Here’s a really cool submission from Studio Habeas Corpus.
THE BIRD DRESS PROJECT — new wings for used t-shirts:
> The Bird is a unisex tunic which anyone can make from 5 used T-shirts, using a downloadable pattern
> it was designed to create an easy, comfortable garment one would want to wear every day while keeping textiles out of landfills
> we recommend using old T-shirts you were willing to donate (the ones that work best are thick 100% cotton basic T-shirts), or asking for your friends & family to donate theirs to you.
> purchasing second-hand T-shirts from thrift stores is also a good option, however keep in mind that at this stage, the large majority of donated clothing has already gone out of the country to be resold internationally, which represents a big carbon footprint and uncertain futures
> by making The Bird dress with materials you already have, you are being gentle to the earth and to yourself
More: BIRD DRESS - studio habeas corpus. Pattern downloadable on etsy and kollabora
More about Studio Habeas Corpus:
A research & design studio focused on materiality and the body - through dress, architecture, dance, & history. Our goal is to bring to life a gentler, low-tech material world, through information & collaboration. http://www.studiohabeascorpus.com/
laughingsquid points to this Dress Made From the Pages of an Old Thesaurus:
Redditor jorimoo, also known as paperbagboris, made a beautifully detailed dress out of an old thesaurus. The dress is lined with fabric with a bodice underneath for support and is covered is hundreds of thesaurus pages. More photos can be found at imgur.
Previous dresses made from books? Oh yes. See here and here.
(laughingsquidから)
Elisabeth Lecourt recycles old maps and turns them into beautiful dresses and shirts. I don’t imagine they’re wearable, but they’d look lovely on the wall nevertheless.
I’m starting to feel bad for maps. But at least there are plenty of efforts to reuse them creatively: here are a bunch we’ve highlighted in the past.
Elisabeth Lecourt | Les robes géographiques: (via Dresses made from old maps - Boing Boing)
I’d totally wear this.
(via Katies Rose Cottage)
Note: Unconsumption caveat on using books as raw material. Also: Find some previous posts on new uses for old books here.
Mother: “The people who lived next door gave me this dress from Antibes which they had worn there over many seasons and they said I could have it for our holiday. A great success. And, I can’t think how many more years I wore it…
Daughter 1: "I am one of three sisters and we were very keen to wear this dress and have shared it since we were old enough to have a grown up figure… a period of about forty years…
Daughter 2: "So this dress has been going for a long time! It’s a sundress, it’s worn really on very joyous and special occasions so, for example, we have photographs of one or other of us wearing it… for example, my middle sister wore it at my mother’s seventieth birthday party.”
Daughter 1: “There’s a certain amount of jealousy between me and my middle sister, and she’s always asking if she can ‘have a go’ with the dress for our summer holidays. We often go away together in the summer and the dress always comes with us. And now, almost every holiday I’ve been on, I think, to a warm place the dress has come out and been worn.”
Mother: “We say, ‘Who’s got the dress this year?’, when they want it. And in the beginning I had sole possession of it.”
Daughter 2: “Well yeah, because we were too young to wear it.”
Mother: “Well, yes but it soon came the time…
Daughter 2: "And now there’s another generation coming up, our children, who have got their eye on that dress.”
Via Local Wisdom
At Laguna Beach’s 2011 Festival of Arts, a runway fashion show featured designs that festival exhibitors “created from at least 80% reused, recycled or reclaimed materials.”
Artist Brad Elsberry won the first prize of $1,000 for the second year in a row. His bridal gown and train was made of clear, plastic dry-cleaner bags with a strapless, backless bodice overlaid with “lace” made from white metal hangers. Even the bouquet was recycled — it was fashioned from laundry tickets and receipts.
(via Coastline Pilot; additional photos here)
A stunning gown made of recycled shirt collars by Junky Styling. Picture taken at Ethical Fashion Forum booth, London Clothes Show.
(Via Ethical Fashion – What does it mean? x6 | Shirahime -
An online search turned up another picture here of the dress (photo taken in London through the window of Junky Styling’s Brick Lane shop).
Very cool, isn’t it?
Boston-based designer Ryan Novelline made this amazing “storybook gown” out of discarded Golden Books. “The skirt is comprised entirely of the illustrations from the books sewn together with metallic gold thread, and the bodice is made from the books’ foil spines.”
For additional photos, including pictures of the making of the dress, click here.
(Hat tip to Friend of Unconsumption Naomi Seldin Ramirez, @simplerliving on Twitter.)
Craftster user, DuctTapeRockStar, created this awesome prom dress from almost four thousand soda pop tabs and 400 yards of ribbon. I love that she also created a cool tab boutonniere for her date.
But is it better than this? You decide, dear reader.
A Wisconsin mother spent six years collecting and folding Starburst candy wrappers to make her daughter’s prom dress.
Kerrin Frey, Tara’s mom, started work on the dress six years ago when she saw another mom weaving gum wrappers as they watched their kids play hockey.“
She can’t even tell you how many Starbursts she’s burned through; only that she was purchasing 20 pounds at a time. "We even called Starburst to see if we could just buy the wrappers from them without the candy in them.” The answer, “No, can’t do that.”
Instead Kerrin asked folks all over town to save wrappers, and even gave out 14 ounce bags of Starburst candy for Halloween, “and say, ‘could you just bring back the wrappers - and try not to rip them.’”
The dress is really cute, isn’t it?
Watch the video and/or read the rest of the story (don’t skip the part about the accessories!): Wisonsin teen going to prom in dress made from Starburst wrappers | kare11.com.
(hat tip to Haute Trash on Facebook)
Dresses Made from Recycled Newspapers
“FabSugar reports on a recent design challenge in NYC. Yesterday’s News, a brand of cat litter made from recycled paper had few fashion designers create dresses made from recycled newspaper. Brooklyn based eco-fashion designer Samantha Pleet made a cute pleated strapless dress (pictured left) and you can watch the video below to see her make it.” – Craftzine.com blog
