The unmaking of
Kowtow
Category: Fashion / Brand Publication
Publisher: Kowtow
Designer: Sophie Wells
Size: 240 × 170 mm
Extent: 120 pages + 8-page printed endpapers
Paper: 135gsm Eco 100 Natural White, 100% recycled
Printing: Hi-res inkjet printed in full colour, double-sided. Endpapers offset printed in full colour, one side. Covers screen printed in two colours.
Binding: Section sewn, lay-flat binding with exposed sewn spine
Cover: 3mm Eska board with front cover debossing
Environmental: FSC certified, 100% recycled materials, Toitū carbonzero certified production
Kowtow is on a mission to unmake. Not just its own garments, but the fashion industry at large.
For twenty years, Kowtow has been reworking, redesigning and reconstructing, unpicking the status quo stitch by stitch and rethreading the story of what we wear.
Through choices that transcend trends, decisions not dictated by seasons, and life cycles that are truly cyclical, Kowtow aims to prove that garments that are good for the planet are not just possible, but tangible, sensible and crucial.
Twenty years on, Kowtow looks into a workroom full of wonderings, hypotheses, experiments, disasters, discoveries and successes. Like any workroom, it is packed with projects from the past, glimpses at the now and a mood of what’s to come. And like all places of invention, there is plenty still unfinished.
The Unmaking of Kowtow was produced as a considered, tactile publication reflecting Kowtow’s approach to materials and sustainability. The 120-page book was printed in full colour on 100% recycled Eco 100 stock, with printed endpapers and a lay-flat section-sewn binding. The 3mm Eska board covers were screen printed in two colours and finished with a deep front-cover deboss.
The book was supplied in kraft twist mailers for distribution, with production managed across printing, pre-press, binding and finishing in Aotearoa New Zealand. The project also incorporated FSC and Toitū carbonzero credentials, carrying its environmental considerations through the production process as well as the finished publication.