Sustainable fashion brand ound: garments that are pleasing to the eye and sensual to the skin

A few months ago I had the pleasure of meeting Paula Delgado, the founder of ound. We met up to plan our collaboration (an editorial shoot as well as an interview) and I am very happy to share the results with you.

Katharina wears a hand-dyed silk top by ound.

Hi Paula, thank you so much for finding the time to talk to me! Please tell the heiter readers who you are and what you do.
I am an artist and fashion designer with more than 15 years’ experience in the fashion industry. I wanted to turn my career into something meaningful. I wanted to respect the planet and the people I work with. I have a Project called ound: I work with natural materials such as wool, silk and plants and I look at them from a design perspective. I try to make an efficient and responsible use of them, in terms of applying them in different ways and achieving a Variety of beautiful results by using very few resources.

When did you have the idea for ound and what led you to turning it into a business?
After spending 15 years working for two of the biggest retail companies in the world I became conscious of all the waste this industry produces, not only in overproduction and overconsumption, but also when it comes to using resources, both material and human resources. Prior to launching a new collection there is a lot of work to be done. Many different design samples are produced in order to launch but only less than 10% of them are used in the end. Crazy, right? The 10% that make it are then overproduced, spend a couple of weeks (sometimes a few months) in a store and then already go into sale, where there is usually no respect for them anymore. It doesn’t matter how much work and resources once went into those garments. Careless customers ruin items by letting them fall on the ground and walking over them. Seeing all of that on a regular basis made me very sad. So, I decided to make a change and turn to something that was more respectful towards the production process. I wanted to enhance the properties of materials and respect them too, just like I wanted to respect myself and my values. I therefore started to research and investigate the most traditional and primitive ways of working with textiles. I got the chance to learn more about it in rural Argentina and Scotland and so became familiar with two very different approaches for spinning, weaving and dying.

Ound reflects myself: I mainly create woollen pieces and dresses because that is what I would mostly wear. I love dresses! You can throw them on and wear a full outfit. They are wonderfully comfortable, and you can style them in different ways, just think about what a difference shoes and accessories can make! Plus, I love the idea of how silk and wool work together and how they feel. They are smooth and insulating materials, and when you put them together their properties boost. I wanted to create a brand for People who’d like to feel just as good and cosy as I do whenever I wear the garments. It is like gifting somebody with something very intimate and beautiful.

What does ound stand for?
Ound stands for something that is profound, and it is round; it makes sense. At least for me 😊.

What makes your products unique?
My products are unique because they create a bond with the person wearing them: the bond is created as soon as the wearer understands what the meaning behind the pieces is. My products are unique because a lot of labour of love goes into each of them and their quality is extraordinary. The woollen pieces take three to five days to handknit and the craftsmanship is excellent. The wool is extremely high-quality merino and corriedale wool, it is only washed, undyed and there are no chemicals applied to it. The dying and printing process of the silks also take up a lot of investigation and care. Each piece takes two weeks to be fully dyed. A lot of attention is needed to avoid colour contamination and to achieve a beautifully imperfect finish.

Where do you find inspiration?
I find inspiration in nature, art and design. I love that moment of contemplation when you look at something beautiful and it evokes certain emotions. I like to recall that moment and pass it on to my pieces.

Katharina wears a hand-dyed silk slip dress and a handknitted wool cardigan by ound.

Tell us a little bit about the production process.
The woollen pieces are handknitted in Uruguay, a small country in Southern America with some of the best merino wool in the world. Many people in the countryside work with wool. I collaborate with a group of women who handknit. They are from a little city called Santa Lucia. The pieces they make take three to five
days to be finished and the craftsmanship and quality that go into them is simply amazing. The silk I use is from Switzerland. I buy it raw and bring it to La Coruña in Western Spain, where the (then white) material is turned into my designs. The last step is done by me: I personally harvest the materials used to make the pigments. I don’t want to buy natural dye pigments as there is so much available around us that can be used (and would otherwise go to waste). I boil my findings to extract the colour, prepare the pieces that I want to dye and combine them through a process that takes up to two weeks. One piece at a time and in small batches of no more than three. For the petal prints, I harvest wildflowers, separate the tiny petals from the stems and place them one by one on a piece to create a pattern. Through a steaming process I transfer the colour from the petal to the piece.

What are small steps people can make to dress more sustainably?
I think the first step is the interest in finding out where products come from and in making decisions from there. I often read about zero waste; people say you don't have to do it perfectly, but you must start somewhere. I think this also applies to dressing. Being conscious is a good start. Also, we have to be aware
that whenever we spend money on something, we make a statement. As citizens we don’t have much political and decision-making power, however we have the power to decide how we spend our money and what kind of industry we support economically.

What’s next for you and ound?
Getting on with the work!

Where can people find you and your designs?
They can find me on instagram @_ound_, on my website www.ound-ound.com and via email: info@ound-ound.com. As you know, I love chatting to and hearing from people. If anyone has doubts, questions, suggestions, feel free to contact me 😊.

How would you describe the perfect heiter (cheerful) moment?
For me the perfect heiter moment is when you are in tune with what you deeply believe in - and people appreciate it. Somebody falling in love with a chunky wool jumper in the middle of the hottest day of the year, because they know that it is a special piece that will be with them for a long time, is another heiter moment that warms my heart.

Katharina wears a hand-dyed silk t-dress by ound.

Images: Benjamin Geissler-Evans

Interview: Katharina Geissler-Evans, heiter magazine

All garments are by ound.

How to find Heiterkeit when working from home

Many of us do not enjoy the regular morning commute so it’s no surprise that more and more people skip it altogether. With half of the UK workforce predicted to be working remotely by 2020, are we leaving ourselves open to feelings of isolation, boredom and comparison with others?

