Heron Preston is using his latest project to take a breather from the rigorous demands of the fashion industry.
The fashion designer, who helms his namesake fashion label and creative studio called L.E.D. Studio, on Thursday revealed the launch of Orange Label, his new creative initiative that continues his 2016 project, titled “Uniform,” with the New York City Department of Sanitation.
Preston described Orange Label as his “test kitchen” to experiment with ideas through limited production and in-house construction. He said the project is a way for him to “escape from this mess that [he] felt fashion was becoming.
“This is my opportunity to create a free space — free from the industry, free from it all, where I can control this thing myself and just have fun and experiment and maybe use this as a platform to inform the larger operation,” Preston said. “I just saw this as an opportunity to pick back up where I left off with upcycling and exploring circularity and exploring materials, but also asking myself this question of what does it mean to be pure in fashion today?”
Preston was encouraged to launch Orange Label, which is an extension of L.E.D. Studio, after finding deadstock orange labels that he had designed for his earlier collaboration with the New York City Department of Sanitation. He decided to repurpose the orange labels for this project to carry out design ideas that he wants to create on a smaller production and through upcycling.
Preston’s Orange Label T-shirt.
Courtesy of Heron Preston
He’s launching Orange Label with a collection of 300 T-shirts created with 100 percent recycled cotton that are made from waste fibers, in partnership with Los Angeles-based clothing brand Everybody.World.
“It’s something that’s meaningful and it hits close to home,” Preston said. “It taps into my DNA of exploring circularity, upcycling, recycling and tackling this problem head on — this problem being fashion’s dirty little secret of being one of the biggest polluters in the world — so if I can play a part in reducing the negative impact, I would love to. That’s where it started in 2016, so it was picking that up and pushing the practice.”
The project is also meaningful to Preston because pieces from his “Uniform” project that are designed with the orange labels were featured in the Costume Institute’s “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion” exhibit in 2021 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The pieces were then acquired for the museum’s permanent collection.
“I look at Orange Label as a sort of connection to a lineage of art history as well,” he said. “These are the actual labels that are in the museum — it’s like buying a piece of art history.”
Preston will continue Orange Label with other fashion launches, such as hoodies, sweats and other loungewear styles. He has plans to expand the project beyond fashion with products across books, car accessories and other lifestyle offerings. He explained that each launch will be created in limited quantities and will not be reproduced. Once he has used up all the orange labels, he will shutter the project.
“It’s just to inspire a community that already exists and loves the work that I do and the stories I tell,” he said. “I love the impact that they can feel from the work. Some of this is just from inspiration of a larger community out there. There’s this cycle between what I’ve been doing at the larger brand and then what I’ll be doing here. Both areas inform each other, so what I do here maybe you’ll see next season in the larger Heron Preston brand.”
