Circular urban production

Parthenis reworked by Soffa: Luxury with a second life

Historic Athens brand Parthenis collaborated with SOFFA, a social enterprise, to create one of a kind, luxury upcycled garments from their unsold stock.

The companies involved

Parthenis is a historic, family-run brand in Athens, founded in the late 60s and active under this name from the 70s. They focus on natural fabrics and clean lines, and have some products that have been in production for decades. They have always stood by urban manufacturing and, when entering the FABRIX project, expressed a desire to assist less established urban designers and producers with the challenges they may face.

SOFFA is a social fashion factory and partner of the FABRIX project; in this context they act as a microfactory available to collaborate with the SMEs chosen through the open call. Circular since its inception, the on-demand tailoring studio has a strong social element of inclusion and empowerment, assisting women survivor victims of human trafficking and refugees through vocational training.

The problem addressed

Although Parthenis works hard to reduce overproduction, the brand does occasionally end up with unsold stock. Their approach until now has been to sell it at a reduced price. This devalues the brand.

The FABRIX solution

When Parthenis chose to work with SOFFA to find a solution to dead stock, SOFFA’s tailors executed a luxury upcycling: one-of-a-kind, very high end pieces made from the already high quality cotton garments provided by the historic Greek brand. It took four tailors months to develop the unique shapes of the reworked garments on the mannequins using techniques such as moulage. 

The garments are based on a concept of “Blooming” - like flowers that bloom with maturity, like being “late bloomers”, or in reference to the ruched undergarments that were some of the first trousers women could wear. The result is very interesting, but once the team calculated the hourly cost, they realised that the price would be too high to make this a business solution.

Orsalia Parthenis agrees that it’s a good idea to upcycle dead stock, and says that if they were to do this again there are actions to certainly take to make the process smoother. Most of all, in this first collaboration the brand didn’t provide its patterns to the tailors; to make this commercially viable, a brand needs to start from the original, preferably digital patterns, so that upcycling solutions can begin on the drafting table (or 3D modeling program) before any cutting takes place.

Another change she’d make is to approach a project like this with greater enthusiasm and trust. She’s pleased with the result, as she never thought that something like this could elevate the value of her unsold products. As such, she’s discovered an alternative to markdowns.

Contributed by Cedecs-TCBL.