Many designers rearranged fabrics on the F/W 2021 runways to create garments with a colorful and unique mix of print, color and pattern. This ‘collage style’ worked well for many items, including separates, dresses, and coats. Dolce & Gabbana, Chloe and Marine Serre are just a few of the many designers and brands that use this style, adopted this aesthetic to be the epitome of bohemian chic.
Recycled clothing can be used to make high fashion
This trend can be traced back as far as the early nineties, when Grunge fashion was in its peak. Lamine Kouyate was a young African designer who founded Xuly in 1991. He cut, stitched and modified found clothing, ranging from simple re-shaping to complete transformations. He transformed dresses into skirts, skirts became bags, stockings turned into halter-tops, and, most importantly, sweaters were stitched together to make dresses. He would often leave threads unfinished at the end of the stitching process. Their red color often emphasized the transformation of a discarded garment into a designer statement. This is a style Kouyate still uses.
As designers look for sustainable ways to make their designs, it is becoming more common to create recycled garments. You can find collage-style fashion in many shops, fast forward to Fall 2021.
Rentrayage is a New York-based business that is committed to circular systems and sustainable practices. Their website states that they believe every piece of clothing, whether it is old, used, vintage, or new, has value, beauty, and purpose. All of the products we create are made from recycled materials, or can be remade. All materials that we use can be returned back to the earth and accepted into our ecological systems.
It’s the same story at Ragyard, a British company. They look for unique items and reimagine them. They reduce waste and give old clothes a second life. Ragyard is known for its signature Ragyard style of attaching large, embroidered peacock-shaped appliques on the sleeves of vintage camouflage jackets or sweatshirts. Recycled denim shirts, reworked T-shirts, and other materials are used to create dresses and skirts. Pre-worn track pants are embellished with sportswear patches, while vintage Levis are embellished with sportswear patches.
LVMH Prize finalist, Conner Ives, garnered the attention of the fashion world even before his graduation from London’s Central Saint Martins. Through the use of vintage or dead stock garments, many of which are t-shirts, he has created his own collage style.
Look at these collections for Pre-Fall 2022. The runways will feature collage style for another season.
