Pat Guzik - sustainable streetwear made with alternative textiles

Pat Guzik is a sustainable streetwear and high fashion brand based in Krakow, Poland. The brand's incredibly talented founder, Patrycja is an entrepreneur whose diploma collection "Over the Rainbow" captivated the attention of many, particularly the Escuela de Diseno y Alta Costura in Valencia, which awarded her a six-month scholarship.

As she travelled the world, she took part in numerous competitions and workshops, winning awards such as the Redress Design Award in Hong Kong and the Eluxe Award in Los Angeles, both in 2017.     

She also presented her collection at some major Fashion Week events, collaborated on inspiring projects like the Pat Guzik x Unsound Festival, and took part in exhibitions like "What The Eye Doesn't See, The Heart Doesn't Grieve."

All these experiences have influenced Patrycja's personality and work as a designer, which naturally reflects on her brand. Patrycja's partner/ illustrator Mateusz Kolek combines their passions and transmits their work through colour palettes, prints, and patterns to create a visual story for the brand Patrycja describes Mateusz as creating a labyrinth of symbols that leads the customer through her storytelling.

The designer is very concerned about sustainability because she has always wanted her work to depict more than just clothes. She realised the extent of her power as a designer to shape a better future for the fashion industry when she competed in the Redress Design award competition and the opportunity to exchange sustainable ideas. This impression was formed during a workshop at Tal Apparel Factory in Dongguan before the Competition. She realised that it is her power and duty as a designer to choose waste-reducing and mindful practices in her production as she became more aware of fashion production methods and the amount of energy and waste they generate.

As a result, she does sustainable practices in her current projects: Her Streetwear line is made in her hometown to support independent small businesses, and she uses "unique patterns that allow efficient use of materials and the reduction and elimination of textile waste." Her RELOVE collection features second-hand clothing sourced from "alternative textile sourcing," such as unwanted garments, stock textiles, and production leftovers. She also uses recycled packaging and recycled printing paper from an ecological printing house that is FSC Recycled and ECOLABEL certified. Her ethical collections practices, are based on values such as "responsibility, local production, cooperation, and transparency."Furthermore, she believes that "we need to slow down our consumption, change our thinking about clothes, return to our roots, not forget our past, and start thinking about our future," she admits.

Surprisingly, she sees fashion as more than just clothes: she believes it should be a platform for exchange, education, and awareness about "sustainability, diversity, and open-mindedness," rather than a profit-driven industry.

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Content Credit - Deshna Jain

Image Credit - Pat Guzik Online