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Did You Say Upcycling Using Prom Dresses?

Topic: Upcycling — in collaboration with Valeria Hernandez

Like the title says, did you say upcycling using prom dresses? Sure did! Valeria and I have created a mini sportswear collection by upcycling our old prom dresses. We were inspired by Maison Margiela and the thought of high school seniors not able to attend their prom this year due to the pandemic. We want to inspire others to make use out of their dresses they are most likely not going to wear again. 

What is Maison Margiela?

Maison Margiela, formerly Maison Martin Margiela, is a French luxury fashion house headquartered in Paris and founded in 1988 by Belgian designer Martin Margiela. The house produces both haute couture-inspired artisanal collections and ready-to-wear collections. With Maison Martin Margiela going public in 2002, Margiela resigned as creative designer in 2009 and John Galliano was appointed to the role in 2014.

Maison Margiela was known for reworking existing garments, fabrics and objects to recreate new garments and accessories (Danyelle, 2007). For instance, a bricolage vest of wire and porcelain; a shirt made of gloves; a sweater of army surplus socks; doll outfits enlarged to adult proportions; and precise replicas of vintage garments; pieces made of salvaged, Scotch-taped plastic bags (2016).

Our Inspiration

Our sportswear mini collection was inspired by Maison Margiela, his concept, and the S/S 2020 Haute Couture collection. Most of the collection was made from materials that already exist: “memories” of conventional classics, recut, turned inside out, dissected, collaged, and punched through in a riot of color. John Galliano spoke in a house podcast about how he and his studio team had sat and decided “there are too many clothes in the world” (Mower, 2020).

This video, “Margiela, Deconstruction, & The Artisanal Sweater You Can Make at Home” also inspired us with the upcycling technique. The guy in the video takes socks and turns them into a sweater following Margiela’s technique. https://youtu.be/iBYo3COmpk4

Designs

Our designs were inspired by the 90’s/2000’s Y2K and pop princess aesthetic. With inspirations from Selena, Destiny’s Child, bright colors, iconic TV shows, and most importantly prom! This trend is super popular right now and we thought that the concept of repurposing a prom dress is cohesive to the look.

For our first design we used the beautiful green skirt of Valeria’s dress. We made it into a 3 piece matching set, with inspiration from the iconic 90’s Chanel era.  

Instructions for Sketch 1:

First, deconstruct the green skirt to get one big piece of fabric. Then lay out fabric flat and position your patterns in a way to where you have the least amount of scraps.

For the bottoms, use a basic pant sloper and cut it as short as you prefer, manipulating the two darts into one on either side of the pant. Then cut these pattern pieces out, sew the crotch, side seams, and add a hem.

For the top, use a basic bodice sloper, put it on a mannequin and use the draping method to make the crop top. Move excess fabric to the bust darts, draw in a sweetheart neckline, draw in however cropped you would like the top, then cut out pattern pieces. Sew in darts, side seams, and add a hem.

For the jacket, you will need a basic sleeve sloper, basic bodice sloper, and a notched collar. First put the basic bodice sloper (front & back) onto the mannequin. On the front, move excess fabric to the bust dart to match the crop top. On the back, move the excess fabric to the bottom dart only. Then for the neckline, you will be adding a notched collar so draw in a low V neckline to show off the top underneath. Then crop the drape 2-3 inches longer than the top to add dimension. Cut these pattern pieces out, sew in darts, side seams, add a notched collar, and a hem. For the sleeves, we decided to keep them simple and sleek, so use the basic sleeve sloper without any changes. Then cut the sleeves out, sew them into the bodice, and add a hem.

For our second design we used Kennedy’s tulle dress with flower appliques to make a Selena inspired jumpsuit. We are both obsessed with the iconic style of Selena so we just had to add it into our designs!

Instructions for Sketch 2:

First, deconstruct the dress by unattaching the bodice from the skirt. There should be multiple layers to the skirt, so lay them all out individually.

For the bottom of the jumpsuit, use the first polyester layer of the skirt, cut out the basic pant sloper, moving all the darts to the bottom of the pant, and add as much wideness to the bottom of the pant as you prefer. This added fabric will give the genie effect as you see in the sketch. Cut this pattern piece out of the first polyester layer of the skirt and the top tulle layer of the skirt with the flower appliques. Sew layers together, sew in the crotch, side seams, and then leave the bottom open. Then cut out a 5 inch peplum out of the top tulle layer with the flower appliques and sew right sides together with the bottom of the pant. Make sure the make the peplum smaller in circumference to give the cuffed/bubble effect to the bottom half of the pant.

