AWAYTOMARS is a co-creative fashion brand with a primary focus on fresh ideas and inspiration. As a crowdsourcing initiative, AWAYTOMARS is fully open to collaboration with creative people regardless of their age, race, gender or nationality.
AWAYTOMARS’ eclectic SS18 collection, presented at Lisbon Fashion Week in October 2017, is the result of an impressive collaboration with 718 designers from 85 different countries. In a democratic move, the collection was showcased not on the catwalk, but on the grounds of the Lisbon Fashion Week venue. We talked to Alfredo Orobio about his work creative process at AWAYTOMARS.
Why did you choose creative collaboration?
I think I was addressing a necessity. AWAYTOMARS was born from the research I was doing while studying for my MA degree here, in Portugal. I was interested in mapping the way people shared creative information online and analyzed the potential behind Facebook groups and Instagram hashtags. Then I thought to myself: what if there was an online fashion platform that would enable people to create and collaborate together? And that’s how our community started shaping up: from only 60 people in the beginning to over 10K creatives submitting their ideas today. With the way things are changing around the world, the fashion industry clearly needs a fresh approach that isn’t so bound by rules and limitations. So, in a way, AWAYTOMARS addresses such necessity. That’s also part of the reason why we decided to avoid getting on the catwalk and showcased our pieces in an unconventional way.
If two brains are better than one, then what 10K brains can come up with must be simply incredible. How do you manage to avoid creative tension or conflict?
We welcome creative chaos. The core idea behind AWAYTOMARS is unbiased technology serving limitless creativity. Of course, there are basic platform rules and limitations, but we are trying to keep things as open and transparent as possible. Tensions and personality clashes are inevitable when you get 10K creative people working on something together. That’s why our system is designed to handle it as a collective process rather than copyrighted individual input.
How collaborative do you think fashion can or should be?
Fashion IS collaborative, we are just not given the full picture. When we see, say, Karl Lagerfeld’s collections on the catwalk, they never mention that there were over 60K people involved in the process of making it happen. That’s collaboration and co-creation serving one name and putting one person in the limelight. AWAYTOMARS’ idea is to do exactly the opposite: we are giving credits to everyone involved and everyone who deserves them. It’s still fashion, still the same co-operative process, but with a fairer and more open credit system.
What is your next collection going to be like?
It’s going to be mixed. AWAYTOMARS has teamed up with Gleeson to produce photographic inspiration for the upcoming collectively created pieces. The photos have been uploaded to the system and the collaborators used them as their guidance. Gleeson is nomadic by spirit, he frequently travels, which is reflected in his photography. It can be anything: from capturing everyday reality to documenting the most unusual and eccentric things.
How much influence do your Brazilian roots have on your creative work in Portugal?
AWAYTOMARS is a Portuguese company with an office in London. Half of our team is English and the other half is Brazilian. Of course, we end up bringing some Brazilian chaos to the catwalk, but we don’t have to try very hard – it’s already pretty ungoverned. Easy and open to everyone, like a Rio beach. Just the way the fashion industry should be.
Text: Gustavo Rocco
Interview: Gustavo Rocco & Allan Gregorio
Photography: Allan Gregorio
