Liam Patterns Are Hot Off The Press, Literally

Local fashion brand Liam’s popular line of paper patterns offers people the opportunity to re-create its designs at home, to keep and pass on.

To help usher in its new collection, available from today, Liam has taken its commitment to slow and sustainable fashion to a new level with its aptly named "operation haute off the press", sourcing waste paper from NZME newspaper reel ends to print its patterns.

These end-of-reels are part of the printing production process and often have unusable paper offcut lengths, with the brand now using 50-60 metres from each reel end roll of newsprint.

Sourced from the same printers that print Viva, it's a full-circle solution that Liam general manager Emily Miller-Sharma has been working on for several months, working closely with the Viva team and NZME to help facilitate this exciting new take on circularity, providing the perfect opportunity to give wastepaper another life.

In a message to her community, Emily says the journey has been one based on genuine curiosity and a chain of events.

"I got in touch with Viva creative director Dan Ahwa at NZME with an email: "A bit of a rando question…Do you know who would be a good person to be in touch with from your side about what you guys are doing for newsprint? I really, really, really want to keep using paper that is New Zealand-made, and I'm not ready to give up the dream! Any insights or connections very much appreciated. Dan put me in touch with Matt Wilson, the COO at NZME who was incredibly generous in inviting my LP wingman Briar to visit the NZME printing facility."

“This partnership shows how if we collaborate across industries we can keep raw materials at the highest possible value for longer," she explains. "We are utilising NZME’s leftover paper, reducing waste and raw material production."

“The potential of this collaboration is huge. Most of the clothing industry that makes things in New Zealand (whether it is samples or bulk production) uses newsprint. For example, at Ruby, we use it when cutting samples, to print markers that our cutters lay on top of layers of fabric to cut bulk production. How much more waste can we divert? And what could be the overall drop in demand for new production?"

It's a circular moment in many shapes, as Emily explains on today's Viva Talks podcast how as a teenager she used to cut patterns from old newspapers to create her own clothes.

By helping reduce this waste, both NZME and Liam's partnership places locally sourced and made product opportunities at the forefront of our local fashion offering.

Allocated numbers of reel ends are set aside for Liam Patterns' printing facility at Ellar Graphics for production. The new Liam Patterns collection is $35-$60, with downloadable PDF patterns $20.

As seen in today's weekly issue, you can also download the Liam Patterns bucket hat here. Styles range from sizes 4-28. Available from today in all Ruby stores and online at Liampatterns.com and Rubynz.com.

Tune in to our podcast Viva Talks for this week’s episode featuring special guest Emily Miller-Sharma of Liam to talk about this exciting new recycling development for the brand.