BEYOND GREEN III: GOOD DESIGN BEYOND GREEN
On November 9th, the second floor of World Fashion Centre was the stage of the third edition of Beyond Green: the annual student seminar about the future of sustainability in fashion, new technologies and new ways of thinking.
"This decade of excess can only be followed by disgust"
Liesbeth in ’t Hout (director AMFI) and Ger Strijker (board ArtEZ Institute of the Arts) opened the event and introduced the theme of this year: Good Design Beyond Green. The highly energetic trend watcher (and designer and publisher) David Shah followed with an introduction about The Wheel of Sustainability, in which he stated that we could mark the first ten years of the 21st century as an ‘iDecade’. Meaning that all things in the previous years evolved around one thing: ‘excess’, ‘glamour’ and ‘me’. According to Shah, this decade of excess can only be “followed by disgust”. Therefore he promotes the idea of sympathy, surprise, creativity and remix in design and he showed some examples of a Lego-camera, a mud lamp, high heels without the heels and the world’s longest lipstick. “Design with effort and joy and think about things in a new and playful way.” Besides this sympathic and joyful designs he sees a big role for Iconic Design and Timeless Design. Iconic because “you don’t throw away emotional design” and Timeless Design in means of things that are wanted because of their timeless function, like the chair with a chip that contains information about the previous owners. Companies with a heritage, like Hermes, Burberry and Louis Vuitton, shall survive and stress the importance of story telling, heritage and qualities in their campaigns, instead of just the glamourous side of their products. David Shah expects that brands will move away from the mainstage and that manufactureres will move into the spotlights. He also had a new name for the trend of minimal high fashion designs, with class and style: blingimalism.
Writer Kate Fletcher
Make garments that help us being human"
After David Shah, the English writer Kate Fletcher, author of the 2008 book Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys entered the stage. Her project Local Wisdom on how people wear their clothes took place in June 2009. In this project she asked people to bring a garment and tell her why this garment carries such a great memory in it. A lot of people talked to Kate about a certain smell that clothing (of a father, of a grandfather) carried, and that they would therefore never wash it. With a sharp vision on how fashion influences sustainability, she claims: “Fashion is part of the sustainability problem. We should develop awareness of the big picture.” She showed three ways to go forward with fashion in the future. First, make pieces that help connect with the future, like local products. Second, make garments that help us in being human. As an example she showed the Reform Trousers of Otto von Busch (he was a speaker at Beyond Green 2008) and the DO-shirt: an XXXL shirt that should be worked and worn the way the owner likes it (as a hat, top or skirt, whatever). The third way of going forward in fashion are garments that ask us: What are you doing this for? Her story about the No Wash Top raised laughter and a little bit of disgust amongst hundreds of the students. And yes, it is a rather ‘refreshing’ sustainable idea to wear a top (with cut out arm pits and plastic parts at the most dirt sensitive parts) for nine years without washing it. “It started to become a bit fragrant in the end” admitted Kate. But the point she wanted to make with this top was not only about the amount of water and soap saved, but also that “laundering things means washing away memories.” She ended her presentation with a story about how small things can make a huge difference if they are done in the right place: “Don’t be afraid to start a change, change can happen in very very small places.”
Beyond Green Gallery
During the following break the (more than 600) students ran not only off to the cafeteria or outside for a smoke, they also visited the Swap Store where they could swap their own clothes for something in the store, provided they wrote a small story about their garment on the Swap-card. This was an initiative of Worn Relics, who is making a database for people about their own clothes: sow a label with a code in your garment, and post small stories about the garment on their website. The website archives the stories, so in theory, you could follow your item for the rest of its life (if every owner after you would upload a picture and a small story on www.wornrelics.com). Next to the café Ingrid Horsselenberg and Annouk Post of I&A organised the second edition of the Beyond Green Gallery, a platform to inform and inspire visitors in different manners in the field of sustainable fashion and textile design. In the showroom visitors could meet people behind labels like Studio Jux, Rianne de Witte, Intoxica and Van Markoviech. The Beyond Green Exhibition showed work of designers like Wieteke Opmeer, Nanna van Blaaderen, Conny Groenewegen, Jeroen Wand, Marina Toeters and Fioen van Balgooi.
