Between The Lines 012: Borre Akkersdijk
BYBORRE Create™: Innovation From
The Yarn Up
Words: Siân Toolan
Borre Akkersdijk is a textile fanatic; an expert with 15 years in the field and the co-founder of BYBORRE. BYBORRE, founded in 2010, is a textile company and so much more: it’s an innovation studio, developing sophisticated, functional and beautiful fabrics, with a clothing label, a global initiative and a tech platform that enables brands and creators to design and evolve their own textiles. We sat down with Akkersdijk to discuss BYBORRE Create™, opening doors for creatives everywhere and a little bit of footwear.
“We are born wrapped in textile, and we die wearing textiles”, says Akkersdijk. Forget mobile technology, there’s nothing that we engage with more every day than textiles. Still, the textile industry remains one yet to be fully modernised. BYBORRE offers a solution to the wasteful, labour intensive practices of the textile industry, with a vision of how the industry, and fashion, could function - with efficient, accessible, responsible production. “I always believed that creating a good product was based on starting with good materials” and that’s the foundation of BYBORRE. The studio is flipping the supply chain on its head by designing from the yarn up, “opposed to from what’s on the market or pushed from the industry at big fairs”. BYBORRE has developed its own ecosystem in which control, and freedom, is handed back to the creators.
“We want to move towards open-sourcing what we do well, where we can help other brands in making better textiles and making better decisions”
BYBORRE was conceived as a synthesis of technology and textiles, working towards a democratised industry by digitalising the full supply chain, from design to production. At the same time, the studio sought to innovate textile in itself. Akkersdijk developed a dialogue with machinery - like the sizeable circular knitting machines that fill their studio - toying with coding and the tactility of textiles. Of course then, BYBORRE wanted to present these innovative textiles to the world and they couldn’t just tell people what they could do, they had to show them, “and that was the start of the label”. What better than clothing to demonstrate the functionality, aesthetic capabilities and overall potential of their tech?
BYBORRE’s clothing has innovation at its core; it’s a showcase of sensory state-of-the-art textiles and virtuosic techniques. Released in EDITIONS™, the first informed by movement and the body, it’s easy to see why the brand was picked up by everywhere from Dover Street Market GINZA to Browns, Mytheresa and END. Each EDITION™ evolves from the last, with the evolution of their technology, exploring various functionalities and purposes - from slouchy, pandemic-appropriate casual wear to sleeker, sartorial styles, to outerwear in collaboration with Gore-Tex. Whilst there’s a clear focus on utility, and a place for the brand within the realm of gorpcore, BYBORRE isn’t focused on trends. The studio utilises simple, practical shapes to emphasise the textile. Textiles quite unlike anything you’ve seen before - that are as much art as they are fabric, that posses their own gene codes, futuristic jacquard topographies and three-dimensional details, like maps of distant planets. Now on EDITION11™, BYBORRE have further stripped back any “design distractions” and their overall approach. EDITION11™ gives the stage to both textile and Dutch artist Dewy Elsinga - otherwise known as @butterfingaz - replicating her brushstrokes in the knit. It also represents a move away from the seasonal approach of fashion, with a singular collection and a minimal range of product. “We want to move towards open-sourcing what we do well, where we can help other brands in making better textiles and making better decisions”, explains Akkersdijk.
“Why should you need 15 years of experience and networks to make something that is responsible? That should be a given from day one”
EDITION11™
BYBORRE have reached a point in which they can truly help other brands tell their story. They have developed the technology and established their design DNA and it’s time for other brands and creators to inject the tech with their own DNA “to build their version of responsible textile”. That’s where BYBORRE Create™ comes in. BYBORRE Create™ originated as a “What You See Is What You Get editor”, as Akkersdijk puts it. It was a quicker way to turn over samples and reduce waste, optically mixing yarns to make colours and digitally rendering textiles to provide a clear visual of what to expect from the machine. Now open for sign-ups, BYBORRE Create™ is a scalable platform, accessed through an online application, that shares BYBORRE’s back catalogue and allows creators to innovate their own fit-for-purpose, longlasting bespoke textiles.
“I know, in the very short future, you're going to see multiple footwear brands coming out with textiles”
BYBORRE Create™ simplifies textile design into a few steps, guiding creators through the entire process. Firstly, users are asked to determine the function of their fabric - should it be base layers, mid layers, interiors, soft goods or automotive - selecting from the studio’s library of yarns and textile compositions that are validated, tested and ready to scale. Users will then investigate types of knit construction, matching the aesthetics, weight and structure to their vision, before proceeding into the colour wizard feature to compose distinct colour combinations. The final step in the workflow is a “photoshop for textiles”, in which users can layer graphics, images, personalisations and filters to no end. Once they’ve played around and rendered their own unique textile, they click submit and a physical sample is sent within two weeks. Better yet, if creators choose to produce the textile, BYBORRE will arrange the production within their ecosystem of expert partners - otherwise known as the Window of Textile Opportunities™ (WoTO™).
