Upcycled

I am deeply drawn to working with materials that create technical limitations (limited fabric, holes, stains) and, at the same time, a historical value, sometimes even a stereotypical one. These materials therefore also carry conceptual constraints: they are associated with a specific gender, age, or period in time. 

The challenge is that it is very easy to make a recycled garment interesting after all, half of the work is already done for you: you inherit both a garment and its history. As a result, anything I make is inevitably dramatic, which means the manipulation must be intelligent. Otherwise, I would simply be taking advantage of the situation. This creates a conceptual challenge that forces me to innovate within what already exists, rather than riding the wave of something that is already made and already meaningful.

Instead, I take an object that was invented long ago, something that is half beautiful, half ugly and emphasize its beautiful elements while allowing the ugliness to dictate the design. In doing so, I create a third entity, that carries an entirely new set of associations, subtly referencing the garment’s history in small details while remaining distinctly new.

The collection of recycled shirts is a source of great pleasure to me. I enjoy designing around stains, and especially around my own mistakes. Because I did not study fashion in an academic framework, I have more space and freedom to fail, and it is often this element of surprise that generates the design. I respond intuitively to the limitations and unexpected outcomes of the medium as they naturally arise, adapting myself to the challenge.

By using collars and preserving the buttons and cuffs, I maintain the shirt’s original elements, which are primarily "masculine" and belong to the formal world of office work. Preserving this framework creates new creative constraints, within which I redesign the outer structure in the shape of the female body. I am particularly drawn to corsets because they remind me of gift wrapping. Every gift has a different shape, objects that have been carefully wrapped to conceal their contents, yet, because the wrapping is tight, it is never difficult to guess what lies inside. In gift wrapping, the folded corners and strips of tape become aesthetic elements in themselves. They remind me of the way I close my corsets a kind of delicate locking.