“I sometimes hesitate to call Slow Process a clothing brand, because it’s just me and I’m making every garment from start to finish,” says Sam Zollman. “For me, it’s an artistic expression, even if I’m doing a more traditional item like a denim jacket, or five of the same garment. I’m an art project disguised as a clothing label.”
A menswear label, Slow Process offers workwear-inspired clothing staples such as jackets and button-down shirts. The pieces bring together a sporty aesthetic with vintage inspirations. Zollman is the sole creator of every garment, from design conception to execution. He recently moved the brand’s home base from Burlington, Vermont, to Kingston’s Hasbrouck Avenue. The space, which is shared with Cut Teeth Skateshop, operates as both a retail store and a working studio, where the designer crafts his clothing using six industrial vintage sewing machines
“Frankly, vintage sewing machines are better-made,” Zollman explains of this process. “It’s in the same ethos as the textiles. The quality of material in the ’50s and ’60s or earlier is generally much nicer than the contemporary equivalent.” Most Slow Process pieces are created using vintage textiles, which can range from floral tablecloths to handwoven coverlets. Zollman often allows the textiles to inform his design.
Zollman’s creative and production process is the opposite of traditional design. “[Traditionally], you mood-board, you pick your palette, you find inspiration, and you build the collection from the ground up, picking fabrics or having them made for you,” he says. “And for me, it’s the opposite.” Zollman finds textiles that interest him, and allows those textiles to then inspire a silhouette such as a bomber jacket or shirt. “It’s often about marrying a silhouette I have with a historical moment I find inspiring or interesting, and tying it to fabrics that I think help tell that story,” he says.
Zollman’s curiosity about textiles is what led him to found Slow Process in the first place. He says that the label started as his personal mission to learn how to make a shirt.
“I never really loved the options that were available for guys, especially 10, 15 years ago.” he explains. “I feel like the options for men have always been pretty bland or traditional and I wanted to have more creative freedom, but still have a classic menswear silhouette. Figuring out how to make them myself was a mind-blowing moment.”
Zollman took his first sewing class in 2016 and launched Slow Process two years later. Clothing construction started out as a creative outlet to balance out the lack of creative freedom he felt in his nine-to-five job working in educational children’s media. “It became clear to me that I was way more interested in clothes-making and growing my skills or working with my hands than I was sitting behind a computer screen adjacent to people making art,” Zollman says. He committed to building Slow Process in 2018, and has since developed the label’s aesthetic to one that uses beauty and femininity to celebrate the craft of garment-making.
“What I really want to do is revive people’s relationship with clothing,” the designer says. “Within the aesthetics of menswear, I want to consider the narrative, whether that’s historical or aesthetic, and then highlight the craft that goes into making clothes. I think people are generally pretty disconnected from the clothes we wear. I want people to have a better understanding and a new connection to clothes so they can treasure it like we once did.”
Slow Process as a name is a nod to both making clothes at a pace that Zollman can sustain, and also the idea that everything worthwhile in life takes time. “Efficiency is overrated,” he says. Zollman hopes his clothing can remind people to enjoy life at a slower pace, and to spend more time appreciating what we take for granted and encounter daily.
Zollman creates about 150 garments per year, with new batches released every four to six weeks. His offering is a combination of ready-to-wear pieces and custom garments that can be made-to-order. Customers can now visit Slow Process’s location to shop or plan a custom garment with Zollman.
Zollman says that he is thrilled to share a space with an artist gallery and skateshop. “It’s important to me to contextualize clothes alongside art or other design objects,” he explains. “I think that helps people develop a new frame of reference for clothing. A clothing store can be overwhelming or nameless, so I like that this space is already asking people to consider things more slowly and more deliberately.”
Zollman is celebrating the launch of the label’s new chapter with a free event on May 30 from 5 to 9pm. Guests can see Slow Process’s new spring collection with food, wine, and music at 394 Hasbrouck Avenue.
“I’m excited about this area of Kingston,” he says. “It feels like people are rewarded for being off of the beaten path.”
