Greater Goods : Focus on
Can you please introduce yourself?
My name is Jaimus Tailor, I’m 23 years old and I’m born and raised in London UK. I would say I’m very much a city person that fantasises about the outdoors. I always struggle to introduce myself or explain what I do but everything seems to lean towards design and it’s safe to say my family don’t understand what I do.
Can you explain what your work is? When did you start doing this and why?
I work with old or damaged products and materials to create something new. I started off in woodwork, taking discarded building materials to make custom furniture pieces but shifted my focus to textiles in 2019 as part of new years resolution to learn how to sew. I wanted to learn how to sew purely out of interest; I’ve always been into fashion but never knew how to create garments or accessories myself, I was freelancing at a clothing store at the time and would always be interested in how the garments were made. I simply realigned my woodworking mindset to textiles, which resulted in my first upcycled tote bag made from a North Face jacket, since then I’ve worked on multiple collections and developed new products.
What did you do as studies?
I studied Graphic and media design but was constantly exploring different practices outside of graphics, the main one being woodwork and carpentry. I enjoyed graphic design but hated being behind a screen so I always favoured more tactical skills like woodwork and textiles.
What’s the piece that you are most proud of and why?
It would probably have to be my recent re-worked Futura Goretex poncho that I reconstructed into a utility vest and bag. A friend of mine gave me the poncho to cut up and I spent a while just thinking about what to create, I didn’t want to mess it up so it required a bit more thought compared to other projects and I only really had one shot.
Nowadays, with sustainability issues, I imagine that’s something that has inspired and motivated you. Can you tell us more about this?
I feel sustainability should be at the forefront of design; it should be one of the leading factors in the design process of any new product. I grew up ‘upcycling’ so using scraps or old material was the norm for me, only recently has it become a mainstream topic and I’m glad it has become strong talking point. To me it’s just a by-product of my process, by nature I’m not wasteful and using old materials just makes perfect sense.
What do you think this kind of activity will develop more and more?100%, a lot of brands have worked on sustainable projects this year, first one that comes to mind is the Nike Space Hippie. It’s very clear when brands genuinely care about the social and environmental impact of their business.
Can you talk a little bit about a future project that you are excited to do and what are you going to focus on next?
Currently working on the biggest project so far and I’ve partnered with an incredible company for it, safe to say I’m stressed but equally stoked about it all.
