Lions, trash couture and the back of your drawer
What the couture shows can tell you about the art of clearing out your wardrobe
Are you recovered from Kylie Jenner’s scandalous lion head moment? Of course not! What a way for the Paris couture shows, essentially an event targeted at the 0.00001%, to reach the masses. Of course Schiaparelli, the house behind Kylie’s fashion moment had every intention of making the headlines, though probably not as trophy hunting advocates. They were focussing, apparently, on Dante’s Divine Comedy, where the leopard, the lion, and the she-wolf represent lust, pride, and avarice. The “faux-taxidermy creations”, constructed from foam, resin and other manmade material, reflected “the glory of nature and guarding the woman who wears it.” The designer Daniel Roseberry said: “In this collection you’re never quite sure who made the piece you’re looking at — was it nature? Or was it man?” Something the sustainability crowd ponder every day, Daniel.
Whatever your views, last week’s fashion circus was fuelled by controversy, beauty, craft and an onslaught of celebrities, from Doja Cat and Anne Hathaway to Timothée Chalamet and Courtney Love. It was, in the words of the New York Times, “fashiontainment,” or feeding the “fashion-Hollywood industrial complex”. Readers of this column will know that is where big brand fashion sees itself in the future - more Netflix binge than garment factory.
You could argue the concept of couture is ultimately sustainable: single, custom pieces made directly to order. It’s the private jet version of running up a dress on your sewing machine. Big hand then to Dutch designer Ronald Van Der Kemp, the only couture designer that dared put sustainability on the runway: he crafted all 39 of his sumptuous looks from deadstock (leftover) fabric. There was a divine cape made from woven strips of silks; a long sinuous dress decorated with pieces of metallic leather; and a black and silver dress cut to spiral around the body.
“I think that as designers we have so much influence on people’s behaviour, because fashion is such a force today,” he said. “We have to use it responsibly, positively as a driver of change.” When he started designing couture eight-and-a-half years ago, people thought he was mad. His mission was to create “exhilarating fashion that is both mindful and innovative and … counters the environmentally damaging and skin-deep fashion treadmill.”
Modelling the show were a solar energy activist, a human rights lawyer, an art and culture theorist, a Broadway producer and the Dutch model Marpessa Hennink. You could say Van Der Kemp is interested in humanity. Guests entered the Dutch ambassador’s Paris residence amid red smoke, sirens and a voiceover of Kim Kardashian’s pronouncing on loop that she has “thousands and thousands of clothes,” tallying some 30,000 items.
That sound bite incensed the Dutch designer. “People like Kim Kardashian could change the world,” he said backstage before the show. “They’re bigger than Michelle Obama in terms of influence, so do something good with it. The whole world is in turmoil!” Van Der Kemp is doing something about it: creating solutions for leftovers and waste in fashion, and working with academia, science and technology to pull off his ideas.
The entire collection was made from a completely circular fabric, “the worst of the worst” in terms of textile scraps, he said proudly. It’s the result of a collaboration with unwanted textile collector Sympany, the social enterprise i-did that supports low skilled individuals who struggle to find work, and the The Hague University of Applied Sciences’ circular economy centre. Was there ever a more beautiful coming together in the name of couture?
“Trash is the new gold,” said Van Der Kemp.
So what’s this got to do with your wardrobe? More than you might imagine. If, like me, you spent a dull January clearing out your closet, you are left with a pile of clothes to dispose of.
Below for my paid subscribers are some invaluable tips from stylist Cathy Kasterine on how to clear out your wardrobe, and then advice about what you can do with your own pile of deadstock. You can upgrade your subscription for just £5 a month.