For the top of the jumpsuit, reattach the beautiful sweetheart bodice to the pants and you will be adding a halter neck to the bodice to give a more sporty look. First measure the length of the top of the cups on the bodice. Then cut out two v shaped pieces out of the flower applique tulle, using the measurements. At the end of the v add a 10-12 inch extension so you get the exaggerated bow at the back of the neck. Cut the halter pieces out, add a hem, and sew right sides together to the top of the bodice.

Technique

Our sustainable fashion technique used is upcycling. This technique can be extremely helpful in the fashion industry because you are using a textile/object that doesn’t have a purpose and instead of throwing it away, you can turn it into a beautiful garment. We used this idea in our designs by upcycling a prom dress that’ll only be worn once, or in this year’s case…never. Why let a beautiful dress with quality fabric waste? In the video above, the designer is using one of Maison Margiela’s technique of using unconventional objects that no longer have a purpose and making them into a piece of functional clothing. We were inspired by this concept and it gave us the idea to give these beautiful dresses some life, rather than just one night.

References

Danyelle, J. (2007). MARTIN MARGIELA ARTISANAL: Reclaiming (Clothing) Design. Retrieved from https://inhabitat.com/martin-margiela-artisanal-reclaiming-clothing-design/

Maison Margiela News, Collections, Fashion Shows, Fashion Week Reviews, and More. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/designer/maison-martin-margiela  

Mower, S. (2020). Maison Margiela Spring 2020 Couture Fashion Show. Retrieved from https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2020-couture/maison-martin-margiela

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ZERO-WASTE FASHION

The fashion industry provides the world with many things we love. But we can’t forget about how much waste the industry produces as well. This topic has been over played, yet it is still a problem in today’s society. Then the idea of zero-waste fashion came to save the day. Zero-waste fashion refers to the practice of designing and constructing patterns with little to no fabric waste. A technique that I have learned and will be using in my next designs, is to use rectangular shaped pattern pieces. This helps with fabric waste by being able to cut the fabric in a “puzzle piece” manner so that there are little to no scraps. This technique comes from the Japanese culture along with many other zero-waste design principles. For example, the Japanese kimonos are very rectangular and boxy, yet still aesthetically pleasing. When the kimono was first designed, fabric was very important to the Japanese people so they minimized waste to maximize their fabric. In my zero-waste design I will be doing my own spin on a Japanese kimono and here are two instructional videos on zero waste kimono patterns. 

Kimono blouse made of five rectangles: Zero-Waste design https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T77U-wAM-h0&t=318s

Experimental fashion: Zero-Waste Jacket draping https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqkFOSYgLQM

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Garment Design and Production

Topic: Zero-Waste -- in collaboration with Valeria Hernandez

Chapter three discusses garment design and its wear. The designer also learns to adopt a design-led approach. The important factor in making design decisions is understanding the relationship between the wearer and garment. The success of a design-led approach relies upon your wearer engaging with the garment during the use phase, whether this involves participating with all of the features offered by a multifunctional garment or placing the garment in an appropriate recycling system (Gwilt, 2014). Alison Gwilt states that while there are many ways to approach designing for empathy, it is necessary for a designer to understand the emotional signs that a garment can provide the wearer and bring that insight to the design process. A connection can be established where there is a direct relationship between designer and wearer; a co-designed approach being used to deliver the wearer’s needs into a highly personalized garment. The creation of a collection begins with the fabric and textile techniques. There is more to it other than its appearance. The fabric choice, techniques, and coating all contribute to the impact of a garment. The chapter is concluded by explaining how using mono-materials leads to successful engagement in recycling.

Chapter four goes into depth about the production process, patternmaking and toiling, and garment construction. The design and production process for a garment involves a generic sequence of activities. A garment is sketched, a paper pattern is drafted, a toile (garment made testing the pattern) is produced, a marker is made, the full sample range is cut and made, and then selected garments are manufactured for retail. During all these phases, it is important for the designer to look for opportunities for materials and resources to be used wisely and efficiently. They will need to identify all types of waste that are created during the production phase and look further down the pipeline to see what other impacts may arise because of the decisions made at this point. One of the biggest issues associated with the production phase is the creation of unnecessary textile waste (Gwilt, 2014). While creating a paper pattern, one must understand the body and how the garment moves to fit to differential sizing. Textile waste is created but the designer adopts zero-waste techniques through trial and error. The chapter is concluded by once the final sample garment has been developed and approved for manufacture, the design is ready to go into production. Using the appropriate materials and construction techniques makes an important contribution enhancing durability through use.

