Upcycling Slow-Fashion, telling my stories and ideas through photography, or what I learned and achieved through exposing my work on Hive

There is fashion, the craft and then photography.

While I want to focus on sharing the photography I do within my work, I feel like taking a step back from it and also share the background first. Slow fashion and the craft.

What I like about fashion is, that you can tell stories about yourself, give yourself a character, a scenario through what you are wearing. It feels a little as when we were kids, dressing up as pirates and princesses…

(my latest upcycle, of a ramie shirt into an apron-dress)

In that matter I like to imagine and tell the story for every garment I design, make, upcycle and the story of the process. Show where it all came from, to conclude with the final image, the scene a person is wearing the garment in.

(jeans and dungarees I made reacently)

But there isn’t just the story at the end. It already starts before any process takes shape.

The fabric, the material I work with. What is it made of, where does it come from, what does its color express?

For certain is, that I always prefer natural fibers, the light airy touch of silk, the heavy and pure fall of linen, simple and strong fibers as hemp or bamboo. I could go on here and loose myself in descriptions and association on all my favorite or not so favorite fabrics and fibers. But that’s another story…

I want to focus on the upcycling part of my work.

(the project I am working on at the moment, a silk dress I am turning into a two-piece set)

To me personally it became out of question to keep on supporting the fast fashion industry, because of many reasons. As you might know, and as any big industry, also the fast fashion industry has a very destructive impact on nature and people. Which is horrible, nevertheless it inspired me to come up with my own answer to it, another way, a slower approach to dress ourselves and look rather for the origins, backgrounds and qualities of garments, than running after trends and loose ourselves in shopping malls. That’s where the term slow fashion seems very adequate to describe my work.

Apart from this form of destruction I am not agreeing with, I do get very overwhelmed by crowdedness. Pretty much after realizing how unsatisfied I am by consuming fast fashion. I discovered the abundance of “things” that we have in this world, how everything gets produced in masses and sold on shelves completely overfilled. Who does even find the time to use them all? Barely used those “things” (the luckier ones I guess) end up on flea markets and secondhand shops, where you can find literally anything you want, in thousand different shapes and forms.

(to give an example of what abundance I am talking about)

Do I still have to mention that I barely buy anything new anymore?

…and that’s really where the story begins.

Every garment I chose to upcycle already had its story its other life before, that I do not know, even better it leaves my imagination completely open to what there is to come.
I choose the pieces by their fabric first.
You could see me walking through the men shirt section of a secondhand shop (they are usually huge) walking past the rows letting my fingers run over the shirts until I find a nice touch. (Maybe one reason why I like to include hands in my process-photography…)

Silk is one of my all-time favorite choices, even though I would never buy it new. Furthermore, I am in love with linen or its alternatives such as ramie, bamboo, hemp… Funny enough linen and hemp used to be the common fabrics used in Europe, before they got wiped out by cotton and synthetic replacements.

The fact that I deal with a cut and sewed to size piece of fabric, gives me this whole new approach on designing clothes. Where I choose this limitation, to make my imagination grow. I am always limited in the amount of fabric I have available.

That’s where we come to the process, as I already mentioned, it starts by choosing the fabric (or should I say the garment) by its touch and color that are inspiring me. Then comes the first ideas on what to create with it. Imagining the new identity, I am giving to that piece.

And further the craft, taking apart the garment, cut it and re-assemble it.

Until there I am talking about my personal passion on what I am doing. I would do that with no one watching, no one ever knowing what I am doing or even (though that would be a bit sad) no one ever wearing the things I make. I do it just because I enjoy the process, the thoughts, the ideas so much, it could be enough.

Having that said, I do enjoy the exchange more than anything. I find it amazing to learn and exchange different mindsets, skills, ideas… Which doesn’t happen if you keep it all for yourself.

(part of the sewing supplies I use)

Well, this is one reason why I found my way into photography. Because I wanted to share the things I have to share, the ideas I have, the things I design and make. Expose myself and get exposed to others.

I started by kind of forcing myself to take photos of my working-process and then mainly focus on shooting the final “product”.

Over time, I got to have more and more fun with taking those photos. What started as a discipline, ended up as an important part of my workflow, that I appreciate as much as sewing now. Where now I am super excited to share the photography of the process, of all the little things and tool I use. Where I can find so much beauty in a detailed shot of the fabric I use, the threads,

the tools,

the sewing machine,

the beautiful mess, even though it might be annoying while I work I find it often very aesthetic,

or the off cuts, I love to take photos of the off cuts.

I even gave up on the “automatic” setting on the camera to shoot manually, where only one or two years back I wasn’t willing to put my head into apertures or iso… when now I love to play with it. Taking dramatic shots of just a thread hold by my hands in front of a blurry and dark background.

It feels like I am rediscovering my own passion of sewing, designing and creating slow fashion through the lens of my camera, giving me an unexpected point of view I am discovering on my work.

In that process, I am very glad I started to share my work on Hive at the beginning of this year. First of all, to have a platform where I could share my work, and especially the progress of putting my work into photos and words. It helped me to keep track on my progress and also keep up the consistency. Not even talking about all the exchange and feedback I found, which I didn’t expect but was so happily surprised by. I feel very thankful for all the personal growth I went through in my work in this year so far, and the year is not even over:)

Thank you for passing by and make me able to share this process with you, I would be very happy to hear what you have to say about it, what you think about the photography!! Thank you also @castleberry to encourage me posting in the @Photographylovers community, which I wanted to for ages but never found the right set up, the right words or the courage to do so. Until today…

Have a lovely week and see you around!!

(all photos are taken by me, during different projects I worked and am still working on)