Trashed: A second chance
Category: Apparel
Competitions: International
As we swim in seas of consumed material, rarely do we step back and give old belongings a second chance. Trashed is a statement against overconsumption, utilizing leather scraps gathered from garments saved from the trash, and donations of old leather goods. As an alternative designer, upcycling is my most important tool. I see more potential in the used than in the new. My purpose is to design for a better tomorrow, basing everything I do in sustainability and inclusivity. I design for the odd ones out, taking space to make a statement and showing that different does not equal wrong. The project started with a leather workshop. There I got to know the basics and started playing with different manipulation methods. Going into the workshop, I had no clue what my project would look like or be about. While learning to use the old fur sewing machine, I started piecing scraps together that started to resemble an accordion shape, and immediately I knew that was what I wanted to do. While searching for more inspiration, I came across George Nelson’s bubble lamps. From here, I combined shapes and other elements of the bubble lamps with Japanese visual Kei –style. Visual Kei has been aesthetically and musically very influential to my development as a designer, and as a person. Visual Kei takes heavily inspiration from punk, goth and nü-metal, all alternative subcultures that have strong political and ethical ideologies. I, as an alternative designer, also share these ideologies, so I wanted my statement and the materials used to reflect on a shared idea – consume less, do more. That’s how I ended up deciding to have almost fully a mono material look. The design is angular, uncomfortable, and revealing. Trashed was also designed to be adjustable to suit the wearer’s body type, by having adjustable corset-like details on the shorts and having the jacket be a wraparound–style. By using a vest rather than a jacket as the base pattern, the armholes are larger, the sleeves are roomy, so the wearer isn’t restricted in their movements. From using only patchworked leather to taking inspiration from subcultures with strong environmentalist ideologies, Trashed is a full circle where everything leads back to sustainability.