I think it is important knowing the wearer’s needs in a garment and forming a relationship between the garment and the one wearing it. As a future designer, I want my products to be what people want to keep buying due to its personalization, fit, and comfortability. I also want my products to be worn more than once and last a while. As far as production, I think learning techniques to reduce the amount of fabric waste is what I hope to learn in the future to increase my knowledge and my design process.

This video “Zero Waste Daniel Turns Clothing Scraps Into Fashion” explains how a designer started a company that strictly uses recycled fabric and scraps to make garments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qqiKNzwHMg

Dr Mark Liu

An acknowledged designer in the area of Zero-Waste Fashion design in the sustainable fashion movement in London. Dr Mark Liu is a fashion and textile designer focused on advancing fashion design with scientific principles to traditional techniques. While developing zero-waste design he discovered that there were serious limitations in the accuracy of conventional patternmaking (2016). Techniques that used linear measurements to create patterns around the body were limited in accuracy and constantly required the intervention of a skilled patternmaker.

His design philosophy is based on Non-Euclidean patternmaking. Liu is making a difference because he is implementing a technique that other designers struggled to find to prevent waste. As related in the text and patternmaking, this philosophy introduced a unique aesthetic for zero-waste garments and explored many new zero-waste patternmaking techniques. It required the fashion designer to simultaneously visualize the garment in 3D and as a flat pattern. Using a repetitive process, the designer could create a garment that was aesthetically pleasing in 3D while also fitting the flat pattern pieces fitted together like a jigsaw (2016). Liu says A Non-Euclidean patternmaking system which has greater accuracy can improve the efficiency of fashion production and technology.

Dr Mark Liu is an inspiration, he designs using zero-waste techniques. I think that takes time to achieve by figuring out and learning how to do so. These chapters relate to patternmaking by using different techniques to reduce waste but also to create garments that can be worn in many ways. I can apply new ideas and research how I can slowly transition my techniques into new beneficial ones during my college career. I will also ask more questions for assistance on how I can make my patterns differently, drape differently to reduce waste.

I think it is amazing what Dr Mark Liu has been able to do. His design philosophy is unique, and it shows how invested he is in his work. I have learned that he took time to figure out an advanced way of patternmaking by looking at it in a three-dimensional standpoint. As referred in the text, Liu used laser-cut decorative edge finishes that interlock before the garment pieces are cut out of the fabric. His techniques are making a huge impact in the environment and other designers.

Website: http://www.drmarkliu.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drmarkliu/

Blog: http://www.drmarkliu.com/journal-1  

References

About. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.drmarkliu.com/about

Gwilt, A. (2014). Practical Guide To Sustainable Fashion (1st ed.). doi: 10.5040/9781474218559

Non-Euclidean. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.drmarkliu.com/noneuclidean

NowThis News. (2017. August 12). Zero Waste Daniel Turns Clothing Scraps Into Fashion | NowThis. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qqiKNzwHMg

Photo References

Fallon, Nick. (2009). Unicorn. Retrieved from http://www.drmarkliu.com/unicorn

Hawes, Ela. (2008). On The Cutting Edge. Retrieved from http://www.drmarkliu.com/on-the-cutting-edge

Hawes, Ela. (2007). Zero-Waste Design. Retrieved from http://www.drmarkliu.com/zerowaste-design-1

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Just learned about “Slow Fashion” (eco-fashion, basically) today from a brilliant Australian model and I think the world of solarpunk fashion could really benefit from this movement—if they didn’t already know about it??

Did y’all know about this “slow fashion” thing?!!

@solarpunkfashionweek @solarpunkfashion @solarpunk-stuff @flowersandfutures @coppersunshine @plantyhamchuk @frankiegoeszero @j0yful4n4rchy

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Sustainable Fashion From a Designer’s Perspective

In chapter one of “A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO SUSTAINABLE FASHION” the reader is introduced to the ongoing problem and key issues in the fashion industry. The author, Alison Gwilt, portrays how the world can fix these habits by implementing sustainable fashion. Essentially, sustainable fashion is the idea of manufacturing and designing clothes that minimize the harsh effects it has on the environment. Gwilt also claims that the first steps of sustainable fashion starts with the responsibility of the designer and how he/she decides to produce their garments. However, it should be remembered that designers must consider the principles of sustainable design in relation to their own particular situation and apply them appropriately and with conviction (Gwit, 2014). The chapter concludes by explaining that the fashion industry is continuing to make improvements while still producing unique and intricate designs.

