we started to write down our business idea, and that was it! Now Named is already 1 year old, and we coudn’t be happier working with something we love so much.

Yona wrap coat

How would you describe your style/aesthetic?

We would say that our style is trendy but timeless, classic with a twist, easy to wear and modify. Our collections (and our wardrobes) include garments of completely different styles from dressy to casual and from simple to extravagant. We think dressing is more than just following trends, it’s about expressing oneself and one’s personality – and making one’s own clothing is definitely the best way to do so!

Dakota shawl collar dress

We’d love to know the story behind your dress design. What inspired it?

The First Named collection was inspired by menswear and men’s formal attire. The Dakota dress was was inspired by a tuxedo – the shawl collar with deep V-neckline is borrowed straight from a classic tux jacket. The cuffed long sleeves and flapped front pockets were added to make this style more casual and comfortable, and also a perfect dress for fall and winter use.

Andy coat

How did your come up with the name for your dress design?

All the styles in the First Named collection have unisex names, because of the menswear theme – we usually always work this way, so that the names of the patterns follow the theme of each collection. Dakota is a beautiful name, and it sounded very suitable for the dress.

What’s your favourite part of your dress design?

We like everything about this dress! It’s a nice combination of casual and formal. It’s an easy-to-wear everyday dress, and one can’t have too many of those. And it’s nice to have dresses with pockets 🙂

Kielo wrap dress

Are there any fantastic versions or hacks of your dress that you’ve seen that you’d like to share?

We are sure that there are plenty of fantastic versions of this dress out there! We have seen some of them in blogs, and all of those we have seen are absolutely gorgeous! There’s no specific variation that comes to mind as ’the best’, but this pattern is extremely versatile, and could easily be turned into a sleeveless summer dress, vest, jacket, blouse… you name it!

Do you have any new patterns coming out soon? Any hints you can give us? (We’re so impatient, haha!)

We have released our new fall collection ’Ritual’ recently, and now we are in the middle of designing our summer collection that will be out some time in the beginning of 2015. We try to limit the size of the next collection to 10 patterns, but it’s going to be very hard! These limitations don’t usually work that well for us, as after designing the 10 patterns we agreed on, we tend to come up with 10 more must-dos!

Leotie midi dress

Saara and Laura, thank you so much for getting involved with Frocktober! It’s been great learning more about your label and your inspiration. 😀 (And after making up my first Named pattern, I’m now eyeing up several more – such interesting and unique designs, I love them!) Best of luck with the Spring/Summer ’15 collection!