Mon, 17 Sep 2012
Examples of carbon-friendly couture will grace the runway at London Fashion Week thanks to a joint project between the University of East Anglia and fashion students from London's Kingston University.
Budding designers were tasked with creating sustainable luxury fashion by UEA’s InCrops project - a leading company driving the commercialisation of bio-renewable materials.
And Julia Skergeth’s concept for a high-heeled shoe using rice, silicon and bio-resin, has won her a place at the London Fashion Week’s largest independent showcase, Vauxhall Fashion Scout.
InCrops, part of the Adapt Low Carbon Group at UEA, works with the creative industries and other sectors to develop concepts and prototypes based on sustainable materials.
The project set students the task of using bio-renewable and low-carbon products to create luxurious fashion designs.
Dr Liliya Serazetdinova from InCrops said: “The fashion industry has a high environmental footprint and is responsible for a significant amount of waste, but these exciting designs use natural and renewable materials to create stunning luxury goods. We’ve been really impressed with how the students have addressed this challenge."
She said she hoped the designs would inspire designers around the world to use bio-based renewable materials in luxury goods as well as everyday products.
“This year’s students widened the scope of the project brief and thought about how the processes and technologies involved in the manufacture of luxury goods, in addition to the materials used, could be low carbon too,” she added.
To meet the InCrops brief, Julia Skergeth, 21, focused on alternative plant-based materials, but she also caught the judges’ attention by flipping the typical sloping shape of the high heel back to front.
She said: “I just love crystals, diamonds and all the sparkly embellishments that finish so many luxury fashion items. This project, however, asked us to create sustainable luxury, so I had to think about how I could keep the materials and approach green but still make luxurious designs.”
Julia was inspired to try rice as her alternative bling for its shape, but she knew it wouldn’t wear well. Instead, she experimented using the shape of the rice on a shoe template, spending weeks gluing on individual grains to create intricate geometric shapes. Pouring silicon over the rice-covered shoe shape, Julia was left with a mould in which to place the bio-resin.
“The grains of rice leave an imprint in the silicone mould which is revealed again when I fill it with bio-resin. Bio-resin dries crystal clear, so I also took the opportunity to feature the rice again by pouring it in to the liquid. Floating to the bottom, it reinforces the spiky shapes it had already created on the exterior.”
In the design, Julia uses the heel shape at the front of the shoe with the toes slightly higher than the heel.
“Shoe design has gone crazy. Heels have got higher and platforms have sent the shoe to even dizzier heights. While some shoes have even done away with the heel all together, it seemed to me that the rulebook had already been thrown away and that I could try anything.
“Shoes are made of multiple materials – rubber, leather, PVC, metal – they are not sustainable by nature so that added to the challenge.”
Several other new ideas have flourished this year as a result of the collaboration with InCrops. Jen Hope has taken scrap patent leather and, using laser engraving technology, has created intricate patterns to reveal a multi-layered effect that imitates the look of pottery and lacquered wood. Plus she has experimented with vegetan, a vegetable-tanned leather, and second-hand denim to make a bag.
Elizabeth Gilbey, meanwhile, was inspired by digital draping – a form of virtual pattern-cutting where designs are digitally projected on to the human form – and has recreated the look of lace using organic yarns, bamboo, Tencel and jersey for her womenswear designs.
The Kingston University MA Fashion show takes place on Monday, September 19, at 7pm, at Vauxhall Fashion Scout, Freemason’s Hall, 60 Great Queen Street, London.
And Julia Skergeth’s concept for a high-heeled shoe using rice, silicon and bio-resin, has won her a place at the London Fashion Week’s largest independent showcase, Vauxhall Fashion Scout.
InCrops, part of the Adapt Low Carbon Group at UEA, works with the creative industries and other sectors to develop concepts and prototypes based on sustainable materials.
The project set students the task of using bio-renewable and low-carbon products to create luxurious fashion designs.
Dr Liliya Serazetdinova from InCrops said: “The fashion industry has a high environmental footprint and is responsible for a significant amount of waste, but these exciting designs use natural and renewable materials to create stunning luxury goods. We’ve been really impressed with how the students have addressed this challenge."
She said she hoped the designs would inspire designers around the world to use bio-based renewable materials in luxury goods as well as everyday products.
“This year’s students widened the scope of the project brief and thought about how the processes and technologies involved in the manufacture of luxury goods, in addition to the materials used, could be low carbon too,” she added.
To meet the InCrops brief, Julia Skergeth, 21, focused on alternative plant-based materials, but she also caught the judges’ attention by flipping the typical sloping shape of the high heel back to front.
She said: “I just love crystals, diamonds and all the sparkly embellishments that finish so many luxury fashion items. This project, however, asked us to create sustainable luxury, so I had to think about how I could keep the materials and approach green but still make luxurious designs.”
Julia was inspired to try rice as her alternative bling for its shape, but she knew it wouldn’t wear well. Instead, she experimented using the shape of the rice on a shoe template, spending weeks gluing on individual grains to create intricate geometric shapes. Pouring silicon over the rice-covered shoe shape, Julia was left with a mould in which to place the bio-resin.
“The grains of rice leave an imprint in the silicone mould which is revealed again when I fill it with bio-resin. Bio-resin dries crystal clear, so I also took the opportunity to feature the rice again by pouring it in to the liquid. Floating to the bottom, it reinforces the spiky shapes it had already created on the exterior.”
In the design, Julia uses the heel shape at the front of the shoe with the toes slightly higher than the heel.
“Shoe design has gone crazy. Heels have got higher and platforms have sent the shoe to even dizzier heights. While some shoes have even done away with the heel all together, it seemed to me that the rulebook had already been thrown away and that I could try anything.
“Shoes are made of multiple materials – rubber, leather, PVC, metal – they are not sustainable by nature so that added to the challenge.”
Several other new ideas have flourished this year as a result of the collaboration with InCrops. Jen Hope has taken scrap patent leather and, using laser engraving technology, has created intricate patterns to reveal a multi-layered effect that imitates the look of pottery and lacquered wood. Plus she has experimented with vegetan, a vegetable-tanned leather, and second-hand denim to make a bag.
Elizabeth Gilbey, meanwhile, was inspired by digital draping – a form of virtual pattern-cutting where designs are digitally projected on to the human form – and has recreated the look of lace using organic yarns, bamboo, Tencel and jersey for her womenswear designs.
The Kingston University MA Fashion show takes place on Monday, September 19, at 7pm, at Vauxhall Fashion Scout, Freemason’s Hall, 60 Great Queen Street, London.
