Fishing for plastic

My close friend Caro Sparrow in Manchester has referred me to her friend who has approached a uni fashion project in a unique and appealing manner using new technologies. 

This inspires me to go plastic fishing in the highly polluted rivers of Bandung and make beautiful trash couture out of my catch. In this country disposing of waste in rivers is common and acceptable; it gets washed away and out of sight (some of it does anyway). That plastic is non-biodegradable is not common knowledge at all. And when you think the smoke from the side walk is form incense, it's actually probably someone burning rubbish (including plastic and rubber); the other common way of disposal.

From ecouterre article:

"Sculpted from recycled and reappropriated plastics, including shower curtains, Bowler’s “Fusion” collection marries the poles-apart aesthetic of the traditional Japanese straw coat and the classic British macintosh. The Royal College of Artgraduate’s process is completely stitch-free, a combination of industrial techniques such as heat-forming and ultrasonic welding. (The latter method involves high-frequency ultrasonic acoustic vibrations to bind materials together.)

At the core of Fusion’s high-tech engineering is Bowler’s belief that recycled products can be luxurious, innovative, and desirable. “Fusion is designed to make plastic fantastic for longer,” she says. “[And] to create a garment that the owner will be reluctant to throw away.”

Bowler believes that recycled products can be luxurious, innovative, and desirable.

In keeping with Bowler’s mantra of reduce and reuse, even the rubber molds she had made are designed to be used again. The result is a series of space-age slickers in burnished metallic hues like gold, bronze, and titanium.
Fusion will be on display at the Royal College of Art’s Upper Gulbenkian Gallery, as part ofLondon Design Week, from September 23 to October 7.