{sustainable design 3} refashion

Source www.m-c-q.com Fall 2010 lookbook

Refashioning is the reshaping of a 'used' clothing garment to extend its life and includes transforming its style. It can be subtle or dramatic. Unlike upcycling, which will be profiled in a separate instalment of this series, the starting point and ending point are both clothing.

The commercialisation of fashion has led to fast fashion and the planned obsolescence of styles before the garment has even worn out. It places fashion at odds with the very notion of sustainability. Never fear! Refashion is here. It can turn last season's shirt into this season's skirt!

Cottage-scale

You are only ever a couple of clicks away from a refashion co-op or group. Refashioning is perfect for the production of one-offs. Just check out Katwise on etsy to buy some, the refashion co-op to share your own projects and my own little refashion right here.

Large-scale

The use of refashioning as a basis for larger scale sustainable design poses some planning and supply challenges. How can you base a business around refashioning if the 'refashion' is bespoke and depends upon the quality, type and availability of the second hand clothing? Kim Fraser stared down this issue and discovered men's trousers were available in large enough quantities with a relatively standard shape and construction to support a form of mass refashioning... into ladies dresses! This resulted in the T-series of dresses. That capitalised on repeatability and productisation.

source: http://aut.academia.edu/KimFraser/Papers/424669/ReDress-ReFashion_As_a_Solution_for_Clothing_Un_Sustainability

Refashioning en masse is possible. And I'll hold the candle for the postive impact of the online sewing communities on mass one-off refashioning. Do you find it easy or hard to throw out clothing? Have you thought of refashioning?

And here's some more from McQ's Fall 2010...  for parting refashion inspiration.

{Project Runway Australia Sew-a-long} Challenge 4

1960s (source www.carlazampatti.com)

Guest Designer: Carla Zampatti.

Take inspiration from 40 years of Carla's work- the '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s

The brief:

Select your decade (lucky dip style) out of bag. Designers work in teams (well, in pairs) to a create two fashion forward looks - they pick a team leader. $180 in fabric store and 12 hours in total to complete!

1970s (source www.carlazampatti.com)

1980s (source www.carlazampatti.com)

1990s (source www.carlazampatti.com)

Random factoid: I attended first year Sydney Law School with Carla's daughter, Allegra!

{Project Runway Australia Sew-a-long} glamourous thrifting

OK - running 60mins late... but here it is. On brief - made in under 8 hours. Voila

A modern day look for the glamorous girl around town. Made out of second hand clothes. Selected by someone else!

A tunic and skirt - makes for three different looks in one !!

1. Belted

2. Free (also great over leggings)

3. Tucked in

This third challenge of Project Runway Australia was hard. A refashion on its own is reasonable enough. Turning jeans or a shirt into a skirt is achievable. The hard part of this challenge was the "glamorous" brief. At best, second hand clothes are practical. At worst, unwearable. Seldom are they made of beautiful fabrics with which to create glamour.

This lined tunic top and skirt were each in their former lives a part of two terribly 80s/90s dresses. One encrusted with diamontes, the other emblazened with cheap gold buttons and admiral style pockets. urgh...

BEFORE - I achieved the challenge's twist by having someone else select the clothes for me

DURING - a little help from Dr. Livingstone. Not my cat, he just happens to call Livingstone House his home.

{giveaway winner} the art school affair beret

Congratulations, Arlene!

You're Le Coutureve's first giveaway winner.

{Project Runway Australia Sew-a-long} Challenge 3

 Follow a-long with Project Runway Australia. Do each week's challenge before the next week's episode. Grab the badge and join in!

The Challenge

Create a chic, expensive day look for the modern girl around town.
From
A truckload of second hand clothes, with three minutes to fill three bags full.

In

8-hours

The Twist?

Hand the bags of clothes you selected to the designer on the left.

Is there is a thrift store near you? Easy!
And how to simulate the twist? Ask the shop assistant to fill a bag for you? Or,  maybe fill one blindfolded!

I am excited by this sustainable design related challenge!

