An international fashion research project exploring the 'craft of use'

Action Tools

The tools of use become an extension of our creative expression and shape our engagement with the world. Courtesy of simple or sophisticated technology, they open up alternative pathways of action.

Staple, rubber band, paper clip

"The jean shorts are originally a pair of my dad’s jeans from about twenty years ago or so and then I turned them into shorts and since then they’ve been kind of ripping themselves. I go dancing in them or adventures or get up to mischief or what not. So every time I go out I have to spend five-ten minutes re-stapling, [closing holes with] rubber bands, paperclips and things. This side’s kind of a mess, big knots and things. So every time it’s a new pair of shorts almost when I leave the house. They rip on their own and then I kind of react to whatever’s happened to them when I get home. Or I’ll even bring a hand full of paperclips when I go out just in case I need to make some repairs on the go. ‘Cause you can’t show off too much skin…"


Vancouver - January 2013
Photograph by Jeremy Calhoun