All Wrapped Up
All Wrapped Up, is a project about tackling issues such as fast fashion, material waste, and overall environmental consciousness. For this project my friend Omoruyi and I worked to create an outfit made for repurposing everyday items and and items typically regarded to as trash.
Overview
In Fall 2019, for MIT's annual Trashion Show, My partner Omoruyi and I were tasked with creating articles of clothing inspired by and out of trash.
For the project, we looked to design a pair of shoes, a shirt, and a vest. The driving inspiration behind our designs for our "All Wrapped Up" project was making trash fashion that showed not only the versatility of trash but also creating something that people would wear on a day to day basis which we felt was a key aspect missing from most trash inspired clothing.
Project Members
Nebyu Haile
Omoruyi Atekha
Programs + Tools used
Adobe Illustrator
Sewing Machine
Designing The Shoes
Conception
For the shoes we wanted to focus not on creating brand new shoes from trash but repurposing dirty old shoes with garbage to increase their lifespan. The reason we went this route is that we felt that the process of being sustainable by bringing old shoes back to life should be something that anyone could do in their house. For that reason, we felt that repurposing could be done with relative ease, whereas constructing sneakers from scratch is not trivial. Ultimately we decided to create a new wrapper made of candy wrappers that could be wrapped around a dirty old pair of shoes.
Making The Pattern
With so many different candy wrappers out there, we spent a considerable amount of time running through potential patterns on Adobe Illustrator
Making The Wrapper
With a general idea for the patterns done, we decided to start making the wrappers for the shoes. The wrapper designs changed along the way but the color schemes were consistent to the initial designs. I was responsible for the blue, brown, and green patterns and Omoruyi did the pink one. After flattening out the wrappers, they were too flimsy, so we covered them in a clear film that increased durability and added water resistance. We experimented with the idea of an epoxy cover for potentially putting wrappers in the sole but decided to drop it.
Wrapping Up The Shoes
With the wrappers done, we used a stencil of the shoe to cut the wrappers to size, then proceeded to sew the pattern onto the shoes and bring the shoes to a close. ***Omoruyi ended up redesigning the brown and pink sides of the shoes after the trashion show.***
Designing The Vest + Shirt
Conception + Design
For the vest, we liked the idea of repurposing old art into a fashionable piece of clothing. Our idea was to take an old canvas painting and turn it into a vest, we could not find someone willing to donate a painting so we used a blank canvas which we burned the edges of to look worn out and added are own print - footsteps with the shoes on the back and candy wrappers on the front.
(Lead: Nebyu)
For the shirt, we liked the idea of having a shirt that could change designs. To accomplish this we decided to have a simple white tee with a velcro attachment where candy wrappers could be interchangeable (Lead: Omoruyi)
Final Outfit
Putting It Together
With everything done it was time for the trashionshow. Overall I was very happy with how things turned out. In the future some areas I’d like to explore is the long term durability of the shoe wraps, exploring more shoe patterns, and making the vest out of a real painting to see what challenges it brings up.
