Watch adidas Originals’ ‘MakerLab’ hit fashion week with three designers

Earlier this month, exciting young designers Paolina Russo, Nicholas Daley and Priya Ahluwalia linked up with experienced couturiers and adidas Originals’ creative team to reimagine the SC Premiere – a classic adidas style – to create unique new shoes. The results were then debuted at the first ever MakerLab: Here To Create runway presentation, which landed at a show during Paris Men’s Fashion Week.

In the crowd sat fashion heavyweights including Karlie Kloss, Jonah Hill (featured on our ‘most stylish of 2018’ list) and British Fashion Council Ambassadorial President David Beckham, who teamed up with adidas to select and then mentor the young designers – each of whom were chosen thanks to their positions as young designers bursting with potential.

Our mini-doc gives an exclusive behind the scenes look at the design journey from start to finish – from the introductory meetings to the days spent working with prestigious ateliers, learning from masters of their craft. Every step of the collaborative process is detailed, giving in-depth insight into how everyone approached the project, and how they worked in different ways. As the name suggests, MakerLab is also about teaching designers to work by hand with difficult fabrics, while placing emphasis on the importance of sustainability.

This comes naturally to Ahluwalia, who outlines her tendency to work with deadstock (unsold clothes that would otherwise be thrown away or incinerated) and charity shop clothes in the documentary. “I totally think that sustainability is important because we know so much now,” she explains. “You can make beautiful things and be more responsible now - with the technology we have and the knowledge of what’s happening to oceans and with climate change, how could you not want to be?” For fellow designer Nicholas Daley, the thinking behind his footwear was more straightforward: like his collection, the trainers are designed to be timeless with a twist.

Of the three collections, Paolina Russo’s is perhaps the most directly influenced by sports gear. Her models walk the runway brandishing tennis rackets and wearing skin-tight cycling tees emblazoned with red, white and yellow patterns, but their fingerless checkered gloves bely another inspiration. “I’m kind of reviving my love for emo music right now,” she says, recalling the moment she dug out her My Chemical Romance CDs over Christmas. “There’s that weird, nostalgic feeling, and all that angst I felt as a teenager just comes back.”

By reimagining adidas Originals’ style codes in their own ways, these three young designers are doing exactly what MakerLab set out to do: draw from the past to push fashion firmly into the future.

Director Hannah Rosselin, producer Helen Gardiner, DOP Nicolas Wujek, sound technician Antonin Guerre, art director Sarah Makharine, music by Sabrina Bellaouel.