Scientist Adriaan Beukers
"I am a boring scientist"
At 1.00 pm professor Adriaan Beukers started his presentation about Light Weight. He may have expressed the thoughts of some present students by introducing himself as ‘a boring scientist’. But as he started his speech, it soon became clear that this full-time professor on Composite Materials & Structures (at the faculty of Aerospace Engineering, TU in Delft) knows all about how to use minimum material and energy to achieve the optimum physical and mechanical properties possible. Adriaan Beukers is a scientist that stimulates working between different disciplines: “Bring science and art together in one building, and their libraries too.” He showed interesting examples of aircrafts and architectural installations made of textile structures. A bit ‘closer to home’ was the example of the key keg, a flexible fust developed to replace traditional beer fusts: a revolutionary design that minimizes material use from 11,5 kilo to 1,5 kilo. Also the round textile vessels were clear proof that textile structures are able to compose megastrong products: closed bowls of 20 kilo’s that can carry 130.000 kilo each.
Designer Mark Liu
"Throw yourself out of that comfort zone"
From minimal use of materials in aerospace designs, London-based fashion and textile designer Mark Liu linked this subject to the fashion business with his presentation about Zero Waste. He reinvisioned the pattern cutting process in a way that all parts fit together like a puzzle, hereby producing zero ‘waste’. “The history of zero waste is very ancient” stated Mark and he referred tot the kimono and the sari. He studied Fashion Technology in Sydney and got in contact with the ‘neighbour’ nano-department. By expanding his horizon he developed new ways of looking at design and the use of materials, like cradle to cradle. He is not afraid of adopting new technologies in his design process: “Don’t be afraid showing you’re a geek. If a new technology would come in tomorrow, try to adopt it. Take risks and try crazy ideas.” When he was invited to show at Esthetica at London Fashion Week 2008, he had just a few weeks to design a collection. A great way to boost creativity as he discovered: “Throw yourself out of your comfort zone and you’ll find qualities you didn’t even know you had.”
Designer Monique van Heist
Before the next speaker came on stage, a filmed interview with Monique van Heist was shown. This Dutch designer works without fashion seasons: “I think it is strange to make nice designs, have them in a shop and then after a few months they disappear again. Everything I design is worth staying in the market.” She works with a collection catalogue that contains all her designs. Every new design is added to the catalogue and available for her clients.
SlowLab
"How about not designing that thing?"
Carolyn F. Strauss, director of slowLab, a ‘laboratory for slow design thinking and creative activism’, made one thing clear right at the start of her presentation: “SlowLab is not about being not fast” According to Carolyn, a slower pace is needed to make better designs: “By slowing down, you give attention to a side of the brain that is not used if living in speed.” SlowLab also promotes repairing things and making new things out of the old. One of Carolyn’s statements will probably not make the current fashion business happy, but is very much worth considering for new fashion designers: “You are using green materials, but what about not designing the thing in the first place?” Carolyn then told the story about the Fallen Fruit Project that originated in Los Angeles: a system to harvest fruit from trees that have fruit filled branches hanging outside fences and thus is available to the public. To link this to fashion, Carolyn added: “Look for the fallen fruit in fashion. How about using this for your future collections?”
Conclusions
Designer Marie Ilse Bourlanges was the final speaker of the day. She talked shortly about her inspirations for fashion. Her work was also presented at the Beyond Green Exhibiton. After that, David Shad ended the programme of this third edition of Beyond Green by concluding: “Things are moving so fast. There are a lot of technological things happening. The west is being replaced by the east, the climate is damaged beyond repair, so think about what the future could be like.”
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Pictures: I&A
