Dying for Denim
This piece is an upcycled denim jacket dress, complete with custom-made sunglasses and shoes. An off-the-shoulder fitted bodice with a separate pencil skirt, tailor-made for her body with minimal waste.
The jackets were upcycled from second-hand clothing stores around Melbourne, Victoria. Inspiration for this work was born from an interest to make something with very little waste as I was working in the industry more and discovered more and more how much waste comes from a single garment. Further inspiration for this work came from the re-emerging Y2K aesthetic popularised on Tik Tok.
This work emphasises my interest in sustainable design and creating with an internet trend in mind. Furthermore, this work showcases my ability to create with a more distressed and edgy aesthetic rather than the clean and precise creations showcased previously in this folio.
Model: Elise Greco
Design Process
This design process allowed for less meticulous pattern making and more 'freestyle creativity', as most of the time the making process involved myself, a dress form, the denim materials and a hot glue gun.
As mentioned, I wanted to evoke a Y2K, grunge aesthetic. With this in mind, I was happy to leave raw edges exposed, design lines jagged and allow the styling to form the crux of the photoshoot.
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A fun component of this process was making the sunglasses accessory and shoes, which were created through building off a pre-existing pair of sunnies and shoes. This was one of the first times where I thought beyond the garment and incorporate the accessories in the final design.
This process has been documented in @babeitsalessandro, my fashion instagram account.
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Click the link below to view.
The making process begun with sourcing two old denim jackets found at an op shop - turns out they were Zara jackets! The jacket buttons on the right side of one jacket were fitted through the keyhole buttons on the left side of the other jacket to form the centre front of the new garment. The opposite was done with the other side of the jacket opening to create the centre back of the garment, from there armholes were cut out and darts were added to bring shape to the piece, and from there the basic foundation of the garment was formed.
