"Zero-Waste is avant garde cuisine's fashion equivalent because it challenges the basics of making clothes." Mark Liu | “What is Zero-Waste Fashion (and Why Does It Matter)?”
The avant garde movement in fashion brought to the fore designers such as Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo, Yohijo Yamamoto as well as others who challenged the "New Look" of hour-glass figures with rounded shoulders, narrow waists and voluminous skirts. The conventional dressmaking of the time included styles that were inspired from the body and strove to perfect the art of body clinging conventional shapes. On the other hand, these new designers began to craft new shapes and figures that can be said to have broken the mould of fashion. They began to see fashion from a different light; one that broke the stereotypes attached to the woman's body and underlined the importance of creating without these limitations. The fashion that emerged was one that 'was in concert to or in opposition with the body'. Fashion spread itself out to things like architecture, art and culture, breaking its own boundaries in the process and seeking greater heights.
Maison Martin Margiela for instance created an unusual drape on all sides that unsettled the viewer's sense of balance; it created an ambiguity of form and function. Yamamoto on the other hand, believed that dress does not exist without a body, yet its form does not correspond to the wearers body. Fashion began to be about ambiguity, style and innovation. Both Margiela as well as Antonio Marras started recycling vintage fabrics. Though being chameleon-like and creating a visceral language of sorts, fashion was still an articulation of our desires, how we live and the choices we make.
The concept of zero- waste is very important when analyzing how fashion can move forward in the time to come. Not only does it limit and add constraints but at the same time it creates potential for the designer to be innovative. The average amount of cloth that goes waste while cutting a garment is around 15% and that amount normally would find its way to the land fills. Contemporary fashion calls not just for a change in form but also for a social responsibility in production. Like Susan Strasser wrote in her book "Satisfaction Guaranteed : the making of the American mass market", that "...what counts as trash depends on who's counting."
References:
TRASH : Vivan Sundaram
Memory on Cloth : Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada
New Narratives in Fashion : Kathryn Simon
Mark Liu
Breaking the Mode : Contemporary Fashion from the Permanent Collection
The avant garde movement in fashion brought to the fore designers such as Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo, Yohijo Yamamoto as well as others who challenged the "New Look" of hour-glass figures with rounded shoulders, narrow waists and voluminous skirts. The conventional dressmaking of the time included styles that were inspired from the body and strove to perfect the art of body clinging conventional shapes. On the other hand, these new designers began to craft new shapes and figures that can be said to have broken the mould of fashion. They began to see fashion from a different light; one that broke the stereotypes attached to the woman's body and underlined the importance of creating without these limitations. The fashion that emerged was one that 'was in concert to or in opposition with the body'. Fashion spread itself out to things like architecture, art and culture, breaking its own boundaries in the process and seeking greater heights.
Maison Martin Margiela for instance created an unusual drape on all sides that unsettled the viewer's sense of balance; it created an ambiguity of form and function. Yamamoto on the other hand, believed that dress does not exist without a body, yet its form does not correspond to the wearers body. Fashion began to be about ambiguity, style and innovation. Both Margiela as well as Antonio Marras started recycling vintage fabrics. Though being chameleon-like and creating a visceral language of sorts, fashion was still an articulation of our desires, how we live and the choices we make.
The concept of zero- waste is very important when analyzing how fashion can move forward in the time to come. Not only does it limit and add constraints but at the same time it creates potential for the designer to be innovative. The average amount of cloth that goes waste while cutting a garment is around 15% and that amount normally would find its way to the land fills. Contemporary fashion calls not just for a change in form but also for a social responsibility in production. Like Susan Strasser wrote in her book "Satisfaction Guaranteed : the making of the American mass market", that "...what counts as trash depends on who's counting."
References:
TRASH : Vivan Sundaram
Memory on Cloth : Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada
New Narratives in Fashion : Kathryn Simon
Mark Liu
Breaking the Mode : Contemporary Fashion from the Permanent Collection
