a pile of clothes

more explorations...

2008-09-07T01:52:00.000-07:00

Here are some more explorations based on my moodboard...

I replicated the hajmola wrapper with two different sets of material to suggest how it can be one design can be produced in quantities with old fabric..All of us can find a number colors in their wardrobes, houses etc...so its not hard to the same thing with two different sets of material
and also produce it it numbers.

Yeh andar ki baat hai- Rupa, Softline!

Focus!

2008-08-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

After i finished doing all these material explorations i realised there was nothing which was coherent amongst them. They were just random materials picked up from a pile clothes and then put together using various techniques, without putting in much thought. Which i believe is also important because its was important for me to explore the techniques i could work with in order to figure what works best with the kind of material i am working with.

But at the same time i needed some focus in my explorations, so that there is a common link between them. I brainstormed on what my inspiration should be based on what do i want my final products to look like. Because i am catering to the Indian market, i wanted to pick up something which is essentially Indian and to which most of the Indian can relate to. While the brainstorming things like spice box, tijori (an extremely ornate Indian safe), Indian royalty, curosity cabinets, bollywood, Indian street art, bangle stands etc...I finially chose COMMON INDIAN HOUSEHOLD BRANDS as my inspiration for my final collection of products. Indian household brands like basmati rice, nirma soap, dhara cooking oil, doordarshan etc. are some brand name which every Indian is familiar with and relates to at some level and these brands are a big part of any Indian household.

I am going to draw inspiration from the patterns, text, font, imagery, layout, colour, texture from the packaging of these brands.

Below are the mindmaps which i did before reaching this conclusion (my final inspiration) during the branistroming session with a couple of friends.

My Mood Board

The mind maps below are the ones which i did after i finished making my moodboard, these mindmaps hepled me extract those elements out of my moodboard which would be the basis of the designs for my final collection. I looked at the visual language which my moodboard followed, i observed the text, images, colours and pattern. I started making connections between my explorations and the moodboard, i realised that there were a few techniques which i tried out earlier especially applique, patch work which are going to be really good to traslate different elements of my moodboard. Because the way colors are, they are pretty bold and patchy, therefore patchwork would be a great way to translate the boldness and the lines are mostly simple, even though there are some pretty complex lines and images in the examples present in my moodborad, applique is going to be extremely useful to translate the imagery, may be along with some screen printing. So, lets see how it goes now...!!!

The mindmaps:

Back again!

2008-08-30T05:53:00.000-07:00

After this long disappearing act which I did...I guess i am back on the blog!!! Here are some explorations which I did earlier this month. I just tried out different techniques with the material that I have.

For the first few explorations, I was essentially focusing on making new products by manipulating the existing garment. I guess one thing that was really holding me back from using the materials to its fullest was the construction of the garment.

A skirt made out of a kurta

skirt turned in a bag
strips of the same kurta braided

which could probably be used a piece of jewellery!

A leg warmer made from a denim skirt and a t-shirt

a bag made out of a kurta and t- shirt

I tried doing some stuff with resin, but unfortunately it didn't work because there was something wrong with the ingredients and the consistency of the mixture. So, it was hardening really fast making it hard to work with. Below are a few frames that made to set the fabric with resin

i removed the back of a t-shirt and attached these trims which i got from an export waste market

macrame

Interviews and questionnaire

2008-08-03T02:00:00.000-07:00

I sent out the questionnaire to a lot of people and I have been visiting people's houses Interviewing them and to understand their shopping habits, how much to they waste, how do they discard their textile waste and to get live examples of how they reuse their textile in their houses.

I was amazed at people's responses, it also amused me little bit. A lot of People told me that they buy clothes every week and that to in fairly large quantities, they are just accumulating as many clothes as they can. Most of the people seem to be donating their old clothes to charity or giving them to their household help. I was surprised to know that some people actually throw their clothes in garbage bins...And some are just collecting clothes in their wardrobes and they are so attached to them don't want to get rid of them ever, but at the same time they don't know what to do with so many of them.