As someone who took the freelance plunge last year, I’ve honestly found complete joy in the absence of office politics and plastic-wrapped meal deals. But that doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes crave a stricter routine (or someone to bring me biscuits)  when a deadline looms.

As with anything in life we treasure, remote working is something we need to nurture in order to see it bear fruit. So to inspire you, here are some things I’ve found keep me cheerful when working from home.

Immerse yourself in your freedom

Ask anyone who’s recently left a toxic relationship or draining job (or someone who’s found themselves child-free for the weekend) total freedom can be overwhelming. And it can be difficult to know what to actually do.

On my first day working remotely, I found myself at my desk (dining room table) at 8am, mindlessly preparing lunch at 1pm and ‘clocking off’ at 6pm - without even leaving the house. It was exactly what I’d been doing at the job I just left. Minus the lunch time trip to the supermarket - and guilt about not tackling housework during the day. It left me with an awful, flat feeling.

The moment I realised I had autonomy over how I spent my time was completely liberating. And let’s just say the second day was different. In fact, I think I took the ‘day off’.

I didn’t set an alarm and when I woke up, I headed to the local pool and swam some lengths. I stopped off at the local Deli and picked up some ingredients for a fresh lunch. I caught up with emails in the evening... because I could. For the first time since starting school, I wasn’t restricted by a morning alarm or pre arranged timetable which brought a deep sense of contentment to my life I haven’t yet had to shake.

Giving yourself over to the freedom of your new working-from-home life will give you that same moment of clarity. Of course, you’ll still have to carve out time for meetings, phone calls and family commitments. But the rest of your time is yours. Isn’t that amazing?

Create your own routine

When people ask me how my first few months of remote working went, I describe it as a ‘free for all’ - in a totally positive way. You see, in order to find my most productive, creative hours I knew I needed to experiment.

Some days I stayed up until 2am watching Netflix, beginning work at 2pm the next day. Other days I set an alarm for 6am to walk around my local park before anyone else set foot there. I worked full weekends. And no weekends. I worked from a ‘proper desk’, but also slouched on the sofa with a distinctly hygge-ish blanket. I took some phone calls late at night - and told other clients I was unavailable in the evenings.

Without doing this, I would never have known what works best for me. The best parts of my experiment were the moments I surprised myself. I’d thought of myself as an ‘early bird’ for most of my life, frequently being the first to leave late night get-togethers and the first to wake up at weekends. I’m actually a night owl who’s best ideas come between 10pm and 1am. Who knew?

As a reserved introvert I also thought I’d love long days of solitude at home. I’d seen people typing furiously in cafes and wondered how they coped with the chatter of customers and clang of the coffee machine. Pitching up at a bustling bistro however, I hustled through my to do list at an unprecedented pace and was totally taken aback. Now I head out to cafes whenever I can - or at least whenever an invoice clears so I can have a hot chocolate or three.

If you’re just beginning your remote working adventure, a note journal can help you create your perfect routine. Trial having no routine for a few weeks, jotting down times you felt were productive - or not. Soon you’ll be able to banish procrastination for good by deciding on working hours that uniquely reflect you .

Remind yourself of your ‘why’

A few months in, I found myself busier than expected and things became a bit relentless. It felt like all I did was work, sleep and then wake up and work some more.

Then I imagined how I felt at my last job - the tiresome gossip, tedious meetings with no outcome, someone telling me their plans for the weekend for the third (hundredth) time - without asking me mine. I couldn’t ever imagine going back and realised I needed to lean into gratitude whenever motivation was lacking.

Whether you’ve chosen remote working for its environmental benefits, flexibility for family time or you’ve just accepted yourself as an introvert who likes home comforts, it’s important to always keep these feelings at the surface. Especially when you’re rushed off your feet - or things are a little quiet.

If vision boards are your bag, be sure to include a section on your decision to work from home. Focus less on how Instagram-perfect your workspace looks and tap into the gratitude of being able to meet your mum for a coffee on a Wednesday afternoon. Prefer scribbling down your innermost thoughts? Try keeping a note of three things made easier by working from home each day. Trust me, I had a few more than three during the snowstorm in January.

Cultivate an online community

Remote workers everywhere use the online world as a lifeline to the real world. But there’s no denying social media is experiencing a backlash at present. From the recent influencer scandals to public calls for stricter laws on trolling, it can feel as though the internet’s ugly head is constantly rearing. To get around this, we have to think about why social media was created in the first place and why we actually like using it. For me, it’s all about connection and community.

Myself (and many other remote workers) need social media to spark conversations, inspire creativity and build networks to replace bonds with colleagues and nurture relationships with clients. In fact, I often use Instagram to approach businesses that may need my services, ask influencers I like out for coffee and connect local businesses with each other.

You can also use social media to translate these online friendships into real life. Attend that retreat organised by the self-help coach you follow. Go to the pop-up event organised by your favourite digital magazine. Find someone that does the same job as you and ask them if they fancy lunch. Authentic connections with like minded (and perhaps not so likeminded) people are crucial in creating working-from-home cheerfulness.

Remote working - the new normal

With the traditional ‘9-5’ becoming extinct, getting a grip on what it means to work from home could be your secret weapon to conquering the illusive work-life balance. And who knows, perhaps true happiness could be just you and your laptop. And the laundry pile. Because you still have to do that. No one ever tells you that bit.

Words: Abi Rose - Abi is a collaborative, curious and creative marketing consultant, social media specialist and writer living life slowly in the Peak District.

Image: Katharina Geissler-Evans, heiter magazine

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