Vancouver fashion intern creates new garment every day for 30 days

When Ender Severin's friends and industry mentors challenged him to create a new garment every day for 30 days straight, the Vancouver-based fashion design intern did not shy away from the task.

The idea for the challenge came from a desire to learn more about the garment manufacturing process, said Ender, 28, who goes by his first name.

He also wanted to see how many things he could create with more robust fabrics, like those used for sailcloth and boat covers.

"My intention is ... to do something different," Ender said, adding he spent hours every day tracing and cutting fabric for his garments.

Some of the items in his collection include backpacks, base layers and a duffel bag made from Hypalon, an out-of-production material originally meant for use in roofing.

Donated fabrics

"It's acid-proof, fire-proof, cut-resistant," said Ender. "I describe it as a kevlar-reinforced bike tire, essentially."

He also said he wanted to reduce the amount of material that is wasted. To that end, he spent months — before the project started — phoning up textile manufacturers and local factories asking them if he could use their overstocked fabrics.

"I've had a lot of fabrics donated... some of these things are hundreds of dollars a yard, some of these rolls of textiles could go for $20,000," he said.

Inspiration from online community

Ender also found ideas by listing his challenge on a forum dedicated to 'techwear,' a style of clothing that blends fabrics used in outdoor gear with more urban designs.

"A lot of them had come from military and search and rescue, they were kind of interested in one of the shoulder rig systems I had created," he said.

"So that inspired the next day: I said let's make a fun little backpack that's kinda cool for urban use, but also holds a ballistic plate just for fun."

Ender said he hopes his project will show people how some of the most incredibly technically-complex clothing can be made with simple designs.

One of the last products he made in the challenge was a fully waterproof rain jacket made with a fabric called Dyneema, which weighed around 79 grams.

"I like ultra-light gear and typically every coat I have seen under 100 grams is just slightly wind resistant, it's not really useful for anything," he said.

"My thought is, if you can keep this up, we can produce very high quality garments in a very short period of time ... we can give you tomorrow's technology today."