Challenging a well established industry like fashion is not an easy one. The obvious question is: what does it look like?
I have mentioned the “bad eco-design” problem in previous post (the offer still hold. If you have pics’ of the don’ts of eco-fashion, fire away) and we surely would like to avoid creating a garment where sustainability makes us forget all of our aesthetic agenda. We discussed the matter with our tutor, Dr. Kate Fletcher, and she told us about one very encouraging piece of work from Stuart Walker.
“The systems of production we are currently using to manufacture products are, in many respects, antithetical to the goals, principles and general ethos of sustainability. Therefore the ‘derived’ aesthetic, determined by these production systems, inevitably embodies and reflects these ‘counter-sustainable’ practices. In contrast, a product manufactured within a system which adheres to sustainable principles would lead to sustainable principles would lead to a ‘derived’ component which is qualitatively different; that is: a ‘sustainable aesthetic’.A product may initially produce a positive aesthetic experience – outwardly it may be judged both beautiful and tasteful. However, knowledge of the environmental degradation, social inequity and exploitation which may have gone into the production of the product may well change this experience. We may see the object in a new light – the object stays the same but now our knowledge alters our experience of it.
Designers may be hesitant to acknowledge it, but the aesthetics of a product are, to a very great extent, a result of the system which produced it. The definition of form, detailing of shape and surface are both constrained and largely determined by the overall product system. Therefore, we should not be attempting to find a new style which we might characterise as some form of ‘sustainable aesthetic’. Rather we should be developing products and restructuring our manufacturing systems so they are conceptually and pragmatically aligned with sustainable principles. As we do so, new types of products will emerge whose aesthetics go deeper than shape and surface and which start to embody ethics and to reflect these new sensitivities and understandings.”
Walker (1997), Conscientious Objects in E. van Hinte (ed.) Eternally Yours: visions on product endurance, Rotterdam: 010 publishers
The short version (for those of you who recognized the quotation style and are experienced skim readers) is that once sustainable practices will be settled in fashion, a new aesthetic will rise. In a way, our project to wow fashion by showing you can create traditional glamour with sustainable and biodegradable materials and techniques may not be very bold in a matter of aesthetic. It is because the revolution we planned for the industry is set on another level and I will tell you all about it in a future post so keep looking!
itwillbethedress 