When I asked people if they'd like to reuse their clothes, most them said that they'd rather buy new clothes than reusing the old ones and the ones who said that they wouldn't mind reusing only if the products look good, new and smell good! Surprisingly most of the people I spoke to don't really want to invest in any recycled, remade products. I don't know what is this block that they have with against it. I guess, it could be their desire of buying new stuff and looking a certain way and keeping up with trends...

After I get all my information and I finish meeting people, I will compile all of it and put it up..it will be interesting to see different people's responses put together.

New revised Proposal

2008-07-31T13:36:00.003-07:00

DESIGN BRIEF

I intend to work with fabric which has been termed outdated, old, waste and create fresh products which make a statement that “waste is not really waste”.

I want to apply the knowledge and skills that I have acquired until now to create products which redefine the existing notion of ‘waste’.

While working with old, waste fabric I am going to be look at ‘Jugaad’ as an inspiration. Jugaad, an Indian term which emerges from people making most out of their limited resources and putting things together to find an innovative solution.

Hypothesis

Fabrics are often discarded in fairly large quantities before they wear out due to reasons like fashion change, boredom or accidental damage. It can still be utilized, and many people do so. Some give it away as charity, others use a little bit of innovation and turn it into something new which they can wear, carry or use in their houses. For e.g. an old sari gets converted into a curtain or a skirt, a tattered tee-shirt becomes a duster, a worn out pair of jeans turns into a bag. This way the original product and its value still remains, while it serves a purpose as well.

The rise of Consumer Culture has led to an explosion of brands and a mushrooming of malls being built in every corner of the city. People, who can afford, invest in expensive brands and the people who can’t, resort to cheaper alternatives. They desire to maintain a certain standard of living.

Shopping has become just a pass time for the consumers.

But, what about the plies of clothes which already exist in their houses?

Through this project I want to communicate to the people who are often wasteful and give them recommendations as to how they can make use of the piles of fabric that they already have in their houses and create variety for themselves instead of spending more money and buying new stuff.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

- What kind of fabric do people generally consider as ‘waste’?

- What are the factors that influence people’s choice to discard clothing or not?

- What do they do with the fabric which they are not using anymore?

- What are the different methods by which people reuse the fabric in their houses?

- To look at different examples of Jugaad.

- To understand the meaning and value of re-usability.

- What kind of work has already been done and is happening under the context of reusability and recycling of fabric?

- What kind of products can be made using waste fabrics?

- What techniques can be used to put the old fabrics together?

- What is the life-span of these recycled products?

- How can they be made to last longer?

- What kind of people want to invest in recycled products? What is my market / target audience?

APPROACH

- Interviews and questionnaires- to find out what do people do with their old, discarded, waste clothing and fabric.

- Meeting people who have expertise in this area of reusing and recycling.

- Collection of waste fabric from various sources.

- Exploring the gathered fabric and to try and identify their properties and how it can be moulded and modified.

- Exploring different techniques like weaving, printing, dyeing, surface texturing, patch-work, quilting etc.

- Looking for different ways of interpretation and representation of recycling fabrics.

- Prototyping and product.

- Documentation.

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

- Fabric.

- Yarn, thread, materials for surface embellishment.

- Websites:

http://www.inhabitat.com/

http://www.sustainablestyle.org/

http://www.thegreenloop.com/

http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/

http://www.allthingsgreen.net/

http://www.recyclingconsortium.org.uk/

Etc…

- Articles

- Blogs

- Books:

Cradle to cradle by William McDonough & Michael Braungart

Clothing as material culture by Susanne Kuchler & Daniel Miller

No Logo by Naomi Klein

- Magazines.

RESOURCE PEOPLE

- Swati Unakar

- Meera Curam

- Experts in the area of recycling and reusing.

- People who work with the idea of Jugaad.

LEARNING

- To differentiate between fabrics which have potential to be used in some form or the other, from the fabrics which have totally been exhausted and to learn how to put both these kind of fabrics into use?

- To understand the significance of fabric both at personal and cultural levels.

- To learn how re-using material adds or subtracts value (the cultural/personal significance of the fabric and also its natural qualities) from the new product.

