Nina Ribena makes all-in-one playsuits
She has sold her unique wares to a variety of people – from bankers in search of fancy dress costumes to the electro band Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. We interviewed Nina and she showed us her creative process.
http://www.weareallinone.co.uk/
How would you describe what you make?
I make all-in-ones, jumpsuits, playsuits – whatever you want to call them. I only make them, nothing else. It’s my specialty.
Are these kind of like grown-up baby suits?
No, not at all, they are fashionable things you would want to wear. Not jokes or pyjamas or anything. They are very fashion-orientated. I make them for men and women both. I just think they are really fun, and different. I have always had a good time in a jumpsuit; I associate them with fun and comfort.
How did you get involved in making them?
Well, I never studied fashion, or did a degree in it; I just got into it by wearing all-in-ones at festivals, and messing around in them. When I came back to London after the festivals, there weren’t really any good all-in-ones to wear. They were all boring. So I started to make my own, then sold a few, and it sort of snowballed into a business. I didn’t have a job, and didn’t know what I wanted to do so I just did that for myself.
So you had to learn how to make them from scratch?
Yeah.
What is the process of making one of the suits then?
Well, I usually look at magazines, blogs, the internet or whatever, and pull images that I really like. Then I collect them all together and look through them and come up with ideas. Then I draw something down and get a pattern together and see if it works. Then put it into production, if it doesn’t work I chuck it in the bin.
How long does it usually take, from design to completion?
I think the longest part is pattern cutting and making, it can take forever to get it right. If it goes bang on right, it can take a day, if it doesn’t, it can take a week.
What are you working on at the moment?
Well I am starting to think about making leggings, cycle shorts, vests and so on. But I still want to focus on the all-in-ones as that is my speciality and what makes me different. I am collaborating at the moment with a guy called Himbad Indestructomator, he does a lot of printing or fabrics and so on, he makes crazy prints and I am going to make all-in-ones out of them, in terms of a shoe, by the end of the year I quite want to do something like and exhibition/fashion show sort of art thing, rather than a catwalk style fashion show. I am more interested in entertaining people than putting clothes on a model and shoving them out on a catwalk.
