Paradigm of Sustainable Wardrobe

Paradigm of Sustainable Wardrobe includes five outfits. Each outfit represents the individual procedures in the fashion supply chain from material, design, production, consumption to end-use, and carries its own character to provide the specific information of sustainable fashion. This project aims to provoke the communication and operation of sustainable fashion, and discovers the profound meaning of fashion from cultural, social and environmental aspects.

Paradigm explains the project is based on fashion system and showcases the experimentation on both theory and practice in sustainable fashion. Wardrobe is a metaphor conveying the consuming behaviors on either obsolescence or insatiate purchase in order to question the purpose of fashion possession. 

Material - Dissolvable dress

Composition: 100% PVA 

The first outfit represents the infinite lust of human beings. Unsymmetrical shoulder stripes are metaphors for the imbalance of human desires and needs in fashion products, and the shrinkage of layers at the bottom of the dress explains that the unlimited desires are dissolved into the waste composition without harness.

The dress is made by a water dissolvable material to provide an alternative idea for high fashion pieces. Instead of making short-term life cloth by the fabrics, which takes a long time to decompose into landfill, designers are able to combine innovative textiles to decrease the environmental impact in water pollution, energy consumption, chemical emission and waste volume.

Design - Dress shirt + One piece pleated skirt

Composition: 100% Organic Silk + 100% Polypropylene

This outfit addresses the importance of style, silhouette, cutting, detail, quality fabric and creation in order to maintain permanently. It is designed to be past down by generation, and able to articulate its own epoque alone time goes on, as a piece of future heirloom. Besides, a piece of garment in longevity, sometimes, contributes higher energy consumption in the use phase rather than the production stage. The shirt from this outfit is made by organic silk and can be washed in cold water, dried up naturally, and ironed in low temperature; the skirt is made from polypropylene fibers, which is odor-repellent, filth-resistant, instant-drying and anti-wrinkle.

Production - Hand weaving vest + Inset pocket dress

Composition: 100% Organic cotton

This garment is made by calico, organic cotton, to express the concept of the development process and is presented as a semi-finished garment. Each edge on the garment retains the cutting lines, which enables a perspective of the basic blocks of garments, and the raw edges also reduce the sewing procedures to increase the production efficiency. French seams and felt seams present the idea of inside out, and a way to understand the garment construction. In addition, specification sheets and assembly procedures are applied along to the garment to explain the construction in detail, and show the procedures which have been performed by the sewers. It brings a transparent approach, for the reader, to understand the inside of garment production.

Consumption - Hand weaving dress

Composition: 100% Course bourette silk

This is a hand-made dress without the use of a sewing machine. This one-of–a-kind piece reflects the connection between wearer and makers, it also represents an individual and unique identification. It is to be said that it is important to define a personal style, and build a solid, intense and personal relationship with products to claim the responsibility of personal belonging as a modern consumer. To experience fashion in culture and people is significant, which expressed the profound meaning of fashion in social constitution. Then, beginning to realize that a piece of delicate cloth is always created by the accumulative efforts and passion from designers and makers. 

End Use - 50's Short dress + Vintage necklace

Composition: 100% polypropylene

This outfit presents the idea of a circular system in the industry instead of the linear system to decrease the amount of disposable garments, which are straight into landfill. The combination of recyclable and recycled materials is the principle feature. The vintage laces represent the unique, individual and personal identification to arouse a past time. The dress is made from an innovative material (recyclable), which will transform into a new story in the future. Designers should magnify the ability on dissect and re-assemble the disposable garments to provoke the value of retrospection, and at the same time, absorb the new techniques to evolve a sustainable future in fashion industry. 

Paradigm of Sustainable Wardrobe is the studio project from my master course 2011/12 in University of Brighton. copyrights by naihsia 2011