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

Material resourcefulness

Garments are fusions of materials and energy brought to the body in myriad configurations, yet the dominant force in fashion, consumerism, tends to value only a narrow spectrum of fashion activity. The practices of material resourcefulness broaden this view and show a burgeoning testing ground of an alternative flows of fibre, fabric and product.

Cultural restyle

"This jacket is made by Wendell Johnston who’s a street designer in New York City who takes existing suit jackets and modifies them and then sells the results. He adds details on the collar, stitching, he replaces the liner. Quite frequently he uses the suit trousers to turn the jackets into hoodies. And he’s a black street designer so some of what he does is bringing his own cultural ideas and cultural identity to Westernised suit wearers."

San Francisco - April 2011
Photograph by Paige Green