Wednesday, July 16, 2014

{ DESIGN POST }






…my talented niece, Lola Houghton. This is the first in three posts I'm planning to do, on my 13 year old niece Lola and her entries for the past 3 years into the Schools' Trash 2 Fashion awards here in Auckland. 

To participate, all outfits must be made using 100% rubbish. The objective of ST2F is to "raise awareness about the environment and waste.  With an arts twist, students learn about the impacts of waste and how we can lessen these by using creative innovations." 

Lola won her category in 2012 and 2013. Watch this space for how she goes in this year's awards, next month! Her design is absolutely stunning and inspiring so whatever happens, I am super proud of her, and can't wait to share it on here soon.

That's Lola above in 2012, age 11 in her winning outfit, 'Miss Flotsam & Jetsam'. Talk about chic. Here's what she says about her design and inspiration:


My design was inspired by three things: 1930s haute couture, 
the pollution of our oceans, and a dream I had.

I was thinking about the pollution in our oceans and how we need to 
change that. I am disturbed by the fact that we pollute our oceans 
carelessly and I wanted to show that through my garment.

I created a fascinator that shows a black-billed seagull spewing up 
a net. It has plastic in its stomach because many birds and sea 
creatures eat bits of plastic thinking it is fish and food and then the 
plastic does not digest. The creatures die of starvation because there 
is no room left in their stomachs for real food.

I wanted my dress to represent the ocean and that it is still alive – but 
drowning underneath junk. I decided to make my cape show the junk 
and the effect it is having on the fish in the sea. I peg-dyed my dress 
blue to look like the ocean and put a frill on it to show the foam. I used 
old-school paper dye (rather than fabric dye from a shop) to dye it with, 
and a frill from the school rubbish bin.

I decided to make shoes out of the kind of junk plastic you find in the 
sea, and then I dreamed that I used Barbie dolls to make my shoes. 
When I woke up, I thought this would look really amazing. I ended up 
using Barbie doll bits throughout my outfit.

We have to change this pollution problem now, for our future.


More next month!

Amy
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