Lydia Buesgens

My collection is primarily made out of up-cycled men's dress shirts, sourced from the Goodwill Outlet bins (where donated clothing goes before it's recycled / sent to landfills). I am keeping all of the scraps from my collection and collaborating with my textile collaborator (Sophia Marie) to integrate them throughout in innovative ways. I want to show that sustainable fashion is the future and up-cycling fabrics/clothing creates unique one-of-one designs that disrupt the trend cycle and ultimately pave the way to a brighter future for the next generation. I used the circular approach of designing backwards. I fit all 6 looks within one another, showing that garments can be deconstructed after their first life and reconstructed into a whole new design for a second, third, fourth, etc. life. We dyed the garments a blue cyanotype print. We loved the idea of taking “white collar” shirts that represent capitalism and over-consumption and dying them into “blue collar” streetwear.