Week 7 Tulip Harem Pants

This began as an exploration between natural and synthetic dyes. I was also certain that the final garment would be a tulip dress. Half of the fabric was coloured black with readily available Rit synthetic dye and the other half with a natural pink cabbage dye. Short lived, the pink colour quickly faded when I put it out in the sunshine to dry.  The tulip dress idea stuck around much longer.

I am beginning to see a pattern among zero-waste designers. It seems that each designer has developed a signature pattern or treatment of their fabric to arrive at various outcomes. For instance, Zerowaste Daniel has started creating his clothing by piecing together multitudes of smaller fabric cuts. Where as Johanne Rubinstein drapes and gathers her fabric on a larger scale to create beautiful form and shape.
This is where, in my own process, things start to get exciting. Emerging from my recent explorations, I see the half circle becoming a useful pattern tool to lead me to a final design. Large or small, it creates a curved line, which originally was to intersect my tulip skirt and halter top. What happened next is a bit of a blur, but once I saw how the line curved across the lower back, like board shorts, I knew that a pair of harem pants was the direction this design needed to go. 

After the natural dye quickly faded away,  my study of natural vs synthetic became a study of dye vs printing. As a most basic treatment, I printed on the fabric using cross hatching and a sharpie. After I read an unbiased blog piece about the very destructive realities of the textile industry and the ramifications of synthetic dyes, it seemed like a positive direction to incorporate printing on fabric and trying to eliminate excessive use of water and waste water production.

We have the technology now to print on fabrics like Slow Factory prints on silk and the results are stunning.   There certainly is room for more discussion about these concerns and many other issues. I have come across the blog Fashion Hedge which is a great resource of fashion related, intelligent discussion on sustainability. She has a brilliant way of asking the hard questions and shedding light on realistic answers with measurable solutions. Digging deeper, it is a fresh perspective on consumer fashion. 

I am that I am.