Science and fashion

Suzanne Lee was a science major, albeit at the bottom of her class. She did not enjoy what she did and decided to try her luck in the fashion industry. The grueling industry took its toll on her. Then, quite interestingly, she realized she had come full circle. Lee discovered that the years spent studying science did not go to waste, but helped add something unique to her fashion design - an eco touch. Below is an interesting TED video about Lee's discovery:

Mandela and fashion

46664 shirts.

You know him as the former president of South Africa, in addition to being a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, as well as the person who aided South Africa in winning the rugby cup in 1995. Another project Nelson Mandela has taken on as of late in order to further promote and advance his country in the world deals with the fashion industry – yes, you read that correctly – fashion.

 46664 is the name of the fashion brand created by the Nelson Foundation and it is set to debut in August of this year. The brand name stands for Nelson’s inmate number at Robben Island Prison, where he was held for eighteen years for his anti-apartheid causes. The fashion line has a dual cause – one is to fight against HIV/AIDS prevention and the other is to promote South Africa’s textile and clothing industry. The apparel brand is the first global brand of its kind to originate in South Africa and there are big plans for the line – the goal is to make it as big as the other internationally renowned fashion companies. The fashion line will sell men’s and women’s clothes all with colorful prints, in the tradition of African style clothing, and will also feature a few accessories.

Trash as clothing

Have you ever considered wearing a dress made out of tires? It would be quite  different and the dress would be a tough thing to sew together – you would need a pretty strong and hefty sewing machine in order to accomplish that task – so most likely the response from most people would be a no. Yet, it is a unique proposal that makes one wonder… In our easy-come, easy-go society, where after buying groceries from the store and carrying home in the paper bag, or consuming that store-bought sandwich wrapped in plastic wrapping, we simply throw the paper and plastic into the recycle bin (some unfortunately still throw it in the trash) and go about our day without an afterthought to what we have done. Pretty quickly, with so many people doing the same thing, the recycle bins fill up and the trash items spill over and we are faced with an environmental problem, which could have been prevented had we not been so wired to constantly consume.  

But, taking into consideration that our society is already prewired to overconsume, what if we could make a few positive tweaks to change our situation for the better? Instead of recycling all of the items we could put them to use. I honestly would find it hard to wear a dress made out of tires, but one made out of old ties craftily put together, or old pieces of fabric artistically patterned to create a dress or a skirt would definitely be something I would not say no to. What about you?

If you would like to see more pictures of trash being worn as a piece of clothing, check out Avantgarb{age}, The Art in Wearing Trash, a collaboration between an Argentine designer Aidana Baldassarre and photographer Caitlin Kelly.