UPCYCLING-FASHION

4th Semester | Project: Too much textiles

Well, i am really not the Valiant Little Tailor... But i liked the idea of upcycling and so i decided to get into this project, also in order to improve my skills in working with textiles.

We got worn, disused uniforms from the Traffic Observatory of Coburg: Dozens of neon coloured jackets and trousers, equipped with reflective stripes, hoods, zippers and pockets. As you see: Much much textiles...

New clothes should be made out of the uniforms from the Traffic Observatory. They can be suitable for the everyday life or very fancy for the fashion catwalk. Everything is possible.

We got supported from a former student out of our university who is now working as a Fashion Designer for a label in New York. In weekly video conferences, she helped us with technical and design concerned topics.

Beside all of these unsewed parts of the neon jackets and trousers, some new cloth has been delivered from the fashion label in New York for our free usage.

The sewing process has been supported by an escaped Syrian Tailor, who's working for the "Coburger Dienste", a social service organisation of the city.

A topic should be found, represented from each design of the corporated collection.

First of all, our project group created some moodboards with suggestions of topics. They were worked out more until we agreed about the final topic: "URBAN REBEL"

Then, everyone sketched his first designs on figurine templates with an own interpretation of the topic.

I decided to create a wrap dress.



Ironically, someone who don't have a clue about fashion and seewing, takes the most uncommon kind of clothing, with no pattern available and the need for made-to-measure tailoring....



Transfering the principles of Industrial Design into the Fashion Design was a important part of the project.

Tightly wraped around the body two times, this dress is fixed by a long flap with an hook-and-loop fastener.

I'ts not only a "Urban Rebel" because of it's unusual way to wear it. The asymetric design and the tight fit make it cheeky and non-compliant. A tapering reflecive stripe reach from the bottom over the shulder until the back and let the dress appear more dynamic.

Other than most of my fellow students, i limited myself in the usage of parts of the exisiting neon jackets and trousers. I don't agree with the usage of brand new cloth, transported per air cargo from far away, inside a upcycling project.

To get the most out of the material, i seperated the dress into narrow cloth stripes, that can easily be cutted out of the unsewed parts.

The dress is very short and is worn with an associated, also asymetric skirt, made out of the inlays of the jackets. Except the thread, the whole dress ist made of 100% upcycling material.

The unsewed parts of the jackets and trousers have been photographed, digitally traced, scaled and labeled.

With this digital abstract of the cloth pieces, the necessary parts of the Wrap Dress could be arranged on the existing material in a very efficient way. Ony one jacket and one pair of trousers are needed for the dress.

For the shoot, we scouted out different urban places in Coburg: The old freight terminal, the highly frequented bridge Frankenbrücke, alleys with graffiti and the rooftop of my shared flat above the 8th floor.

Model for the shoot was my fellow student Elisabeth Ewald.

Together with the pictures of the photo shoot, the upcycling clothes were shown during the Night of Sustainability on the 22. September 2018 at the Design Campus Coburg. There was also a magazine printed with pictures of the workpieces inside.