Chapter two, “The life cycle of a garment” is thoroughly explained and the potential environmental and social impacts of the design and production process is identified. The life cycle is generally broken down into five key phrases: design, production, distribution, use and end-of life. Applying a life cycle approach to the design process requires thinking through all the stages (Gwilt, 2014). Throughout the process, designers are able to evaluate and assess the sustainability needs of their designs in order to make improvements. Alison Gwilt, concludes the chapter explaining the importance of using sustainable design strategies. This is important not only to know the creative potentials and opportunities of engaging with sustainability, but to understand how sustainability can possibly change a designer’s perception when designing and making garments.

I think sustainability has become more popular and is being used more often in the fashion industry. I never really understood what the difference it made. As a future fashion designer, I am most likely to use the life cycle of a garment discussed in the chapter.I had no idea of the serious damages that a lot of popular brands are being put into the environment. I think in our generation, millenials and Gen Z, we lack the knowledge of using sustainability and what a difference it would make if we slowly transitioned to using sustainable products. Being a victim of online shopping and fast fashion, I appreciate the effort and improvements being made to fix the fashion industry.

Stella McCartney

A designer that is implementing sustainable fashion is Stella McCartney. Her design philosophy is “We are committed to operating a modern and responsible business.” McCartney’s mission for sustainable fashion can be inspiring to many other brands by the decisions that they are making to make a difference in the fashion industry. For example, on the Stella McCartney website they state: “Each decision we make is a symbol of our commitment to defining what the future of fashion looks like. From never using leather or fur and pioneering new alternative materials to utilising cutting edge technologies, pushing towards circularity, protecting ancient and endangered forests and measuring our impact with ground-breaking tools.” Stella McCartney stores are eco-friendly, including wood that we use within our stores and offices is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified. This means it comes from certified, sustainable managed forests. All of their packaging and paper is either FSC certified or from recycled sources. In general, they aim to use at least 50% post-consumer waste paper in all of their stores, helping them to become a zero waste business.

Stella McCartney incorporates sustainable principles in her business. The company uses a breakthrough decision-making tool called the Environmental Profit and Loss (EP&L) to measure and understand their impact on the environment that goes beyond traditional environmental reporting. McCartney is known for not using leather, fur, or exotic skins in her collections or collaborations. Within her collections, she uses organic cottons and low-impact dyes, and embraces new techniques and materials (Gwilt, 2014). The company aims to reduce negative impacts across its entire operations, including reviewing and improving production as discussed in chapter two.

Learning from these two chapters has inspired me to start making changes in my designing process by purchasing sustainable fabrics, using less pattern making paper, and also using different design techniques to save my fabric. These chapters relate to patternmaking by rethinking how to make pattern pieces and the layout. Questions to ask myself as a designer would be, how could the layout be improved to reduce fabric usage? Are the pieces close enough together? Would happen if I folded the fabric differently, or did not cut on the fold?

Stella McCartney’s design philosophy is influential and inspiring as she produces quality sustainable products. I have learned that she isn’t only focused on womenswear but has introduced innovative textiles and business strategies to uplift sustainability. She has adapted the philosophy to various categories, including accessories, eyewear, childrenswear, and menswear. Her design process can have and make an impact on current and upcoming fashion designers.

Website: https://www.stellamccartney.com/us

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stellamccartney/?hl=en

References

Gwilt, A. (2014). Practical Guide To Sustainable Fashion (1st ed.). doi: 10.5040/9781474218559

Mission statement. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.stellamccartney.com/experience/en/sustainability/themes/mission-statement/

Stella McCartney. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.stellamccartney.com/us

Photo References

McCartney, Stella. (n.d.). Cashmere. Retrieved from https://www.stellamccartney.com/experience/en/sustainability/themes/materials-and-innovation/cashmere/

McCartney, Stella. (n.d.). Organic Cotton. Retrieved from https://www.stellamccartney.com/experience/us/sustainability/themes/materials-and-innovation/organic-cotton/

McCartney, Stella. (n.d.). Fur-Free-Fur. Retrieved from https://www.stellamccartney.com/experience/us/sustainability/themes/materials-and-innovation/fur-free-fur/

McCartney, Stella. (n.d.). Our eco-friendly stores and offices. Retrieved from https://www.stellamccartney.com/experience/en/sustainability/our-stores-and-offices/

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Zendaya Coleman Attends the Critics’ Choice Awards 2020

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Janelle Monae - 2020 Academy Awards Photos: Getty