Dutchwoman Lee Edelcourt, who is committed to anticipating fashion and design trends, came up with her Anti-Fashion manifesto in 2015. In it, Lee told why fashion has reached the pinnacle of its development and will change dramatically in the near future. “Everything is changing, including the buyer,” said Edelkort, “now people choose their wardrobe themselves: they buy, find or lend the right things, combine them with each other. They are interested in the things themselves. " Therefore, the main place in fashion will be occupied not by collections, but by individual, original things. “Fashion is dead. Liberation from her dictatorship is ahead”.
On the other hand, every year 100 thousand tons of clothing from Western countries is sent to the Indian city of Panipat for recycling. Indian-British director Mena Gupta directed the film Unravel about what the last refuge of unnecessary things looks like.
Unravel from Aeon Video on Vimeo.
Today, not only consumers and designers, but also large retailers are switching to the "bright side" in the fight for the environment. The latter are trying to make production more environmentally friendly and take old clothes for recycling and disposal.
If you decide to not only dress fashionably, but also help the planet, try to extend the life of unnecessary clothes by handing over them for recycling or donating to those in need. If you do not want to part with things, the clothes can be altered or altered. So at the same time you can avoid separation from your favorite outfit, save money and make the world around you better.
Important concepts
Zero waste. Brands use a zero-waste method to reduce their negative impact on the environment. For example, many brands are adopting innovative cutting, using the entire width of the fabric, from edge to edge. Zero Waste is also a concept of consumption in which people buy goods that leave (almost) no trash behind.
Recycling in fashion means that what you are going to send to the landfill can be made into a thing that will take its rightful place in the wardrobe. This is the restoration or reuse of things, as well as the use of clothes for other purposes. For example, in creativity.
Recycling is the sorting and processing of textiles in order to obtain fiber for the production of new things. Seattle-based tech startup Evrnu, for example, has partnered with Levi's. And now, from five old T-shirts, new jeans are produced. This technology is called earth-friendly and consists of recycling textile waste into new cotton fiber. According to the designer's intention, it can take on various qualities and properties. The new technology uses 98% less water and cuts carbon dioxide emissions by 90%.
The circular economy in the fashion industry involves the reuse of resources through recycling of clothing. This model is based on non-waste technologies - everything that is not needed in the main production is effectively used in the creation of new things.
Designers for Conscious Consumption
Designer Daniel Silverstein launched Zero Waste Daniel and the world's first clothing line made from 100% textile scraps. Using waste that could end up in a landfill, the designer creates bright and stylish things.
Santiago-based designer Juana Diaz makes clothes from scraps of old clothes. In order to focus on deconstruction, she sews them together with contrasting thread. The manifesto brand is committed to an ethical approach in everything: Diaz provides work for home seamstresses, abandoning the standard production model, and thus carries a social mission.
© juanadiaz.cl
New York-based writer and ethical fashion activist Kate Secules founded ReFashioner. Kate conducted a journalistic investigation and found out that many things are stored in the closets of American women that they have never worn. In the amount of $ 880 billion. In reality, women carry only 20% of their purchases. Then Secules came up with a platform where women can exchange things that are bored, or disappointed, or were the result of pointless shopping. Part of the project was the Visible Mending resource, which brought together designers who process things using non-trivial techniques.
Like we have
Russian designers are not inferior to their Western counterparts in matters of ethics and environmental friendliness of clothing production. We have already told the story of Galina Larina, who sews raincoats from plastic bags. The Plasticdoom brand includes used bag raincoats, bags, wallets and aprons. The designer has presented her work at exhibitions and competitions in the United States, and is now working in Holland with the Precious Plastic project.
PLASTICDOOM from Galina Larina on Vimeo.
The Asyasolov'eva brand represents clothing made from recycled materials. The designer collects old denim clothes and creates new ones from them. For example, the Cyclicism collection is based on recycled denim. Asya Solovyova adheres to the principles of a well-thought-out wardrobe. And sorting the trash made the designer think about the amount of items consumed and pushed the idea of creating a collection from recycled materials. Asya collected old jeans, cut, dyed, boiled down and joined pieces of fabric to create a new material. The designer believes that modern fashion has gone beyond simple clothing and aims to "reincarnate" unnecessary things. As a result, what was previously considered rubbish is turning into fashion.
“You look and see: things, whose life cycle seemed to be complete, were reborn in a patchwork into a new art object, an object of fashion art”
Asya's works were presented at Moscow Fashion Week, Harbin and Paris. In addition, the designer arranged an unusual presentation of the collection at Zaha Hadid's Dominion Tower.
Cyclicism from ekstrakt: commercial on Vimeo.
Recycling as art
However, designers in the idea of giving a second life to things from the landfill are not limited to the production of clothes. Norwegian artist Hanna Friis makes sculptures from recycled materials. Including old denim.
The main material for Erwin Wurm's creativity is clothing. The Austrian artist creates sculptures from everyday objects. One of the most famous series of his works is Clothes Sculpture. Wurm makes paintings and interior items out of clothes and thus returns them to use and fills them with new meaning. One of the artist's projects was a collaboration with the Hermès fashion house. Erwin Wurm's work is a great idea for a second life of clothing.
© erwinwurm.at
According to designers, people who buy clothes made from recycled materials are socially active, are not afraid of the opinions of others and are confident in their point of view. They know about recycling and sort the waste. And buying art and clothing from progressive brands supports artists.
Moscow Stanislavsky Electrotheatre supports the idea of recycling in art. Thus, the set design of the premiere of the play "The Maid of Sunset Boulevard" will be based on recycled plastic bags. Another eco-friendly art project in cooperation with the Moscow International Institute is being launched the other day. For the premiere of "Hamlet" directed by Ilya Kozin, the chief artist and curator of the project Anastasia Nefedova, together with students of the Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences of MMU, the British Higher School of Design, the HSE School of Design and freelance artists, will create sets and costumes from recycled cellophane and plastic.
© Anastasia Nefedova
Artists represent this project as a cyclical action of creation and destruction, which begins with recycling of waste. It starts on March 15th. In the workshop of the Electrotheatre, webcams will be installed, and the process can be monitored in real time. If you want to get involved in the creation of art objects, you can bring cellophane and plastic bottles to the Electrotheatre, as well as to the School of Design of the Higher School of Economics and Moscow State University, where special black boxes will be installed for collecting recyclable materials.>