sustainable fashion

Lime wood 26cm x 9.5cm x 13cm; cotton lashing

The ultimate sustainable approach to design is to prioritise the potential longevity of the designed item and consider its later maintenance as a key part of its essence.  The features of this object are reminiscent of those found on a wooden boat. This draws attention to the effort and passion with which a boatowner cares for their vessel.  Ownership in this sense does not imply passive consumption. Furthermore, an engaged relation of labour constitutes part of the enjoyment of such possession.

Displayed at the Re-Dress exhibition at Dún Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures July 2010.

Thanks to Chris Pendrich for wood carving mentorship.

CRY OUT the new theatrical production from the Theo Adams Company premiered in Tokyo November 30th 2009.  Costumes by Olivia Hegarty and Pipa Greenbank.

all photos c/o www.theoadams.net

As part of the Fashion Evolution week of events in Dublin, I’m running a clothes swap to collect stuffing for the second mounting of Infinite Context there.

Come down on May 2nd to The South William with as much of your old clothes as you can carry and swap with others - find some gems.

FREE IN //// BOYS AND GIRLS CLOTHES //// starts 8pm

(Bring down old cushions too if you have any for the seating sculpture)

The clothes swap at Cafe Oto on Sun 1st March was a great success.  Thanks to all who contributed!

Re-Dress are an organisation based in Dublin set up by three vibrant ladies Rosie O’Reilly, Kellie Dalton and Kate Nolan for the promotion of sustainable fashion and textiles in Ireland.

I participated in a project for their stand in the Green Area of Electric Picnic 08.  The brief was to ‘upcycle’ a tent into a garment.  I used an old 60’s British army tent with some high-quality original details which I preserved in the final piece.  The idea was to highlight the importance of intention in design.  If you do not intend that a product will be recyclable at the end of its first life-span, then the inevitable outcome for its life after recycling is a lower grade product.

Braungart and McDonagh in Cradle to Cradle use the example of recycled plastics being made into synthetic fibres for the use in clothing where the chemical content of those fibres was never intended to sit against the body and can in some cases be in fact harmful.  One of my original concerns was the suitability of tent textile for use against the body, and I contemplated creating an upcycled object for the project that was not necessarily wearable.  But I guess if you can sleep in a tent, you can wear it right? And either way, there are certain restrictions to upcycling which probably only apply on a mass-manufacture scale and the value of hand-crafted one-off pieces transcends all those concerns as there is automatically transparency in the process.

In aligning a tent with clothing, there are joint properties that can be explored - protection and shelter.  For this, I went with a cloak, as an object that is possibly inhabited more than worn.