Monday, January 30, 2012

Upcycled Fashion: Flash & Trash Fashion Show

At school, we have a show called "Flash & Trash" during the fall semester.
The goal is to use unconventional materials to make clothes. For me, the whole goal of this was to reuse material, to up-cycle them.
I went for one of the most obvious one. The shopping bags. I don't know how people do in other states, but here in Texas, they still give us plastic or paper bags when we go grocery shopping. Coming from France where they stopped doing so to lower the amount of trash, I usually either bring mines or reuse them as trash bags. But I always have plenty of them.
So it fits perfectly with my vision of this show.
Here is the dress I made:

upcycled fashion

All the white are plastic bags, while the purple are dyed paper bags. I also used cardboards from cereals boxes to make the under-structure (petticoat and boning) as well as muslin for the lining of the bustier. Actually, even the muslin is recycled as those are pieces of gingham previously used for draping.
For the techniques used, I waived plastic bags, hand and machine sewed and stapled (petticoat).

And I love the final result.
The model is my friend Faye. She was really gorgeous and awesome.
Faye, thank you sooo much!


paper and plastic bags dress

Well, if I could change something, I would remove the bows on the skirt. I added them at the last minute 'cause I was afraid it would not be "enough" for this show. But I'm not fond of them.
On the other hand, I love the bolero and the purse!

A tiny mosaic of all the looks for the show:

recycling

Let's finish with some pictures of the steps.
Here is the drying of the dyed papers, as well as the bustier and its lining:

paper bustier

And there, the waiving of the plastic bags for the hand bag. It was fun but soooo long to do.
Only the hand sewing of everyplastic square of the bolero was as long as the waiving. I'm glad I could do both watching TV!
But hey, they both really worth it!

Waiving plastic bags