This collection uses exclusively secondhand garments which the charity shop couldn’t sell. This in response to the UK’s reliance on textile sorting facilities which send our unwanted garments to the global south, where others buy our waste in a system of Neocolonialism. In an effort to deal with the waste that we generate, I have transformed these generic, unexceptional materials to become exciting garments. The collection demonstrates a potential system for reinventing commonplace, secondhand clothing, a technique which could be repeated to use some of the vast amounts of secondhand clothing.
In working with slightly uninspiring materials, inspiration instead came from drawing stained glass windows in churches, where along with other public learning spaces became a calming and creatively charging place to be and draw in. This works in contrast to the textiles I work with and the fashion industry they are a product of, where the gravitas of religious imagery, richness of colour, light and the bling/wealth of cathedrals adds value to the valueless textiles.
Also important in my imagery is the use of collaging with found materials. The practise of collage uses a transparent appropriation / a cut and paste of materials into an unexpected context which adds humour to the visual. I see a similarity in fashion where material swaps are made to cheapen industrial processes and where plastic fibres masquerade as natural ones in order to fool the customer. I try to use these collage principles in the collection to translate fibre composition and tell a story of the garments previous form.