{Project Runway Australia Sew-a-long} a dress to impress Dannii

Challenge 2

Completed within time limit (took 7.5 of the 8 hours allowed).

To brief: Clean simple lines with effortless glamour. Feminine, sexy, empowered. Quality and attention to detail.

Looking at Project D's sample dresses, there were many classically elegant looks (with seasonal interpretations). But they were missing one (this one!). I was careful not to make the design too fussy. I focused on simple lines that flattered. Another thing Dannii Minogue stresses to the contestants is that it has to be "commercial". So, my final design is one that is an 'easy fit' and can look great on lots of ladies (the sequins are on stretchable jersey around your middle). And, btw, Dannii LOVES Grecian (drape, drape)!

Details: floor sweeper dress, fitted sequined bodice with side zipper. All other fabric is silk. A gorgeous pale faille for luxurious drape on the skirt. And a lighter silk for a airier drape on the top.

I am really excited with how these challenges are expanding my skills. I made this entirely without a pattern or a toile. The first week's challenge was my own pattern which I made first in paper pattern pieces and then as a toile. This garment is again my own but is 100% free-form construction!

I even had time to make the perfect shrug - the pattern I credit to IchiGoGirl.

{sustainable design 2} garment miles

Garment miles (and "food miles" in the context of food production) are all about measuring how many miles a garment has travelled to be on your back (or food has travelled to be on your plate). This is done with a view to understanding the environmental effect, and topically, the carbon impact, of those miles travelled.

The primary journeys
In fashion design, the primary journey of the garment to you can be broken down into three parts. First, from the place raw fibre is produced - for natural fibres (or, where the thread is synthesised, for synthetic fibres) - to the place those fibres and threads are woven, knitted or otherwise milled into a fabric. Second, from that place of fabric production to the place the fabric is cut and sewed. Third, from the place the garment is sewed to the shop where you buy it (the distribution).

Farrer, J. RCA, Fraser. K (2008) CONSCIENCE CLOTHING: POLARISATION
OF THE FASHION TEXTILE MARKET: Proceedings of the TIWC Hong Kong 2008

So, you see, home sewers are already saving on garment mileage by cutting out (so to speak) the journey from the fabric mill to the garment factory. Eliminating the garment distribution phase. The fabric comes direct to us!

Joan Farrer highlighted the third leg, the journey from the garment factory to you in her study "Conscience Clothing". The carbon emissions were calculated using the QANTAS carbon calculator. Simply select the place of origin of  your garment "Made in ..." and then select your closest city and the carbon emissions are displayed for you.

For all consumers, when you're making the decision to buy clothes, choosing local not only supports local economies and cultures, it reduces your carbon footprint, too!

But wait there's more...

Additional garment line mileage
By sewing our own, we are saving on the sampling phase. It is a secondary journey, because it occurs once for a clothing collection. And it, therefore,  must be divided across all the items in a collection or line. It is the garment sampling process. Garment sampling is comprised of the in-house production of samples by a designer and pattern maker working together as a proof of concept. And it is followed by the off-shore producer recreating the samples before mass-production is approved to commence. The transmission of the patterns themselves can be electronic, eliminating physical mileage. But the samples themselves must be sent back from the off-shore producer to the quality assurance or design team. Click, click. More miles.

Where does your fabric come from?
So are home sewers really making a difference? Admittedly, the fabric is still being distributed to fabric retailers. But there's no trip to and from the garment factory. Each and every saving adds up. Buying local clothing and fabric makes a difference.

Here's some Australian fabric producers:
Standardknit Fabrics
Certton
Both offer a great range of organic fabrics. Do you know some more? I am continuing to research this aspect. And have just discovered Australian Textile and Fashions magazine and TextileSource is also an online resource for you to discover some more producers yourself!

See also -
100 mile projects: A 100 mile diet, that in-turn inspired a 100-mile sustainable clothing project (albeit a controversial one) are pioneering initiatives highlighting the many benefits (and challenges) of sourcing locally.