Tokyo Recycle Project + Fashion reuse culture... with some speculation thrown in for good measure.
another belated story from late last year- but with a bit more bite.
http://powerhousemuseum.com/tokyorecycle/
resident at the Powerhouse Museum in August last year.
In late 2002 the Powerhouse Museum featured an exhibition on contemporary Japanese street fashion- FRUiTS as photographed by Shoichi Aoki, and documented in his fanzine that has been going since ‘97.
Now, sustainably there’s not much here, except for the occasional reuse of 2nd hand garb that happens anyway, styles and characters change just as contemporary fashion does; occasionally there is someone who sticks with a style, but more often this is a mode of self-expression- like the majority of fashion its about re-invention. Which is where Tokyo Recycle Project [TRP] fits in superbly well in my opinion.
I hadn’t seen so much buzz around the reuse of garments since Michelle Jank’s & Collette Dinnigan’s antique/patchwork lace dresses, or before that Akira’s reused kimono, and even further back Xuly.Bët’s 1992 transformed 2nd hand garments, just to mention a few labels.
re. the buzz- it was great to see so many art/design students & the general public interested in alternatives to the standard production line type ‘designing’; more still, this was street-fashion, and gained broad coverage in the local papers, magazines, radio, and TV.
but where has the buzz gone now? is it being incubated? or has it dissipated? hmmm.
the bright lights, the buzz words, thats a trend… but re-use culture has always gone way beyond that, into the realms of necessity as well as respect for resources; it is the opening of this lovely creaky old door of [fashion] re-use culture to audiences who are used to whimsically consuming shiny new newnesses, that ventures like Tokyo Recycle Project really helping with; but the challenge is sustaining enthusiasm for process so that reuse works its way into the habits of more consumers.
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