- To learn different ways of representation of recycling and reusability to create awareness.

- To learn how old fabric can be re-used to make innovative and practical products.

- To learn how various systems work. (For instance: how does the industrial fabric waste is circulated, what happens to the domestic fabric waste etc.)

- To explore my role as designer in the area of recycling and reusability of textiles.

- To use my acquired design skills in order to find the best possible solution (identifying various ways of reusing unused fabric) in this context and to find my niche as a designer.

- To develop products of high quality and finesse.

PROPOSED OUTCOMES

Not decided yet, my process will define the final products.

Next....

2008-07-22T01:44:00.000-07:00

Next steps for my research are:
1. to work a questionnaire
2. to visit markets which sell waste surplus fabric in Bangalore, like RC Puram, to visit tailors and textile mills to collect waste fabric and find out information about their waste management.

I aiming to finish all this my the end of this week, hopefully!

Interesting links!

2008-07-22T01:34:00.000-07:00

www.thegreenloop.com
www.jugaadu.com
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9684069
www.iirwm.com
freshlyblended.blogspot.com
www.greatgreengoods.com
www.bangalore.quikr.com/
www.doors8delhi.doorsofperception.com
www.indianjugaad.wordpress.com/

Kantha

2008-07-22T01:23:00.000-07:00

Kantha - Traditional Indian way of recycling textiles.
It is style of embroidery which comes the state of Bengal. Many layers of muslin are stitched together using running stitich.

Intelligent Products

2008-07-22T00:43:00.000-07:00

Cushions and seats made out Discarded seatbelts

Cushions made out labels...Detailing done with the embroidery is good!!!
These products are interactive and they tell a story about the products, making it more engaging!
One of the bags made out of candy wrappers! These bags are fun because they put candy wrappers in a different contex all together.
Notebook made out of a cereal box
A ring made of a vintage tie

A wallet made out a vintage tie.

www.ecoble.com
www.inhabitat.com

Other ways of recycling textiles

2008-07-22T00:39:00.000-07:00

http://greencotton.wordpress.com/2008/06/14/vintage-consignment-the-new-green%E2%80%A6or-is-it-black/

Recycles Fashion by si:su

2008-07-22T00:25:00.000-07:00

The finishing quality of the products is remarkable. a very neat job.

http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/06/29/sustainable-style-reclaimed-textiles-from-sisu/

Billabong- some cool stuff!!!

2008-07-21T23:50:00.000-07:00

Design for humanity, a design contest for tee shirt prints. Below are some of the winner's designs.

http://billabong.com/girls/eu/blog/2008/07/design-for-humanity-event-in-hollywood/

Billabong's new summer range consists of these recycled boardies made from a fabric recycled from recycled textiles and plastic bottles.
http://billabong.com/girls/eu/blog/2008/06/recycled-boardies/

Waste Collection

2008-07-21T13:36:00.000-07:00

So, I have started collecting waste, old fabric and i started it from my friends. Its interesting because I am getting all sorts of fabric especially clothes. Strangely, I have been getting a lot of denim, probably because its the most, longest worn piece of clothing and most of us share a relationship with our denims, so tend to keep it with us and even wear it even when its torn, faded or whatever, its your jeans at the end of it...Anwyay, enough being sentimental about jeans. I have also been getting a lot of tee shirts, cotton kurtas, pants, shirts etc. and some obscure clothing which people had never worn before but they just bought it for some reason.
I am also going to get waste fabric from mills and factories, tailors and markets which sell only waste, surplus fabric.
I am excited to see what kind combination of fabrics am i going to have at the end of it!

The Initial Spark!

2008-07-21T13:03:00.000-07:00

This project went through a lot of phases before it reached at this level. My initial inspiration was just to make use of the fabric which most us have in our houses and we refuse to get rid of it. Each one of us has a different reason to not get rid of a piece of clothing, they just rest in our wardrobes for months and years. Eventually, we either throw it away or give it someone who needs it or we reuse it in some way.

I observed that it has almost been a tradition especially in India (and other parts of the world as well), that people keep reusing the stuff that they own in some or the other way to find an alternative use of it.