The Window of Textile Opportunities™ (WoTO™)
As so far, BYBORRE has amassed a wide and impressive range of partnerships. They were the first to utilise Gore-Tex’s INFINIUM™ performance textiles in a series of knitwear, they pushed fabrics in their purest form with Adidas’ True Colour capsule, and have crafted everything from elaborate New Mexico-inspired vests for cult Japanese brand Kapital to ocean-inspired fabrics for Italian furniture company Natuzzi, a commemorative range of Porter bags and a seamless interactive tactile interior for a BMW concept car. Not to mention their recent and ongoing work with footwear brand Diemme, that’s obviously got us excited.
Kapital x BYBORRE
“As designers learn more, and try to do better, they also realise to make less”
It’s safe to say that so many of our first encounters with innovative knitwear have come from footwear. Akkersdijk credits Nike’s Flyknit for mainstreaming knit as a credible high-performance material, which potentially could’ve been pushed further with BYBORRE’s tech and production speed. For AW21, Diemme built upon BYBORRE’s three-dimensional knit, with a range of footwear made of recycled plastic bottles from North Italy and a weaved textured design that mimics the tiny roads and nature leading up to local Monte Grappa. Each shoe prioritises functionality, with high-performance, durable and abrasion resistant polyester yarn, perfect for vulcanisation. It’s exactly what Create™ is designed for: introducing Diemme to an entirely new medium and deploying textile to tell a story. BYBORRE are currently working with Diemme on their 30th anniversary line and Akkersdijk is curious to see how other footwear designers take to his software and expand the field, as are we. “I know, in the very short future, you're going to see multiple footwear brands coming out with textiles”, he says with a smile.
Before BYBORRE, it is unlikely that young creators or smaller brands, like Diemme, would have access to the possibilities of Create™. This level of design is largely reserved for conglomerates with innovation hubs, due to the time and cost of Research and Development (R&D) and the resulting high factory minimums. Through BYBORRE Create™ , the studio runs R&D for creators, bringing clients and material supplies to factories so they can lower their minimum order quantity - from what was once 2000m to 5000m to as little as 250m. With control from the very beginning, creators are able to fully assess their impact, cutting back the notoriously wasteful R&D process, whilst not having to fear overproduction or an identical textile design to their competitors. What’s more, anyone looking to create textile no longer requires the expertise of working the machinery, or working their connections in the industry.
BYBORRE’s interactive tactile interior for BMW
“Why should you need 15 years of experience and networks to make something that is responsible? That should be a given from day one”, explains Akkersdijk. Designing responsibly should be the standard procedure, but it's made incredibly difficult in an industry full of silos, gatekeeping information, turning innovation into intellectual property and treating sustainability as a privilege. BYBORRE’s open-source mentality works to open doors and Window(s) of Textile Opportunities™ (WoTO™) to creators. Functioning as a showroom, WoTO™, unites leading industry change-makers willing to provide access to their knowledge, textile development processes, design tools and responsible recipes for success.
When you remove all the obstacles, “take away the difficulty of transparency, the non-accessible parts of the industry, creation actually thrives” says Akkersdijk. BYBORRE has engaged entirely new networks of creators and makers, with artists, big and small, global and local, approaching textile as a medium for storytelling. From the legendary graphic designer of Miffy, to up-and-coming graffiti artists, it’s incredibly exciting to consider how those new to the industry, and the cross-pollination of creativity, will advance the technology further. And, by making both creation and knowledge accessible to anyone, BYBORRE hopes that “as designers learn more, and try to do better, they also realise to make less”.
Akkersdijk proposes that perhaps the biggest challenge for change is readdressing the current system, “which we don’t like to talk about”, by educating people on the value of raw materials and equally the value of people and labour. BYBORRE seeks to provide creative freedom to designers, whilst not squeezing suppliers, and ensuring everyone involved in bringing a product to life is given fair credit. Assessing the affordability of these practices, and balancing creation with usage, comes with changing consumer mindsets and habits. “So it really comes down to education, and that takes time”. By continuing to innovate, evolve and gamify their technology, BYBORRE hopes to trigger an understanding of material and good product and, ultimately, the understanding that “we are in this together for a brighter future”.
As for this year, you can expect to see a great deal of BYBORRE assisted projects in the footwear field and beyond, and, whether you’re a big brand or just getting started, if you want to Create™ your own responsible textile, you know exactly where to go…