Fleece Fabric Fashion

Fleece fabric is an incredibly versatile textile that attracts a great deal of attention from new moms, craft boutiques, charity organizations looking to spread the warmth to the needy, and outdoor aficionados of basically every stripe. But the versatility of fleece fabric centers mainly on the high warmth to low weight ratio, not aesthetics, or at least not the aesthetic sensibilities of those who are considered more fashion conscious. Not that clothing made from fleece fabric couldn’t be sought for aesthetic qualities and used in pieces designed to be paired with other pieces. It just isn’t trending now, and we think there’s no real reason for that other than dated conventions.

If there’s one word that invokes the presence of fleece in the fashion world it’s the word ‘hoodie.’ When someone says the word hoodie, there’s a slightly different connotation than when they use the word ‘sweatshirt,’ in the exact same context. Sweatshirt refers the general functionality of the fabric, while hoodie refers to a specific silhouette, a certain profile, and one defining functional characteristic. Maybe not all hoodies are fleece, but the hoody is fleece fabric’s gateway into mainstream fashion. The hoodie is precedent.

If fleece fabric has been relegated to the domain of the exclusively frumpy it’s not the fabric’s fault. What can the fabric do about designers who insist on using fleece only for their most boxy designs? All that would need to occur to change things is for a few designers, and talented do-it-yourselfers to put together some trim cut fleece fabric pieces to showcase to the rest of the world and help them catch on to the idea that not only can someone wearing fleece be stylish, but they can also have the added bonus of remaining toasty in the process.

There’s also plenty of precedent for transmuting the decidedly frumpy into the exquisitely chic. Consider the history of denim jeans. What began as nineteenth century workwear made from fabric that was thought of as gauche and unrefined, was later granted reprieve from those old conventions in 1950s. Since the days of James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, and Marlon Brando in The Wild One, jeans have been tweaked, adapted, and fine tuned to pair with the aesthetics of every subsequent style regime. Jeans are now a longstanding clothing staple, stylishness or frumpiness is totally dependent on the designer, and because of its versatility, denim is part of fashion canon. Not only that, because of the established iconography of denim, even frumpy jeans are classic, and timeless. We think fleece fabric pieces should be too.

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Step 1 - Submit Proposal:

• A basic description of your design (include a picture or video)

• How much fleece fabric will you need?

• Add the required fleece to cart and send us the price

• If accepted YourFleece will provide you with a gift certificate to pay for the fleece fabric, that you can use online

• Email all proposals to briana(at)yourfleece.com.

• Final deadline for proposals is April 5th.

Step 2 - Create Design:

• Once your proposal is approved, YourFleece will send you a Gift Certificate to purchase the chosen Fleece Fabric you added to cart.

• Once you receive the fabric, begin your creation.

• Send completion photos, a short bio, along with description of process and final product to the YourFleece contact.

• Deadline for final submissions is May 10th.

Step 3 - Choosing a Winner:

• On May 11th, YourFleece will review all entries submitted by 11:59pm May 10th.

• On May 11th, YourFleece will declare a winner.

• YourFleece will decide a winner of the competition and will contact that person for further details about their design.

• YourFleece will reward the winner with a custom badge for their site, and will feature the winner’s design and bio on their blog and home page.

• YourFleece will reward the winner with a $100 gift certificate to YourFleece.com

• YourFleece will work create a product bundle named after the winning blogger which will be sold on the site.

• YourFleece will provide a discount code to the winner to give to their followers so that they may re-create their work with a discounted bundle.

• YourFleece will provide 3 free bundles for the winner to give out or disperse as they see fit.

Rules & Regulations:

• Entry must be made primarily out of YourFleece fleece fabric.

• Be creative & be yourself, the design must be your own.

• Winner must display badge on site (can be within a post or anywhere else on the site), with a link back to this page using the text “Fleece Fabric Fashion”. The link can be the image, or text.

• Winner must link to their bundle on YourFleece.

Rewards:

• Project promotion on the YourFleece website.

• $100 gift certificate to YourFleece.

• The opportunity to have a bundle named after you that will be available for purchase at a discount using a promo code given to you to re-create your design.

• 3 Free bundle giveaways for your audience.