From the Sack to the Silk™
From the Sack to the Silk™
By Octavius Marsion
Every piece in this collection began as a coffee sack: rough jute, stamped with the names of farms, ports, and harvests, and shipped across oceans carrying the world's coffee. Each one has been cut, tailored, and lined in red silk to become couture.
That journey is the story of this collection.
The cloth they gave us
For generations, our people were dressed in the roughest cloth there was. Enslaved men and women were issued coarse fabric, the same rough material used to make sacks, chosen because it was cheap and meant to last through labor, not to bring dignity. After emancipation, sharecropping families sewed clothing from feed and flour sacks because there was nothing else. That cloth was meant to mark us as less.
From the Sack to the Silk™ takes that fabric back. The material once used to define our limits is now cut into tailcoats, kimono coats, and runway silhouettes, and finished in silk.
Why this story, and why me
I'm Octavius Marsion, a Grady baby, born and raised in the projects of Atlanta, Georgia. I know what it means to make something out of what you're handed. As a Black designer, I believe this story had to be told by one of us, with the care, craft, and pride it deserves.
The meaning of red
Red runs through every piece in this collection. Sometimes it's a silk lining, sometimes piping, a hem, or a full look in heavyweight cashmere. The red is the blood of my sharecropper ancestors, whose labor built so much and was owed so much more. It is the thread that ties every piece to where we come from.
Where the sacks come from
The sacks in this collection come from coffee farms and cooperatives in Colombia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Tanzania, and Kona, Hawaii. Every stamp, seal, weight mark, and harvest year you see is original to the sack. Nothing is printed on afterward. Each piece is laid out by hand so the history of the sack becomes the design of the garment.
The looks
BLOODLINE, the finale. Three pieces in heavyweight red cashmere, lined in red silk: the Memory Tunic, the Furrow Trouser, and the six-foot Inheritance Coat. It was the audience favorite on the runway and is now available in all sizes.
ASILI. Swahili for "origin." Tailoring cut from Kenyan and Kona coffee sacks, featuring a buckled high-neck blazer.
SECOND LINE. A marching-band tailcoat and wide-leg trouser, named for the parade tradition of walking through grief and into joy.
THE CROSSING. A kimono coat pieced together from the sacks of five nations, with a jumbo brass zipper and a six-foot train.
LA CARTAGO. A deep-plunge fringed poncho cut from a single Colombian Café Excelso sack, finished in red cashmere and silk.
THE ALTAMIRA. The bomber that started the conversation, cut from coffee sack and part of the From the Sack to the Silk™ story.
One-of-one collector's pieces
Every coffee sack piece is one of a kind. It is cut from specific sacks with specific stamps and can never be reproduced. When a one-of-one is gone, it's gone.
Bloodline in all sizes
The Bloodline finale look is made to order in your size, in heavyweight red cashmere lined in red silk.
Craftsmanship and care
Every piece is designed and handcrafted by Octavius Marsion in Atlanta. Jute is a natural fiber, so slight variations in texture, color, and print are part of each sack's history, not flaws. Professional dry clean only. Store coffee sack pieces flat or on a wide hanger.
From the sack, to the silk, to you.