In India, we call it JUGAAD, an innovative way putting things together to find solution. Jugaad majorly caters to the Indian sense of aesthetic and gives it a different dimension all together.

I was curious about what happens to the fabric when it is just thrown away? what happens to the fabric waste produced by various textile mills and the small tailoring shops?
I had an idea about waste fabric being circulated at different levels in the industry, but I was never sure of hows and whats...

Then i read this book called CRADLE TO CRADLE by William McDonough & Michael Braungart, which gave me insights into the waste production, management and how it is now necessary to do something about the waste that we produce. It gave me a whole new dimension to think about!

As, a designer, there is definitely something that I can do about it, may be at a small scale but, it will still make a difference at some level which is much need at this point of time. By jus making products which come out of waste but still are as competent and as aesthetically appealing as the products make out of fresh raw material.

I really hope that I can do justice to waste I work with, because it's valuable!

The Timeline

2008-07-21T12:52:00.001-07:00

I am going to follow this schedule during the course of this project. Hopefully, I stick to it!!!

What is this space all about?

2008-07-21T12:08:00.000-07:00

THE DESIGN BRIEF

For my diploma project, I intend to work with the idea of recycling and reusing fabric. I want to identify various ways of converting old, unused fabric into products which are innovative and practical.

Fabric is a flexible material originating from a network of yarns and fibres. These fibres are put together using various processes like weaving and non-woven processes like felting, knotting, crocheting and knitting. Following this it undergoes finishing and is turned into finished goods like clothing, upholstery, bags, linen etc or sold to the wholesale dealers who supply designers, boutiques, unstitched fabric markets with their raw material. Eventually, it reaches the user from these various sources.

After reaching the user, fabrics either complete their life-span or are discarded before they reach their peak due to reasons like fashion change, boredom or accidental damage of the fabric (Life-span of a fabric depends upon its physical composition, chemical properties quality of the yarn used and finishing quality). Fabric is being disposed off before it reaches its saturation point i.e before the end of its natural life-cycle.

What happens to that fabric?

Fabric that is discarded can still be utilized, and many people do so. Some give it away as charity, others use a little bit of innovation and turn it into something new which they can wear, carry or use in their houses.

In

India

, there are these groups of people who walk around on the streets carrying shiny steel utensils; they exchange these utensils for clothes. This traditional way of barter has existed in

India

for a very long time. The clothes which are collected in this way are washed and ironed, jazzed up and sold at local weekly bazaars. (Large percentge of the population in

India

wear second hand/hand me down clothes).

India is a country of cultural, social and economic diversity.Textiles are a vibrant part of this diversity and people across the subcontinent give certain types of textiles great importance. For instance, the wedding sari of a woman is considered to be very auspicious. During the wedding the mother of the bride gives a lot of textiles to her daughter. These textiles are often family heirlooms, getting passed on from generation to generation. These textiles are precious and their exclusivity never dies. Indians also celebrate a large variety of festivals. One of the traditions (across religions) involves the giving away of clothes to the less privileged during festivals. I remember that my mother often gave away clothes to our domestic help.

There also exists a traditional habit amongst Indians of not getting rid of the fabric which is old and worn out because of emotional attachment. Instead they convert the fabric into something else which solves another purpose, for e.g. an old sari gets converted into a curtain or a skirt, a tattered tee-shirt becomes a duster, a worn out pair of jeans turns into a bag. This way the original product and its value still remains, while it serves a purpose as well.One could also call it, Jugaad, an Indian term which emerges from people making most out of their limited resources and putting things together to find a solution.

The rise of Consumer Culture has led to an explosion of brands and a mushrooming of malls being built in every corner of the city. There is a rise in per capita incomes, people from rural parts of the country moving to the cities, population explosion and emergence of the urban middle class. Everyone wants to maintain a certain standard of living. People, who can afford, invest in expensive brands and the people who can’t, resort to cheaper alternatives. They want variety in their clothing even their upholstery to maintain a certain standard of living. Shopping has become just a pass time for the consumers.

What about the plies of fabric which already exist in their houses?

