Blue Collage
By Michelle Vernot
This garment is carefully crafted from a collection of waste textiles sourced through After, including old jeans, worn t-shirts, delicate sheer curtains, and repurposed bedsheets. Each of these materials has been thoughtfully selected and reimagined, then expertly recut, remodeled, and transformed through a combination of traditional and contemporary techniques. Couture dressmaking methods are used to tailor and reshape these discarded fabrics into a new form, while intricate crochet embellishments add a layer of artistic detail. The result is a unique piece that not only highlights the beauty of upcycled materials but also redefines the concept of waste, turning it into something beautiful and purposeful.
This project is inspired by the way life was lived in generations past, when upcycling wasn’t a concept—it was simply a way of life. Our ancestors instinctively made do with what they had, reworking materials out of necessity and ingenuity. In just a few short decades, we’ve shifted from resourcefulness to convenience, living in a culture where discarding is normalized and materials are undervalued. Yet, as the Formidable Vegetable Sound System reminds us, "there’s no such thing as waste, only stuff in the wrong place." Every fabric, every scrap, holds potential—it’s simply a matter of reimagining its place. With roots in handicrafts and upcycling traditions, this project embraces both a creative and social mission: to make visible the value in what is overlooked. Textile waste is not just an environmental issue, but a global social crisis. In places like Ghana, mountains of discarded garments form tangled, suffocating masses along beaches—buried in sand and nearly impossible to remove—drastically affecting the daily lives of local communities. Through this garment and the platform that After have created, I hope to ignite conversations and foster collaboration among artists and makers on how we can reframe waste not as an end, but as a beginning.
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