Monique was asked to design an outfit for the opening of Dutch Sustainable Fashion Week 2017 on 5 October. The result is a completely hand-made ‘power suit’ – jacket and trousers – inspired by the process of recycling PET bottles.

This is a #1image1000words article. Photography by Romy Klokkers

The atelier

Here the plastic is shredded and then warmed so it can be spun into the right shape of bead.

To recycle them, plastic bottles first have to be shredded, which can be seen in the flowers and fancy beads on the jacket. That is turned into fibres further down in the process, which, when woven, give this design its sexy ‘lace’ look. The sleeves of the jacket are made out of the fluffy silk of the fibres, for a 3D effect.

Material from various stages of recycling PET bottles. For recycling PET bottles, Monique has a partnership with Monique Maissan, CEO and founder of the company Waste2Wear.

Rossell De Fijter sews the beads around the bottom of the jacket.

The trousers are made of recycled PET from The Conscious Collection by Monique Collignon. An extra element is added: the border shows a pattern of visible threads from the final stage of recycling, prior to weaving.

Rossell uses a tailor’s dummy to check whether the trousers and jacket have the right fit.

Show time!

Rossell backstage at the opening show ‘Talking Trash’ of Dutch Sustainable Fashion Week. He’s fitting the power suit on to the model, Minouch Simons.

The power suit leads the way during the fashion show finale of Dutch Sustainable Fashion Week

About Dutch Sustainable Fashion Week

The fourth edition of Dutch Sustainable Fashion Week runs from 6 to 15 October 2017. This edition revolves around awareness of the enormous amount of waste that we produce every year and how much is contributed to that by the clothing industry. The theme of the opening show was therefore ‘Talking Trash’.

Besides Monique, other designers showed designs made of recycled household, garden and kitchen waste. For instance, Judith van Vliet and Enschede Textielstad made wonderful dresses out of recycled tampons and Hans Ubbink showed a frock made of ecological, animal-friendly Mongolian leather set with recycled Nespresso capsules.

Interessante links

• Photography by Romy Klokkers
• Monique Collignon
• Waste2Wear
• Over Monique Maissan (Founder and CEO Waste2Wear)
• Dutch Sustainable Fashion Week
• Rossell De Fijter

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