Seamless

Seamless designer showcase

Seamless is a sustainable fashion showcase, representing some of the leading eco designers in Australia. It is a chance for growing designers to present and discuss their sustainable designs and practices. This video represents how each designer integrates and responds to sustainability in their own individual ways. It poses questions such as what is sustainable fashion? where do you see sustainable fashion in 10 years? these are the types of questions I want to keep in mind for myself on my journey of discovering sustainable fashion. I am only at the beginning of research and hope to broaden my understanding enough to have my own evaluated answers to these such questio

Nobody was dirty

Tullia Jack, a masters student at Melbourne University, investigated the process and environmental effect of the laundering process we undertake everyday. Tullia asked 30 people to wear a pair of Nobody Jeans, for three months without washing them, entitling the project and end installation, Nobody was Dirty. The outcome, the jeans after being worn for three months did not look dirty or smell dirty, illustrating that we wash our clothes more often than necessary. With this Jack also investigated what motivates us to wash so often, exploring the everyday day norms and cultural constructs that influence us. Nobody was Dirty aims to bring to attention the environmental impact the washing process has, consuming water and energy often unnecessarily. By no means is she suggesting being unsanitary (according to Canadian researcher Josh Le, there’s not much difference in the bacteria found on jeans whether you wear them for 13 days or 15 months), but rather being aware of how this everyday chore is effecting the world around us.

Kate Sylvester

“Kate Sylvester is an independent intelligent New Zealand designer who prides herself on beautiful eclectic pieces that transcend, not only time and trend, but also the disposability of fashion.” Kate Sylvester is a leader in not only the eco-fashion arena, but in the New Zealand fashion industry as whole. Kate typifies the merge of high fashion with sustainability, showing that the two are not mutually exclusive. Her clothing is made where possible on shore, making the most of the skilled trades people we have here in New Zealand and reducing the carbon footprint of the company. Kate also uses organic cotton and merino, showing that sustainable fabrics doesn’t automatically mean hemp sacks, but rather she produces the same exquisite design as previously, in more environmentally sympathetic materials. To me, Kate Sylvester has nailed the sustainability issue, offering high end fashion to the same clientele as that of another designer, charging the same price, but not using eco-friendly production or fabric. Sustainable fashion in New Zealand no longer sits alone on is eco pedestal, it has been embraced into the whole fashion industry, causing others to think about how they can jump on the band wagon, in a positive and forward thinking way.

Fabled and True

Fabled and True is a Brisbane based label, which ‘accidently’ became environmentally friendly, by creating small collections or one offs from pre-loved or re-purposed vintage fabrics. “Born of a love of vintage and days gone by, Fabled and True is a sweet little label made for girlie girls and is best worn while sipping tea and eating cupcakes or getting up to mischief”. Fabled and true uses a similar concept to that of Rachael Cassar, but using an entirely different method and aesthetic. These two are prime examples of how accessible eco- fashion can be, both for the designer and the consumer. Fabled and true have also though very carefully about branding and image, something which I think is very important when dealing with the mid-range market as they do. Their whole aesthetic and mood comes across immediately and is continued through from their designs, prints, to their photo-shoot props and language.

Rachael Cassar

Rachael Cassar is an Australian designer embracing sustainability. Rachael uses deconstructed garments and recycled fabrics to create her one off couture pieces. She uses the concept of Up-cycling and slow fashion, and creating garments that are not trend based but are meant to be kept and worn for a life time. Rachael has become recognised internationally, not just within the eco fashion movement but in the fashion industry also. Rachael says, “The only way that people are going to be able to accept eco-fashion is if they are not sacrificing anything for it. The trick is to replace cheaply made fashion with equally appealing but sustainable items. Designers no long have an excuse for not using alternative materials and technology is constantly improving”. - Designers like Rachael show that ‘eco-fashion’ doesnt have to be hippy ‘green’ supposedly designed garments, they can be just as aesthetically interesting as the current collections trotting the runway. The trick is melding sustainability and design in way that is trend setting and interesting. Taking the core elements of future thinking design and sustainability and amalgamating them into something just as enticing as the latest Karen Walker trench.

SUNO

"SUNO is a New York based womenswear label founded in 2008 by Max Osterweis in collaboration with designer Erin Beatty. The collection was launched in Spring 2009 after post-election violence threatened to damage the economy and industry in Kenya, a long time second home to Osterweis.” “Via a combination of traditional, local techniques and high-end tailoring, as well as an emphasis on fit and fabric, SUNO is able to offer a global, unique view of the luxury world in an accessible way” - sunony.com. Suno illustrates how the high fashion world can embrace the idea of smart and ethical fashion. Their clothing sits amongst the luxury and expensive, being stocked at Barneys New York, their clientele are those who chose between Balenciaga and Valentino, showing that ethical can be in fact, fashionable.

Launch Pad

In my first assignment, my main focus was on the concept, the design process and the final outcome. In this assignment I want to use this as the basis, but add another dimension. I am now looking at designing an alternative collection, which is sustainable and for the middle market. Completely uncharted territory for me! I will be the first to admit that I know very little about sustainability, but I feel as we are part of this ever changing world, we need to take charge and embrace this change, using sustainable practices is going to be inevitable in the future, so why not start now? In this project I want gain an insight into sustainable fashion practices and be able to apply them to my own designs, in a way that is accessible and wearable. Market is also something that I will address, working out the fine tuned balance that consumers want, design, affordability, fabrics, manufacturing processes and of course sustainability. Laura Bradley from Another Magazine states, “Clothes should be beautiful at any price and they should incorporate the house's aesthetic, without dumbing it down.”My diffusion collection will ultimately take the key aspects from my original collection, but transforming it into something for the everyday consumer,

brazen transitions - the first collection synopsis

Adj.1.bra-zen – to be unrestrained by convention or propriety ; tran·si·tions. - 1. Passage from one form, state, style, or place to another. Brazen transitions draws inspiration from my personal environment, looking directly at the public stairs that go pass my window and the weird and wonderful who use the transitional space. Drug addicts, homeless, business suits, school kids, a brazen coalescence of personalities all use this space day to day, merely an unconsidered blip on their journey. I wanted to capture the essence of this clash of characters and simulate their common connection of these structural stairs. I paralleled this idea with the visual metaphor of graffiti, which covers the area in which I live. I looked at how graffiti is a ‘mark’ of personality on the space and how these people are metaphorically and unconscious ‘colouring’ the steps as they use them.

My collection uses the stairs as a structural framework for my designs, drawing from the linear makeup and simplifying it down into geometric shapes. The people are mostly referenced through the colour, in which I chose bright and clashing colours taken directly from the crazy outfits and also from the grafitti. I didn’t want a literal interpretation of graffiti but rather draw from the important aspects, the colour, the expressive quality and the texture. I also hint at the ‘personalities’ through detailing, such as on the collars where I have embroidered ‘crack whore’ and ‘drug addict’, I wanted these details to be small and unexpected, adding a bit of humor. I am becoming increasingly interested in the idea of fast versus slow fashion. I wanted to contrast this idea of the constantly changing movement in the space with using slow fashion, as I believe it is going to be a real issue in the future. All the garments I created are to be worn for many seasons, designs that are interchangeable and beautifully crafted. I started to explore this with my sample fabrics manipulations, where many took hours to make just even a small section, as I felt detailing was very important. Kate Fletcher sums up this aspect of my collection, “using the ideas of speed to promote environmental and social quality”, while creating ‘slow’ fashion and how “combining the two brings newness underpinned by resilience, revolution bolstered by remembrance and fashion supported by nature and culture.”