Saturday 31 July 2010

MA major project: 2025eco.00

C-D-R (Construct-Deconstruct-Reconstruct) takes inspiration from deconstruction in architecture. My work is not limited to only apparels it intends to offer the wearer additional functions and variables. I design masculine womenswear that develops into unisex garments to benefit both the sexes. Through C-D-R I am also exploring sustainable and ethical issues within the cycles of fashion using natural materials and pre-used garments. Fashion Film is the medium I have chosen to exhibit the C-D-R collection, within the film you will view 12 unisex outfits for 2025, inspired by a midnight setting I have created future apparel for an under ground ethical youth movement.


In my major project, there are 12 unisex garments altogether in this collection which is developed from my zero project. The concept of this project is “2025 eco.00” because I got the inspiration from midnight, the future fashion scenarios in 2025 and eco-fashion. From this concept, I would like to design my 12 outfits for urban people (20-35 years old) to wear them for urban activities such as working, exercising and hanging out, happened in the start of the day until the end of the day or midnight for sleeping.



In terms of midnight, the significance of the middle of the night is a halfway between sunset and dawn. It is marking of the beginning and the ending of each day in civil time throughout the world and also be a dividing point between one day and another. From the terms of midnight, I imagined to the movement of sleeping and waking up from the bed. Those activities can be linked to the bedding and sleepwear, which I can adapt them to my collection. Furthermore, in cultural meanings, midnight means chaos, death, underworld, mystery, demons, spirits and a symbolic end of the world. All cultural meaning is connected to the mood and shade of colours, which should be dark theme such as black, grey and purple because those colours can communicate to the depressed feeling.



In addition to, I would like to design the garments for the future in 2025. According to Levi Strausse & Co. and Forum for the future, in the next 15 years there will be four possible scenarios about fashion happened. Firstly, “Slow is beautiful” people monitor their health and well being by wearing high quality smart clothes and owning fewer. Vintage and the second-hand garments continue to grow in popularity especially to Japan where specializes in re-manufacturing the world’s used clothing. Next, “Techno-chic” low carbon economy mixed with massive technological investment has built high-tech systems catering to a speedy obsessed shopper such as 3D body scanner, Chameleon clothing and Modular clothing. Clothes are designed to be able to reused or biodegraded. Last but not least, “Community Couture” the second-hand clothes has become a valuable resource and community-recycling centers are where people go to make their own clothes. Only the rich can afford new clothing in the world severely impacted both climate change and an extreme shortage of resources. Finally, “Patchwork Planet” clothes are designed to have zipped, tucked and strapped to create different looks. Garments can be grown from bacterial cellulose, which is better thing through chemistry. In my opinion, in 2025 people will obviously focus on eco-fashion issue more than the present and I would like to use this issue to research for designing my collection.

In terms of colour, the shades and tones from midnight cultural meaning are applied as basic colours in my collection such as the shade of black and grey. For corresponding to the eco-fashion meaning, I found the basic and fashion colours by way of the natural dyeing process. I decided to use spice, fruit, varieties of tea and vegetable to dye with 100% cotton jersey and muslin fabrics in this experiment. After the process, I got very good results through the colours and chose black from logwood extract and yellow from turmeric powder to be basic and fashion colours. The turmeric yellow is very bright and be linked to sunshine, which is an icon of the start of the day.


According to stepin organization website, eco-fashion was meant making clothes that take into account the environment, the health of consumers and the working conditions of people in the fashion industry. Eco-fashion clothes is using organic raw materials without pesticides, not involving the use of harmful chemicals, being made from recycled and reused textiles, coming from fair trade and being made to last. In my major collection, I would like to use the second hand clothes with organic materials to redesign them to be new forms of garment with high quality. People can wear and keep them for longer. The high quality second hand garments and bedding can be found from many charity shops around London. It is very nice to support the charity organizations and be able to make a merit at the same time.



In conclusion, there will be 12 unisex outfits in the 2025 eco.00 collection, which got inspired from midnight in both general and cultural meaning, future clothing in the next 15 years and eco-fashion issue. The outfits will be made from the high quality second hand clothes and beddings with organic materials through natural dyeing process and fair trade, designed for young urban people to wear in the start of the day for their urban activities until the end of the day for going to bed.
















My fashion video is coming soon...please wait consciously!!!



Designer: Thanotai Mongkolsin
Photographer: Kara Yong Kara Choko
Models: Saitarn Karncharanwong, Chira Chirapravati

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