Everything old is new again…

The seasonal waste of fashion created by the fast moving fashion cycle is staggering. One fashion designer, Gary Harvey is creating a name for himself by recycling and reusing things that are no longer seen as fashionable. Once a designer for Levi’s Europe, and working with the likes of Vivienne Westwood and Comme des Garçons he is now a famous fashion designer in his own right for creating unique, vintage, couture dresses.

His first collection was shown at the Estethica exhibition at London Fashion Week in 2007 and was designed to try and change people’s perception of second hand clothing. He sources all his materials from second hand shops, where people may “…wear it one or two times then discard it because it's suddenly deemed aesthetically unimportant and out of date when there's years of life left in the garment.” For one of his most famous designs he took roughly 50 pairs of discarded Levi 501’s to create a unique, eco dress. His designs are interesting, quirky and show that something that has been discarded and thought of as unfashionable can be reborn and made into something beautiful. He also uses some less practical materials to create statements, like paper and cans.

For more information see;

http://inventorspot.com/articles/recycled_fashion_and_designers_g_8871

http://gliving.com/gary-harvey-fashionably-political/

Harvey believes that all fashion in the future will become sustainable; he believes that this is because fashion can’t sustain itself if the industry continues at this current rate. This is not a bad thing to hope for, because if clothes are more sustainable the impact from the changing of seasons and fashion trends will be less

I think more designers can learn from him.

Monique van Heist ‘Hello Fashion’

The cycle of trends in particularly rampant in clothing design, where new seasons are brought out twice a year causing a great amount of waste. The recent global economic crisis, and the resulting slowdown is sales of clothing has cause some of the fashion world to re-examine the way in which their industry operates.

One designer who is acting out against the cycle of trends is Monique van Heist. The philosophy of her label ‘Hello Fashion’ is that her work will be eternal. She will not produce garments in seasonal ranges but rather add to a permanent catalogue of pieces that will remain permanently available.

In theory this is a very good idea. We do not actually need our clothes to look a certain way, their function is to keep us warm and covered. It would certainly be possible, I think, to wean the consumer market off of it’s yearly consumption of large amounts of new fashion if done delicately. People will always want new things, but by increasing the time ‘seasons’ of fashion last and by producing clothes of higher quality the high levels of waste and over consumption could be greatly decreased.

I must however, express my doubt at the eventual success of Monique van Heist’s particular endeavour. It seems to me that to achieve such aims as she targets one’s designs must be wearable and embody timeless aesthetic. To illustrate the source of my doubts I will now let her designs speak for themselves.







further reading:
Monique van Heist's wed site
re-shaping attitudes, at Design.nl