However, this new Indian consumer is often wasteful. Often Impulse buying leads to a stockpile of useless clothes and household textiles as the bold shopper looks to stay ahead of the fashion curve.

This system is not efficient, if I may say so, because the old is getting older and is also not getting disposed off carefully whereas the new keeps increasing. This waste leads to negative externalities which harm the environment. Wasteful Supply to keep up with consumer demand increases pollution and becomes a part of the global warming process.

We need to find a constructive solution that is not wasteful and embraces the traditional “jugaad” nature of our country.

Already, designers and artists are working towards recycling and reusing old fabric to create new products and art pieces. Organisations in various parts of the world collect waste textiles and according to the condition of fabric, they either donate it as 1.charity, 2.industries that use them as production factors in industry, 3.artists and designers who work with waste fabrics etc. Locally, there are people who work with waste produced by the textile mills and make products out of it and sell it in various markets.

As, an upcoming practitioner of textile design I want to take this opportunity to understand what are the different ways that can be adopted to reuse and recycle the fabric which is no longer being used but still has potential.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

- What is the ideal life span of a fabric?

- To study the life cycle of fabric.

- To study the value of fabrics that people own, in the present scenario.

(Old v/s new)

- How have people been reusing their unused fabric both in India and other parts of the world?

- To explore the meaning and value of re-using in Indian context.

- What is the significance of certain textiles in different cultures?

- To understand why do people not discard certain pieces of clothing or other fabrics that they own?

- What do they do with the fabric which they are not using anymore?

- How and why people put their unused fabric into use? Does the personal/cultural significance of the fabric influence their decisions?

- How is the waste fabric disposed off, at the industrial level?

- What kind of work has already been done and is happening under the context of reusability and recycling of fabric?

- What kind of products can be made using waste fabrics?

- What techniques can be used to put the old fabrics together?

- What is the life-span of these recycled products?

- How can they be made to last longer?

- What kind of people want to invest in recycled products? What is my market / target audience?

APPROACH

- Interviews and questionnaires- to find out what do people do with their old, discarded, waste clothing and fabric.

- Visiting and collecting information about the utilisation of waste fabric from textile mills and factories.

- Visiting markets which sell waste fabric and collecting information.

- Meeting people who have expertise in this area of reusing and recycling.

- Collection of waste fabric from various sources like tailors, textile mills, markets which sell waste fabric, people around me etc.

- Exploring the gathered fabric and to try and identify their properties and how it can be moulded and modified.

- Exploring different techniques like weaving, printing, dyeing, surface texturing, patch-work, quilting etc.

- Looking for different ways of interpretation and representation of recycling fabrics.

- Prototyping and product.

- Documentation.

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

- Fabric.

- Yarn, thread, materials for surface embellishment.

- Websites:

www.inhabitat.com

www.sustainablestyle.org

www.thegreenloop.com

www.wasteonline.org.uk

www.allthingsgreen.net

www.recyclingconsortium.org.uk

Etc…

- Articles

- Blogs

- Books:

Cradle to cradle by William McDonough & Michael Braungart

Clothing as material culture by Susanne Kuchler & Daniel Miller

- Magazines.

RESOURCE PEOPLE

- Swati Unakar

- Meera Curam

- Experts in the area of recycling and reusing.

- People who work with the idea of Jugaad.

LEARNING

- To understand the significance of fabric both at personal and cultural levels.

- To learn how re-using material adds or subtracts value (the cultural/personal significance of the fabric and also its natural qualities) from the new product.

- To learn different ways of representation of recycling and reusability to create awareness.

- To learn how old fabric can be re-used to make innovative and practical products.

- To learn how various systems work. (For instance: how does the industrial fabric waste is circulated, what happens to the domestic fabric waste etc.)

- To explore my role as designer in the area of recycling and reusability of textiles.

- To use my acquired design skills in order to find the best possible solution (identifying various ways of reusing unused fabric) in this context and to find my niche as a designer.

- To develop products of high quality and finesse.

PROPOSED OUTCOMES

- Lifestyle products

- Accessories

- Apparel