Alessio Berto: Patternmaking skills are making a comeback
From seeing local technical skills diminish as production moved overseas in the 1990s, Alessio says companies are now understanding their value and there is an acute need to pass these skills onto the younger generation before they are lost. An exciting collaboration that will come to fruition next year will show how patternmakers, young designers, students and artists can work together to produce a collection suitable for ‘climate change’.
How important is pattern making, and what do you wish people understood about it?Until the mid-1990s, for most companies, the process of design and creation was pure symbiosis between the designer and the patternmaker. It was a very important creative process where information and skills were shared.
Since then, many companies relocated and moved production to the other side of the world. Unfortunately, many skills were sacrificed, thinking they were no longer needed, thus creating a globalisation of fits as many garments were "bought" by the same suppliers. The dialogue had completely vanished, like the local garment makers. Tech Packs were sent instead of conversing with each other, there was no longer the sharing that was there before. A lot of prototypes had to be redone as the cost was so low that they preferred to redo indefinitely. It is a very complex story that should be explored.
Today, finally, many companies have realised that this system no longer works. The importance of the patternmaker is being rediscovered, and it is being acknowledged that they make a big difference. The garments must sell and to do this they must fit well, be well manufactured and made with quality materials. It's very simple. It is a question of costs and therefore of industrial choices.
What special skills do you need to be a successful patternmaker?
More than successful, a patternmaker must be competent. He needs a lot of humility, a lot of mental elasticity, to speak at least two languages and know how to deal with everyone, from designers to laundry technicians to manufacturers.
Each company has its own vision: the same jacket can be good for one customer and not good for another. Every day is like the first time, every season is like a new beginning, you should never take anything for granted.
Many companies have no designers in-house, especially small ones. They take photos online and send them via email. A good patternmaker must know how to interpret and ask the essential things from the brand, to reconstruct the dialogue I was talking about earlier.
You have worked with many big brands over the years. What are some of your fondest memories, or where have you felt you made a big difference?
As I said, until the 90s, maybe the early 2000s, the contact with designers was direct. I was lucky enough to work with all the designers I followed when I was a student and I found them to be humble and very competent people. I always learned something new from them and they have always posed themselves in a very polite manner. This is the greatest experience and the great memory that I carry inside of me, the difference was not me, but both, because it was a collaboration.
What are the biggest changes you have seen, maybe in terms of digitalisation etc, over the past few years?
The message that goes around is that everything must be digital but I have never agreed – and the lockdown proved it. Everyone thought they could choose fabrics on the screen or fit garments in 3D, but then they realised the most important part of this work must be done in person, speaking about and touching the materials by hand. There are too many factors that determine the success of a garment.
In terms of 3D, I see companies that have tried it have returned to prototyping by keeping 3D only on super tested and continuing garments or to place prints and small details or modifications. Let's say that technology is good if it helps those who use it, but making clothing is a physical and three-dimensional job in the real sense, it is subject to the characteristics of the fabrics, manufacturers’ “touch”, shrinkages and washes. This does not mean that technology is not good, but it should be used by people who know what they are doing, and not just to make shows on social networks.
CAD 2D is a good tool for pattern-design because it’s “only“ the transposition of the cardboard that is not subject to deformation, so if the pattern-designer knows how to work, he works well in 2D too. I started using CAD when I was 21 in 1991 and have never stopped. The world has changed, and many companies are trying to return to the previous way of working, as I said before.
Unfortunately, the biggest changes I have seen have been the loss of a generation of patternmakers, technicians and Italian expert garment makers, at least in northern Italy, as the mainstream companies produced abroad. There are no longer many trained technicians and a young garment maker is unwilling to work for a basic salary.
A junior patternmaker starts by working on existing patterns. This is not being a patternmaker but a CAD operator, that’s why young people must be trained properly. The future is to invest in human technical knowledge building. That's why I decided to focus on the younger generation and try to transfer all my operational knowledge.
How do you see this side of the industry evolving/changing in the future?
The future was yesterday, schools and companies must accelerate the training of young people. Unfortunately, today there are very few senior patternmakers who can train the juniors and this is a big problem. As I said before, the young generation must be trained and guided. Fortunately, some schools have understood the importance of technicality and practicality in this work and have started some good workshops, teaching about operational design and making.
You were involved in the IKSO awards and have run courses teaching young people about pattern making. What are the main things that you teach, and what are the opportunities for young people in this area?
The main things I teach are what I do every day: work effectively. Those who know me know that my motto is “action speak louder than words”
What I pass onto the youngsters is that the process of making a garment is to make a design, a pattern, cut it into fabric, sew it, sell it in shops and have it worn by people happy to have bought it. It is technical work and it has been the same since the year 1200 AD or earlier. You need to remove all the superfluous, focus on your work, simplify all the procedures and work on reliable patterns. Make one or, maximum, two prototypes, and of course have an open mind and a lot of competence.
Those who choose to be a patternmaker start a mission, not a job, and must be passionate, especially today.
What’s your idea of a dream collaboration?
My idea of a dream collaboration is the one I am carrying out in my next project, called INDIGO EDEN. I have involved more than 17 organisations, I have selected intelligent, indestructible materials, natural rubbers, vegetable plastics, natural pre and post-consumer padding. I am involving schools, professionals, companies, young creatives, photographers, graphic designers and music producers. The result will be seen in 2022. It will be a capsule of four outfits without gender, without race and without religion; interchangeable, indestructible and suitable for climate change. We will show excellence in materials, in manufacturing, in pattern design, in visual and sound arts. Let's say it is a very ambitious project.
What are you looking forward to in 2022?
I expect some peace in the land, some real rights and changes in fashion and for the environment and of course to present this collaboration so that all the important concepts can be understood. It represents the way to create a collection in the future, where we will be increasingly under scrutiny and we should be responsible for what we make. This is like my philosophy in life.
BIO
Alessio Berto began his career in 1987 and has worked with designers including Jean Paul Gaultier, Katharine Hamnett and Maison Chanel. He has worked on patterns for brands such as Boy London, Replay, Diesel Denim Gallery, DKNY Jeans, Sport Chanel and Jean Paul Gaultier Jeans; specialising in denim and other woven fabrics, sportswear and outerwear. In 2012, he founded The Tailor Pattern Support, and has worked with Italian design institutes such as IED Milan and Venice, NABA Milan and trade fair Premiere Vision. From 2017 to 2020 he collaborated with ISKO as tutor and judge for the I-SKOOL competition. Since 2018 he has been a close collaborator of Peppino Peppino Denim, taking care of all pattern-design and product development.
