Recycled Fashion

Manolo says, from the Manolo’s internet friend Brad comes this photo.

bagdress.jpg

From this angle, with the good shoes, this dress looks rather nice. It is only when you see the other photos in the Flickr stream and read the description that you realize that something is unusual.

This was a project I started this summer. I began by collecting grocery bags, which I cut into sheets and ironed together to form a fabric, and then I used them to sew this dress, with a design loosely based on a 50s housewife style.

As the Project Runway style fashion exercise this dress succeeds wonderfully, although ultimately, it is little more than the unwearable novelty item.

12 Responses to “Recycled Fashion”

  1. Anonymous June 21, 2007 at 3:35 pm #

    It does have a very “Stepford” look to it, until you see it up close. Interesting project.

  2. LaVida2 June 21, 2007 at 3:59 pm #

    And quite the unbreathable novelty item considering it was made from plastic grocery bags…I would think.

  3. caitlin June 21, 2007 at 6:27 pm #

    I think it’s a fun piece of performance art and certainly a better thing to do with grocery bags than tossing them in the trash.

  4. super* June 21, 2007 at 6:49 pm #

    where the hell is THE PROJECT RUNWAY!!?!
    Nice bag dress, the shoes make it convincing.

  5. Lastango June 21, 2007 at 7:27 pm #

    She looks fabulous in that style; it’s the reason people had families back in the 1950′s.

    Let’s bring back grace, class and decorum. We wouldn’t have so many broken homes today if people would remember what makes the world go around.

  6. Sharon June 21, 2007 at 8:18 pm #

    I really think that they did an awesome job on this dress for being made out of plastic bags.

  7. la petite chou chou June 22, 2007 at 12:15 am #

    I actually just told my boss yesterday that we should hold a contest to see who could make the best outfit, project runway style, out of our sale shopping bags. Ours are paper though, which could make it harder.

    It’s funny.

  8. Billy June 22, 2007 at 6:50 am #

    That dress is nice if I didn’t realize it was plastic bags. Aren’t most plastic bags really thin by nature? Would it look half as nice if closer in person, or does the phone image deceive us a little. Oh by the way, nice shoes.

  9. Casey June 22, 2007 at 8:36 am #

    Now that i know what the fabric is, i can stop wondering why the pattern is the Safeway logo.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks:

  1. Through The Looking Glass » Blog Archive » Green Buckets - June 22, 2007

    [...] Emily/mleak on Flickr made a dress from used shopping bags. Via Manolo’s Shoe Blog. [...]

  2. Safe and stylin’ « raincoaster - June 25, 2007

    [...] the Manolo who rightfully points out this is yet another example of what you can get away with as long as you [...]

  3. No, wait, don't tell me | Ayyyy! - March 4, 2011

    [...] For extra credit, compare and contrast. [...]

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