Water Waste Pants
What Fueled My design
After I designed a line of looks that were meant to highlight how fast fashion impacts our waters, I decided I wanted to create one of my looks.
Fast Fashion is a much bigger problem then most think, with the industry being responsible for 20% of the world's water waste. It steals 93 billion cubic meters of water annually from our seas and lakes. It is a huge contributor to the climate crisis and we as a society need to turn away from fast fashion before it is too late. I understand that fast fashion offers a wide variety of clothing for cheap prices and that some do not have the monetary resources to buy from non-fast fashion websites. However, thrifting is a great, cheap, alternative to buying from fast-fashion companies because it recycles clothing. All the base items used to make this design were thrifted. Join me in fighting fast fashion and fighting for our planet's future.
Construction Process
Dying Part 1
I dyed my pants to create an ombre. I marked my pants with pins to create sections that would be where the color transition to lighter, with the bottoms being the darkest. I left the bottom sections in the longest so they would be the darkest. I also bunched my pants in my hand while dying them so that they dye would appear in streaks up my pants, to make it look like the dye was being sucked up. I hand painted fye on the exentuate the "stripes."
Hand Sewing
I got strings of tiny rocks and sewed them on in patches all over my pants to outline where the holes would be. I hand-sewed all of the rocks on my jeans which, accumulated, took over 48 hours. The rocks on the bottom are the lightest and the rocks on the top are the darkest to contrast the jeans ombre.
Dremeling
I cut out holes in the pants using the sewen-on rocks as my outline. To distress the border of the holes I used a tool called a Dremel.
Shaping the Shirt
Dying Part 2
I thrifted a long-white turtleneck. I then cut it to be my desired length and hand sewed the bottom of the shirt to the bottom of one of my bras. The bra helped give it the shape I was looking for and helps it maintain structural integrity.
I decided to dye my pants a second time to make the bottoms darker. I then hand-applied more dye to the pants, including the top and pockets. I also dyed the sleeves and very bottom of my shirt.
Final Product
Artist Statment
This design speaks to how fast fashion is sucking the water out of our oceans and lakes. The ombre design of the pants, with it fading from dark to light, is meant to reassemble water being sucked up, out of nature, and into the clothing fast fashion companies produce. The holes in the pants symbolize lakes and oceans that have been made empty by this wasteful industry. The holes have rocks lining them to resemble what you might find near a lake in "real life." The shirt symbolizes the fast fashion pieces made with all this water, that's why some of the "water" or dye is traveling up its sleeves. This piece should make you think and will hopefully push you to be more conscious of what brands you shop from and their role in fast fashion. Fight fast fashion, fight for the future.