Exalting its ethos of purposeful creativity with heart, AZ Factory is collaborating with dressmaker Bas Timmer and his Sheltersuit Foundation, which provides people experiencing homelessness with gear to guard them from the weather.

Later this month, Net-a-porter will begin selling a variety of small bags and backpacks, each of which is able to finance a Shelterbag to be donated by local nongovernmental organizations to an individual in need.

Disclosing the project exclusively to WWD, Richemont executive Mauro Grimaldi suggested the vacation collaboration with the Dutch charity could grow to be a everlasting side project because the strategy at AZ Factory crystallizes.

“You purchase a gift for a friend, and also you offer something to someone you don’t know, who’s in need.…We love the thought,” Grimaldi said in an interview.

After realizing five “product stories” in 2022, all of which were collaborations, AZ Factory next 12 months will unveil a mixture of repeat collaborations, surprise guests for Paris Fashion Week shows and couture week, plus pre-collections by the in-house AZ Factory team, whose members were all handpicked by the late founder Alber Elbaz.

The affable designer, who gained international acclaim during a 14-year tenure at Lanvin, died of COVID-19 in April 2021, spawning a method of serial collaborations at the style start-up, a three way partnership with Compagnie Financière Richemont.

Since joining AZ Factory in January, Grimaldi, a strategic adviser to Philippe Fortunato, chief executive officer of Fashion & Accessories Maisons at Richemont, has met with about 60 design talents, evaluating proposals on the premise of business potential, complicity and alignment with the brand’s mission of “smart fashions that care.”

“We experimented rather a lot over the past 12 months, and we defined a little bit little bit of the tempo for 2023,” he said. “So step-by-step, we are going to construct a proposal that may grow to be a sort of base for our core offer.”

AZ Factory kicked off its “guest amigo” program in March with South African designer Thebe Magugu, then followed up with product “stories” by size-inclusive brand Ester Manas and Lutz Huelle, a fixture of Paris Fashion Week since 2000, and the primary seasoned talent to create a group “with” AZ Factory. (The brand prefers to say “with” moderately than “for” to connote its friendship-based approach.)

In July, it teased its approach to couture for Millennials and Gen Z by inviting recent fashion graduate Cyril Bourez to create 35 one-of-a-kind looks interpreting iconic and glam Elbaz designs via upcycled vintage Americana: Hawaiian shirts, sports jerseys and the like.

Citing a powerful response to the Bourez collection, which nearly sold out, Grimaldi said AZ Factory now offers a “made-to-order” service wherein a customer’s favorite garment will be zhushed up with the design flourishes for which Elbaz was known.

Grimaldi said he hopes to unveil its everlasting and guest collaborators at the highest of 2023, when one other “absolute beginner” shall be conscripted to create a project for January couture week relevant to recent generations.

He touted that each one of AZ Factory’s guest talents accrue vital insights into creating, merchandising and marketing a group, skills which can be essential to constructing a viable fashion business.

Richemont touts AZ Factory as a platform for independent creativity, and one that gives advantages analogous in some ways to fashion prizes, including financial support, but additionally access to a design studio, atelier, marketing muscle and communications channels.

“They arrive here with an idea, and so they encounter professionals which can be amongst a few of the most effective out there,” he enthused. “We teach them how one can turn an inspiration right into a business.”

After meeting with Timmer, the AZ Factory design team unearthed overstock leather and silk to create the utility bags, which is able to retail from about 180 euros for a mini zippered pouch, as much as about 650 euros for a backpack in a mixture of animal prints.

Produced from upcycled materials, a Sheltersuit is a water- and windproof jacket that may easily be transformed right into a sleeping bag. A Shelterbag is a conveyable, sheltered bed that rolls up right into a bag.

The nonprofit organization has already distributed greater than 20,000 products.

Grimaldi noted that AZ Factory can even make a donation to the Sheltersuit Foundation, which in 2021 did a collaboration with Richemont-owned Chloé.