[COLLECTION1]
This is a statement collection, my first one for common.parts as the name shows. It is also my first round of collecting fabric-cuts discarded by clothing factories and the only story I have for it is mine. I guess that all the reading, listening and documenting about fashion's environmental impact had piled up and unwillingly infused the designer's creative mind. That creative mind already set in the DIY mode, always looking back in time in order to build the new. I just knew it had to be a call for action and an illustration of a process at the same time and looking back now I can understand why. I want everyone who sees my clothes to understand their making – parts coming together to form a whole – and to picture himself as part of a community, working together for a greater good. How to better illustrate growing processes if not by means of geometry, be it natural and organic or rigorously man-made.
A pattern can be found everywhere in nature: tree branches, snowflakes, zebra stripes, nautilus shells. We’ve been studying these natural patterns since ancient times, and only recently have we really been able to explain them with mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Perhaps it’s this mystery and complexity that draws us to geometric patterns in the first place. The most commonly-found natural patterns are: symmetry – the near-repetition of a pattern element by reflection or rotation, spirals – a continuous and gradually widening (or tightening) curve around a central point, fractals – similar patterns recurring at progressively smaller scales and tessellations – patterns formed by repeating tiles on a flat surface and some of them are to be easily identified in collection 1.
On the other hand, in tailoring and pattern making, the human body is defined by some reference lines (as the waistline, hip line, etc) and I find that very helpful for working with a modular system. One of the main characteristics would be a system broken down into small modules that are reusable, discrete, and scalable. Another would be for the system’s elements and modules to be self-contained and fully functional. The main thing to note about modular design is that it refers to small parts that are created independently yet can still be used in different systems to power manifold functionalities. A modular system allows for flexibility in design as you can simply add solutions to the system by purely plugging in another module. In turn, this also means that you can fix the system without having to replace everything. That is why I find the modular approach very suitable for upcycled clothing.
To wrap it up, my woman is like me or even better, one that is aware of herself, her environment, and her relation to it, one that seeks to be outstanding in a unique, artful form by being in fact common.
Common Parts is a sustainable fashion brand working with waste or discarded fabrics
