idea / sustainable fashion

Sheena Matheiken- ‘The uniform project’
The Uniform project looks at sustainable fashion as one girl wore the same little black dress for a year. When speaking about the project Matheiken said "Think of it as wearing a daily uniform with enough creative license to make it look like I just crawled out of the Marquis de Sade's boudoir," She dressed up the black dress with accessories from second hand shops to highlight the power that recycling clothing can do. One of the aims of the project was too raise money for the Akanksha Foundation which is a campaign for schools for Indian children that are unable to get an education. Sheena say's "I was raised and schooled in India where uniforms were a mandate. Despite the imposed conformity, kids always found a way to bend the rules and flaunt a little personality. Boys rolled up their sleeves, wore over-sized swatches, and hiked up their pants to show off their high-tops. Girls obsessed over bangles, bindis and bad hairdos." This project proves how you can still look trendy by accessoring your outfits to make them look different so you don't have to keep buying clothing.

ideas...? mass consumption and how we are encouraged to by clothing or items that we don't need.

When I was looking into recycling clothing I came across some artists/designers who have recycled, reused and repaired there clothing to express there passion for recycling clothing.

‘The little brown dress’- Alex Martin

'The little brown dress' is a project by fashion blogger Alex Martin. For a year Martin wore same the brown dress every day from July 7th, 2005 to July 7th 2006. She made the dress herself designing it mostly on it practicalities so she can wear it in as many situations as possible throughout the year. When talking about the project she said:

I challenged myself to reject the economic system that pushes over-consumption, and the bill of goods that has been sold, especially to women, about what makes a person good, attractive and interesting. Clothes are a big part of this image, and the expectation in time, effort, and financial investment is immense.

This project looks at mass consumption and how we are encouraged to by clothing or items that we don't need. In this project she proves that we don't need to constantly buy new clothes as by pairing one outfit with different items such as cardigans and accessories completely change the look and can update it. Throughout the year the brown dress went through some changes such as fading fabric and missing buttons by repairing the dress Martin could continue using it, she views the changes as additions to the dress's character similar to the changes she has undergone over the year.

 

 

 

fashion information

Slow fashionSlow fashion is in support of sustainable fashion and it's idea is to slow the rate of consumption. It's about approaching fashion in a different way in which consumers, designers and retailers are more aware of the impacts that clothing have on the workers, communities and ecosystems. Slow fashion is about changing the fashion industry to focus on quality instead of quantity to stop the mass producing of clothing. Some examples of slow fashion include: Choosing products that support small businesses such as locally made and fair-trade clothes, buying second hand or vintage clothing, making your own clothing by customising and mending, slowing the rate of fashion consumption by buying fewer clothes less often and choosing clothing made out of ethically made or recycled materials.

Recycling fashionRecycling fashion provides important environmental benefits. It consists of giving and buying clothing from second hand and vintage shops, restyling existing clothes, and choosing to invest in quality rather then quantity when buying clothes. By recycling fashion reduces the need for landfill space which stops the problems that textiles present as they do not decompose. Recyclign also results in less pollution and saves energy as materials or fibres do not have to be transported from abroad. More than one million tonnes of textiles is thrown away every year in the UK even though 50% of the textiles we throw away are recyclable.

UpcyclingUpcycling is when you convert waste materials into new products. In comparison to Recycling many people see Upcycling as being better for the environment as it requires less energy and resources as recycled items need to be collected and sorted. Upcycling fashion is when you use existing garments and combine them together to make new items of clothing. I like the idea of up cycling in fashion and want to represent it in my own work, by using second hand clothing in a new way to create new items. Upcycling is a greener way of recycling as items aren't going to landfill sites where gas is released which has a huge effect on climate change. It also saves you from buying new thing which reduces the amount of goods that need to be manufactured.

more designers...

Martin Maison Margiela

Fashion designer Martin Maison Margiela creates clothing made out of items many people would consider as waste. By creating beautiful clothing out of 'waste' makes you aware of how many uses it can have and at the moment most of it is being taken to the landfill and is not being recycled.

Mask Bolero by Maison Martin Margiela, made of latex hair masks..


Shades Of Denim by Maison Martin Margiela

Christopher Raeburn
Fashion Designer Christopher Raeburn uses unwanted materials to create futuristic clothing. Everything Raeburn uses is recycled which means his clothing is very ethical. He uses redeployed military fabrics as the material is functional and waterproof and because the military has so many warehouses full of the clothing as they have to overproduce there clothing. Raeburn says that giving the clothing 'a new lease of life is very interesting' I also find this idea very interesting.

fashion shows

Fashion Shows
I also researched fashion designers who have used 'waste' to create new clothing.

Junk to Funk

Fashion Shows

Junk to Funk is a project by a collection of artists that makes clothing out of items we see as 'waste'. The call there clothing 'Trashion' as it mixes fashion with trash. They're fashion shows make you think differently about waste and they address soiciety's mass consumption habits which makes you think about items you dispose of. By making the clothes visually striking raises awareness about the impact of consumption. The collection is very inspiring as it shows you what solutions could be done for a more sustainable fashion choice. When talking about waste they said:
Imagine a world in which there was no such thing as trash; that everything that we “threw away” was perceived as a valuable resource, used to create something new or as a nutrient for the earth. What if long-lasting and repairable purchases ruled over cheap prices, durable was more convenient than disposables, and we valued doing stuff instead of buying stuff? Consider that low-impact doesn’t mean sacrifice, but is a means to reclaim our time, money and pursuit of happiness. What if the ultimate measure of coolness was how little you bought, how much you shared and how much you creatively reused?

 

 

 

The Sustainable Fashion Show
On the opening day of London fashion week, there was the first every Sustainable fashion show. The fashion consisted of fashion designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Stella McCartney showcasing work that used recycled materials and materials that was ethically fashion. Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, was there at the fashion show he had to say this about it, 'This fashion show proves that eco-fashion and sustainable-chic, which are often associated only with macrobiotic yogurt, hemp skirts and raffia work, can be funny, elegant and commercial'

 

 

 

Martin Margiela

Martin Margiela (born April 9, 1957 in Genk, Belgium) is a Belgian fashion designer.

Martin Margiela creates oversized proportion garments emphasizing long arms, and with linings, seams and hems on the outside. The concept of deconstruction, also embraced by the aforementioned Rei Kawakubo, is important for the understanding of Martin Margiela's fashion statement. Margiela famously redesigns by hand objects such as old wigs, canvases and silk scarves into couture garments.

turning traditional ladies garments, into something more subversive and architectural/sculptural

idea - turning traditional ladies garments, into something more subversive and architectural/sculptural



I love this architectural and monochromatic Autumn/Winter 2012 collection by Dutch fashion designer Hellen van Rees, brimming with the signature cubic projections woven into the Chanel tweed-like garments which are made of recycled yarn.



Designer’s words:

This collection was inspired by the tweed fabrics used by Chanel, the straight silhouette of 1920′s flapper girls and 3-dimensional artworks by Anish Kapoor and Rachel Whitebread. The textile is the binding factor of the collection. It’s completely handmade, from recycled yarns woven one by one directly in the shape of the garment. Not wasting anything and making the garment including the cubes totally seamless as it’s woven 3-dimensionally. The yarns and base textile are production factory remnants or old fabrics and scraps taken apart. So the collection is sustainable. The cubes added are all in the same textile making the garments, that are based on very traditional ladies garments, into something more subversive and architectural/sculptural. The blocks themselves are very light, so they don’t distort the garment. Also often they’re attached to a pleated skirt allowing them to swoosh in movement making a seemingly static silhouette suddenly dynamic.