Remaking fashion

I read in International Herald Tribune recently about the ongoing craze in Japan for vintage stuff or ukay in our own vocabulary. O di ba, even the Japanese love to thrift shop!

Read the article here.

What caught my attention though is that a lot of designers have been 'remaking' and refashioning old clothes into new ones. Not a new concept though since Martin Margiela and Junya Watanabe have been proponents of such movement. Michiko Suzuki of Y's Red Label of Yohji Yamamoto recently used deadstock bomber jackets to craft dresses and separates for her collection. The eco-chic movement would definitely approve!

Junya Watanabe's reworked military jackets on the runway for Comme des Garcons.

A half waistcoat, half dress from Maison Martin Margiela.

It's just that I've used that same concept in some of my collections before and I've recently revisited that same concept now. Here, I've combined a black tee with a polka dotted one, cutting the latter in half and fashioning it as a curving sleeve.

On this one a knit print skirt was transformed into a tank top. Very Margielic, no?

Here's another piece that was before an ugly knit but I've transformed into this quirky shawl/waistcoat hybrid. It's a layering piece.

Another piece I'm loving is this combination of jersey, knit and cotton net top. The white knit detail came from this ill designed tee that was trying to be some sort of Comme des Garcons. It was really bad. But I love the texture of the knit and for P5 it's really nothing. A little bit of cutting, sewing and voila! I've got a cool tank.

I've recently unloaded my closet and set aside some pieces that I'm planning to rework. It's really very eco friendly. It's re-using old stuff to make something new and usable. It saves money and energy, there was little carbon used to rework it. It's creative! I mean isn't it cool to brag to your friends that what you are wearing is something old but then you reworked it and made it smashing?

And if you are scratching your head on how to get started, just follow the lead of Maison Martin Margiela:

1. Cut two clothes into half.

2. Sew separate pieces with each of the other piece.

3. Voila! You have two clothes ala Martin Margiela.