Feature Friday: Piprek Patterns
For lovers of historical clothing, the act of creating and wearing beautiful reproduction garments is often enough of a joy in and of itself. But what if you want to take it further and incorporate those elements into your daily life? Often those elaborate silhouettes we love so much can be difficult to translate into modern, everyday wardrobe essentials.
Enter this month’s feature, Piprek Patterns! Lina Piprek, the creative behind the brand, has taken her love of historical designs as a starting point and designed a line of easy-to-wear, mix-and-match patterns—all inspired by garments from the Georgian era through to the Edwardian period. Even better, she’s just launched a book, Time Capsule Wardrobe, which walks you through the construction of each garment, step-by-step.
Lina shared a bit more about this project specifically and her creative process in general. “I love historical costuming and the more accurate side of things, particularly corsetry, but recently I’ve really been enjoying designing more ‘everyday’ pieces,” she explained. “It’s a really fun challenge to make something that’s inspired by history but adapted to be wearable with a modern wardrobe.”
“Like a lot of people, my interest in historical clothing started with a love of period dramas and the gorgeous costuming that they often include,” Lina continued. “I’ve always loved the costumes and wanted to wear them, and I think that’s an idea that I’ve continually come back to during my life.”
And it was that interest that led her to a career in costume design and construction. “I’m really fortunate that I was able to pursue that in a pretty direct way,” she shared, “and spent a few years making costumes for film, TV, and theatre—though I made a lot more armor and aliens than historical costuming!”
“It’s an incredible feeling to see something you’ve made on tv or on a stage, but I think the behind-the-scenes can be very different from what people expect. As a costume maker you’re a tiny part of a huge project, and the costumes that are created are usually the result of a lot of collaboration and compromise between different departments.”
But while she was able to stretch her creative muscles in industry work, Lina still craved a more personal artistic outlet. “It sounds a little cheesy, but a big driving force for me is making things that have an impact on people,” she explained. “With film and TV, I suppose there’s a possibility that you’ll make something that has a huge impact on someone, but there’s also a chance that you’ll spend weeks making something only for the scene to be cut. When I'm making sewing patterns, I'm making the designs that I want to wear—inspired by historical fashion or costuming—and I hope that I'll reach other people who want to dress that way too, but maybe don't know where to start. I love the idea of being able to help someone sew an outfit that they feel really good in.”
That desire led to her to take on something that most people would find intimidating—writing and publishing her own book of patterns! “My biggest project in every sense—the one that's taken the longest, the most exciting, the most difficult—is my book, Time Capsule Wardrobe,” Lina continued. “My goal was to create a guide to sewing a historically inspired capsule wardrobe, complete with sewing patterns and styling ideas. It took four years to finish it but I think the end result has been so worth it.”
“I knew from the start that I wanted to self-publish the book, which came with all sorts of challenges but also a huge amount of creative control,” she shared. “Doing things this way meant I was in charge of everything—not just writing the text or drafting the patterns, but also planning the layout of every page and finding printing companies to work with. It wasn't an easy process, but I love that I've been able to create something that's really ‘mine,’ with every detail exactly how I wanted it.”
All that hard work hasn’t left much time for her own projects lately, but Lina has plans to remedy the situation soon. “And I'm so ready to sew more of these garments for myself now!” Lina added. “I keep getting new inspiration from the fabrics that everyone else has been using to sew the garments in the book. This is pretty much my dream wardrobe, so it's been incredible to see that other people are enjoying it too.”
You can get your own copy of Time Capsule Wardrobe or see the individual patterns from the book on the Piprek Patterns website, and you can find more inspiration and tutorials on Lina’s Instagram (@linapiprek) and YouTube.