Recycling VS. Re-working

[Scott]

Is one more substantial than the other? Or am I truly the most over-analytical person?

Actually,my arguement would be that,with recycling one takes out bits from most everything to construct their own original garmet or piece...whilst with re-working it's basically the act of adding on or cutting away from an original garmet. I bring the topic up as I see it has become rather huge trend to merely take vintage pieces and just re-evaluate them without really changing much....yet most have got big booming collections. So much in fact,it appears they're getting more popular than one's who actually design and construct their own pieces.

 

[horriblyjollyjin]

I believe that if you only did pieces which no one had done before, it wouldn't be very good - or you wouldn't actually be able to do anything.
Why knock it? Nothing is new.

 

[fourboltmain]

Recycling would be taking a beer can, melting it down and casting an ashtray. Reworking would be taking a beer can, cutting it up, maybe add a couple more beer cans, but you still would end up with an ashtray.

 

[Spacemiu]

I like both, as long as there is creativety involved. I like when clothes are changed but you can still see what they were, but I also enjoy taking apart the clothes to creat something new all together.

 

[softgrey]

fourboltmain...

 

[sea of stitches]

Re-working actually seems harder to get right. Some of it's great, but a lot of it is cheesy and overpriced. Still, I champion anything that reduces waste. I am into keeping the history in an item (but then are you removing the integrity by modifying the piece?). Recycling seems easier as one is starting with something that's removed from its past construction. I think it's possible to be more creative when recycling. I guess it just depends what you are considering "substance" to be.

 

[Scott]

I suppose,design substance. As in building an original piece of one's own.

To me re-working just seems like an excuse to pass off,off-handworked vintage pieces(sometimes with very little working) that one could do themselves,for more money than alot of designers do cutting their own patterns for pieces and constructing them from their foundations. Thereby,I feel somehow recycling things in the manner that say,Jessica Ogden or Marina Yee does,feels more authentic.

 

[softgrey]

jessica ogden bugs me...
i think her stuff just looks old and dirty...

not interesting at all imo....

 

[sea of stitches]

For design substance, recycling definitely wins.

 

[Scott]

Alot of that affect is mainly due to baking-to-fade the fabrics to give them an heirloom quality. Her signature textile quilted pieces of are quite amazing in person.

Susan Cianciolo is also another great example of purely recycling things,btw.

 

[cerfas]

And doesn't your favorite, Preen, also recycle fur?

 

[fourboltmain]

Recycle fur? That's weird. It's like considering fur discarded meat wrappers or something.

 

[Papercut Crisis]

In Japan they call it remake.

 

[cerfas]

Not really, it's a matter of using old/discarded fur garments (i'm assuming mostly coats) and re-using them to create something new. If someone has already killed an animal to make a fur coat (ew), I'd much rather it be used creatively than go to waste...

 

[mdankwah]

Recycling is used as a benefit to the environment whereas reworking is all about re-creates something again.

 

[Scott]

yeah,cerfas they do! Or they have done so in previous collections. Justin actually took this away from his early days apprenticing(not just fur bits but recycling in general)....and it's kind of stuck in their style. And you're right,the fur they used is actually of old garmets and/or other pieces they find in jumble sales and such.

 

[Scott]

You know,last year's Antwerp graduate Alexandra Mein got alot of flack because she did the same. She used alot of old skins and furs along with old taxidermied birds and icorporated it all into her collection. Right now,she's doing these corsages and brooch pins of the same spirit...she's even using old bones...combining with feathers and old world lace. I'm actually in the process of getting one of her pieces too!

But my point is,that its so much more creative and original when you can just take bits away and sort of create your own thing with it all. Re-working I just find a bit lazy...otherwise it's basically just customisation...and we've all done that!

 

[travolta]

i think w/ recycling you get into learning about the properities of the material and what it can do. instead of cutting out a straight pattern, you put it through several different trials and errors. the aesthetics are probably going to be defined by the function, not the other way around. it forces you to think innovatively because you are limited. w/ reworking you don't need to know as much about the material, and risk missing out on it's potential.