Gary Harvey: Couture Fashion with a Conscience
by Kathreen Ricketson, Canberra, Australia 
on 05. 9.07
Image: Newspaper dress, made from 30 copies of the 'Financial Times'. Gary Harvey’s first collection showcased nine of his stunning dresses at the Estethica exhibition at the London Fashion Week (Feb 07). The collection creates a dramatic display designed to change people’s perception of second-hand clothing and create fashion with a conscience. Gary uses material he finds in places like secondhand clothing stores to avoid waste, he says of good quality second hand clothing, people "wear it one or two times then discard it because it's suddenly deemed aesthetically unimportant and out of date when there's years of life left in the garment." His collection "was a comment about thinking about the real cost of the garment that you buy, about that cost being natural resources, exploitation of labour, the biodegradable nature of garments."
Check out our previous post on London Fashion Week for more eco fashion.
Image: Baseball Puffball Dress, made from 26 nylon baseball jackets. Sports uniforms were originally designed to be hi-tech long lasting uniforms, now they are non-biodegradable and are often discarded at the end of the season.
Image: Denim Dress, made from 41 pairs of Levi 501's. Jeans were originally made to be a long lasting workmen's uniform, since becoming a fashion garment they are discarded long before their use is over.
Other dresses are made from discarded wedding dresses, laundry bags and t-shirts. All of which have an accompanying statement about why that item of clothing was chosen.
::via fiftyRX3 ::London Fashion Week ::Gary Harvey
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hey, its great that you are recycling and all but couldnt you have made the outfits more wearable because no one would wear that and it would just be a waste, which is what you are trying to prevent so yeah think about it man im 16 and i got more sense than youse
cool
It's couture fashion, you arent suppose to wear those designs for an anyday use.
Great designs.
[b]The top dress gave me inspiration for my art GCSE project :)
I'm making a newspaper dress, in a similar style to that design...but obviously designed by myself :L
x
in reply to Ampoo:
i'd wear one of them if i could. i'd so love to wear something like the denim one to a school formal, i think its lovely.
The whole point to the collection was to show that something amazing and beautiful can be created from unwanted things, everyday wear just wouldn't have the same impact as couture does.
By starting this method of recycling clothes in couture, it will gain more press and media coverage which will hopefully leak down into chain stores and mainstream fashion. 'junky styling' in london do something similar. this is a great thing to do and the garments look fantastic!!
These couture fashions are about art more than function. And it teaches us that any kind of design, even couture, is possible with everyday items. UW Stout design/art students put on an annual show called Fashion Without Fabric, usually with the same kind of couture results. Check out the pictures of the show here.