Waste No More: the beauty and possibility of old clothes

During 2018 Salone del Mobile in Milan, DesignWork is being displayed for the first time on the international stage. Curated by Lidewij Edelkoort and Philip Fimmano, “Waste No More” takes place at Ventura Centrale’s vaulted tunnels. This striking setting is recomposed like a temple to sustainability with the purpose of critiquing consumption and shining a light on the emerging circular economy. In this sense, at the exhibition entrance, The Arch of Trash makes visitors to face with three tons of society’s discarded clothing, while demonstrating the colorful aesthetics of recuperated materials. The arch itself is a microcosm of the world’s waste.

This project was born in 2015, explains Eileen Fisher, when the Makerspace, with longtime collaborator and artist Sigi Ahl, along with Carolina Bedoya, was created. The two artists explored ways to turn piles of old clothes and scraps into new textiles. “First, we created a system to clean, sort and inventory the bags of clothes and leftover material sitting in our warehouse – a truly daunting task. Then came the fun part: experimenting with different fabrics, mixing them together and felting them to create one-of-a-kind designs like the WallWorks”, Fisher explains.