#emilycrane

[emilyalsophuds-blog]

Sustainable Designers

Reiko Sudo is a designer who uses a mixture of traditional and contemporary methods, that have the idea of sustainability at the base of all her work. Sudo is constantly creating new blends of fibres and creating new ways to work with fabric, along with recycling any textile waste. She has a respect for all materials and believes that they are a precious resource for any textile designer stating that all designers should do there best to minimize waste or at least use it in some form or way. Sudo experiments with acids and enzymes to help develop environmentally friendly methods as she believes that knowing her products where made by not harming the environment is extremely important. This is why Sudo uses bio gradable materials, which will break down over time that will good for both the environment and health benefits, as many of Reiko Sudo's work have fibres that help with things such as oxidation and help filter out UV light as well as keeping moisture.  

Helen Storey is another designer who looks at sustainable products. So much so that not only is her clothing that she designs is sustainable but also the packaging and the manufacturing is as well. She believes that the new generation should have a new generation of textiles, that textiles should adapt and welcome intelligent materials. Materials that will help the environment presently and for the future too. Storey looks at and experiments with the exchanges between energy and matter and from this her work will include fibres that have intelligent relationships that can sense when there no longer needed. Storey's designs aren't always made to wear but instead to provoke thought and discussion about the impact of what the fashion and textile industry are doing to the planet and to get the younger generations to understand that change needs to happen.

Emily Crane is a designer who understands todays culture extremely well and how it is increasingly becoming a throw away society. Playing on this notion Crane has pioneered a fresh new approach and style that has a fast turn around (an aspect that has become essential in recent years) and what is also sustainable. Working with food science, Crane started off in her kitchen testing out many everyday ingredients and catering chemicals and making materials and fibres from this. It is from these homemade fibres that she can manipulate them to make unique fashion pieces. Since fashion has become such a speedy industry, theses pieces do not need to last long, which is ideal for this method. She stated that with this method her work will always be original to both her and the wearer, as it can only be used by them and no one else. In theory Cranes work caters to the two main needs and focus' of the industry, originality and sustainability, since there is zero waste from materials it creates no negative impact on the surrounding environment and provides a one of a kind item.  

[futurematerials]

Emily Crane

After only recently graduating with an MA from Kingston University, Emily Crane now lives and works in London as a fashion designer. She is a new type of designer who pushes the boundaries of creating with materials by using them in totally new, unconventional way.  Her work looks at fashion and materials for the future, seeing fashion as something that will have to respond to the demands of sustainability. She says that she is “conscious of the restraints of our future planet and the impact from current fashion cycles”.

Her creations of ‘Micro-Nutrient Couture’ come out of her lab in her kitchen where she works with bubbles. She then grows and freezes these bubbles to make ‘bio lace’ that can be worn as well as eaten.

One of her pieces ‘The Bubble Dress’ created in 2009/10, was her response to the possible idea that in the future there will be no resources to create fashion materials with, only government monitored heavy duty clothing with durability in mind – not aesthetic design.

In the event of this happening the value of customization is increased with the need for people to retain a style identity, so re-using materials in a new way is paramount. The Bubble Dress provides a solution, as it uses a material that is a bi-product as well as costing nothing.

Although this piece is an expression of this concept, the fundamentals behind the idea reflect a reality in the future of material production, and highlight the need for resourcefulness.The materials used in this piece are: water, foaming agents, temperature, transients, silk second skin, skin.

Another of her projects titled ‘Old Beginnings’ (2009) was about looking at how human beings deal with negative emotions, and how clothing or dress can provided a therapeutic feeling or sense of protection to the individual. A collection of quotes were used in order to produce a textile that reflected these negative feelings, which resulted in textiles that were dangerous or harmful in some way. Examples of some of the materials used are: shake-proof washers, rubber washers, alpaca roving, twisted galvanised nails, rubber sheeting, tweed, latex, panel pins, angular ring shank nails, metal washers and galvanized head nails.

Emily Crane’s work is innovative and intriguing. She looks at materials and objects in a somewhat obscure way, in order to challenge its usual or intended use. The image above of one of the textile pieces she has made would not be something I’d consider beautiful or desirable, but it is most definitely a thought provoker, and definitely makes me see the possibilities with just simple textures or objects. 

Rhiannon Gregory